Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping is a strange, difficult and exceptional novel. I am generally for the idea that form is content, and I think this axiom applies to Housekeeping. Ruth, our narrator, is a young girl whose intimate proximity to loss shapes her entire world, be it the mysterious, self-effacing nature of the town of Fingerbone or the family members who disappear near the very same lake that is explicitly likened to the biblical flood.

Most of the novel is told in the imperative mode ("imagine this" / "say that") and as such, only exist insofar that the reader agrees, along with Ruth, to the act of creation, or resurrection, as the novel would prefer it. Ruth, a child whose life has been defined by death, can only comprehend her present through what is not - her act of resurrecting the dead through these imperatives, bespeak of a love that reveals itself only through monumental loss. Unlike her sister, Lucille, who'd rather stick with the rituals of daily life to fend off her sorrow, Ruth is inclined towards embracing death (she often dreams of being swallowed whole by the lake); understanding, maybe, that destruction is simply another act of creation. Death occasions Ruth (and us) to imagine her parents, an act of love that is infinite and hence, whole.

I read this within one day. Then, still mesmerized, I read it again.

What a haunting way to tell a story so much about the tragedy of modern life. The language flows lucidly from the very beginning, and the story unfolds in a way that is slow, but just right and just absolutely beautiful. The characters continue to live with me. I can still see Sylvie "with a quiet that seemed compounded of gentleness and stealth and self-effacement." We only get to know her in gradual stages, and this made the second reading more satisfying. I needed to see this story fresh again. Although Ruth is the narrator, she is also mysterious in her self-effacement and yet the overall narrative is Transcendental in its scope, echoing Ruth's transcendent view of the world, in its largeness. ( )

This book is narrated by Ruth and begins with a short family history, of her eccentric maternal grandfather whose tragic death completely marks the family, and her grandmother who in her own way tries to live with the sorrow and raise her children, and of the three sisters among them, Helen, Ruth's mother. After another tragedy, Ruth and her sister Lucille are raised by their grandmother, growing up semi-isolated from the rest of the small town of Fingerbone and drawn always to the town's lake that is the source of family tragedy. When Ruth's grandmother dies, and after a brief period with their grandfather's relatives, their aunt Sylvie arrives to be their guardian.

Sylvie is one of the most interesting and mysterious characters I have ever read. She's a rare kind of character in literature, a woman who Ruth describes as a transient, who finds pleasure in riding trains and traveling around with no signs of permanence or stability. The two sisters react differently, Lucille works to fight against Sylvie by cleaning and seeking a more ordinary life while Ruth is drawn to her and scared at first of this.

A Doris Lessing blurb on the back page of my copy informs me that "this is not a novel to be hurried through, for every sentence is a delight." A brief and accurate statement that perfectly describes this book.

After I was done reading a difficult but good book, I wanted to read something that flowed faster, and one that required less of me and I should have known better than to read Housekeeping with this in mind. As I tried to rush through the book, I was tripped by beautifully crafted sentences and fell right into the richness of the book, disentangling myself and obstinately rising again, I'd be caught and stumble again and again. Until in a way the book forced me to slow down and allow myself make a keener reading of the book. It is a tough read; a book that deals with death, loss, abandonment, family, loneliness and independence, a wonderful read. ( )

Housekeeping is one of the most lyrical and gorgeously written novels I've read. Forty years ago when the book first came out, I read it as a tale of a vagabond woman, or the virtues of wandering, but the tragedy and grief is stronger in my appreciation of the story now. Evocative of the Northern Idaho countryside and Lake Pend Oreille, the location is as much a character as are the orphaned sisters, Ruth and Lucille. Their Aunt Sylvie makes this a story of transience as much as about keeping a house or a soul in place. One of my top favorites. ( )

I've read two out of the four Gilead novels. The last one I read, Jack, I didn't like nearly as much as Gilead. So I thought I would try this earlier novel of Robinson's to see if it was her early writing that I liked. This book was more engaging than Jack was but still not up to the standards of Gilead.

The novel's main character is Ruth. She and her sister Lucille were brought to the small town of Fingerbone, on the edge of a largish lake, by their mother. She dropped them off at her mother's house, who wasn't home at the time, and then drove off. A few hours later she drove her car into the lake in what was probably suicide. The lake had also claimed the life of the girls' grandfather when the train on which he was crew went off the bridge across the lake with no survivors. The grandmother looked after the girls up until her death. Then two maiden great-aunts came to take over looking after them. They were completely unused to children and were consumed with nervousness. They contacted the girls' Aunt Sylvie who had been living a nomadic life around the western United States. When she finally turned up the great-aunts lost no time in fleeing the house and the children and the town. At first, Sylvie seemed like a much better choice but as the weeks and months went by, she proved that she had no aptitude for living in one place or looking after two young children. Ruth was quite taken with Sylvie but Lucille finally had enough and went to live with one of her teachers. Ruth and Sylvie kept living in the house but in no sense of the word did they "keep house". When Ruth started skipping school and spending more time with Sylvie, sometimes on the lake in a borrowed rowboat, it was obvious that the end of their living in Fingerbone was coming near. And so, one day, they hopped on a train and took off.

This was quite a sad book what with the child abandonment and failure to provide the necessities of life by all the adults in Ruth's life. Also, the men just seemed to have dropped out of existence which does happen but certainly impacts how children grow up.

I have to say that there were some wonderful passages in this book. Robinson is a fine writer, maybe even a gifted writer, but she will never be a favourite for me. ( )