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Title details for Home by Marilynne Robinson - Available

Home

A Novel

#2 in series

by Marilynne Robinson
Maggi-Meg Reed
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

Hundreds of thousands were enthralled by the luminous voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Home is an entirely independent, deeply affecting novel that takes place concurrently in the same locale, this time in the household of Reverend Robert Boughton, Ames's closest friend.
Glory Boughton, aged thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack—the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years—comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain.
Jack is one of the great characters in recent literature. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, he is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton's most beloved child. Brilliant, lovable, and wayward, Jack forges an intense bond with Glory and engages painfully with Ames, his godfather and namesake.
Home is a moving and healing book about families, family secrets, and the passing of the generations, about love and death and faith. It is Robinson's greatest work, an unforgettable embodiment of the deepest and most universal emotions.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Gilead

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    September 11, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781427205117
      • File size: 367265 KB
      • Duration: 12:45:08

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this companion piece to her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, GILEAD, author Marilynne Robinson reworks the parable of the Prodigal Son through the eyes of Reverend Robert Boughton. The gifted Maggi-Meg Reed captures the world-weary tone of the characters as life ebbs from the failing but still faithful Robert. Reed shines brightest as Glory, the daughter who comes home to care for her father. Almost as affecting is Reed's portrayal of Jack, the beat-down preacher's kid who has fallen from grace. At times, Reed allows such overwhelming heartbreak to seep into her voice that the narrative is hard to listen to, but don't give up. The uplifting ending and affirmation of faith are worth the trip home. R.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from June 30, 2008
      Robinson's beautiful new novel, a companion piece to her Pulitzer Prize–winning Gilead
      , is an elegant variation on the parable of the prodigal son's return. The son is Jack Boughton, one of the eight children of Robert Boughton, the former Gilead, Iowa, pastor, who now, in 1957, is a widowed and dying man. Jack returns home shortly after his sister, 38-year-old Glory, moves in to nurse their father, and it is through Glory's eyes that we see Jack's drama unfold. When Glory last laid eyes on Jack, she was 16, and he was leaving Gilead with a reputation as a thief and a scoundrel, having just gotten an underage girl pregnant. By his account, he'd since lived as a vagrant, drunk and jailbird until he fell in with a woman named Della in St. Louis. By degrees, Jack and Glory bond while taking care of their father, but when Jack's letters to Della are returned unopened, Glory has to deal with Jack's relapse into bad habits and the effect it has on their father. In giving an ancient drama of grace and perdition such a strong domestic setup, Robinson stakes a fierce claim to a divine recognition behind the rituals of home.

    • Library Journal

      January 15, 2009
      In this companion to her Pulitzer® Prize-winning novel, "Gilead", Robinson focuses on the Rev. John Boughton and two of his eight children. While her skillful, nuanced writing brings new meaning to the prodigal son story, this title is better suited to print than audio, as the slow-moving plot and numerous theological discussions make listening difficult. Though the overall audio quality is excellent, actress/singer/narrator Maggi-Meg Reed ("The Time Traveler's Wife") occasionally overemotes, especially in her portrayal of Boughton. Recommended with some reservation for large collections. [Audio clip available through us.macmillan.com; the Farrar hc, a "Hot Tickets" BookExpo America pick ("LJ" 7/08), received a starred review ("LJ" 8/08).Ed.]Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo

      Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 24, 2008
      Robinson's third novel, and second returning to the Iowan home of ministers John Ames and Robert Boughton, is a conflict between the responsible father and his prodigal son. Robinson's style is old-fashioned, puzzling over timeless concerns like faith and responsibility. Maggi-Meg Reed is perfectly amenable, retreating into the audio attic and retrieving some of the creakier techniques: a singsong cadence, a hoarse Yankee assurance—a Walter Brennanesque tone—for the Reverend Boughton. That these work so well is testament to Reed, who offered an excellent reading of The Time Traveler's Wife
      . It is also a sign of the essential rightness of this particular reading for Robinson's novel. In writing of clergymen and faith, Robinson's prose is near-biblical; Reed's voice conveys a similar depth of feeling and simplicity of expression. A Farrar, Straus & Giroux hardcover (Reviews, June 30).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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