Comments (28)

What did you think about this title?
1 to 25 of 28 items
Jan 30, 2024michaelblum rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written, evocative magical realist story steeped in place and time. Read it!
Nov 19, 2023rtgoerke rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
The book itself seemed a negligible thing, were it not for the clutter of words and the impossibly long sentences one would not be able to grasp the intent of the novel or its significance. One might even contend that it had no…
Oct 31, 2023srd10 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
It is about housekeeping and the mystery of it......
Nov 30, 2022ownedbydoxies rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Maybe this one hasn't aged particularly well? Anyway, lots of long, rather depressing-seeming descriptions of place and town, which oddly didn't seem to lead to understanding the characters through any description of their appearance or…
Oct 03, 2022
Decided to reread this book and found it, surprisingly, less engaging than her others, including 'Gilead.' A wonderful scene of stealing a rowboat from under the owner's nose.
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Aug 16, 2022orangelibrarycard rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Beautiful writing in a haunting and slow novel about two abandoned sisters and the grandmother and succession of aunts who step in to care for them. The characters struggle to keep the Grandmother’s house, and later, to escape it.…
Jul 10, 2022Willy321 rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
Just beautiful words about generations of a sad, mostly crazy family.
Nov 26, 2021Sigh rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
This is a book waiting for something to happen. The author is very good at descriptive writing, but what has been described as a "comical" upbringing by a relative would count as child abuse today. If one enjoys stories that go nowhere…
Aug 19, 2021Bendbookworm rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Robinson is a master character developer while also creating memorable settings and moods. This slim book is high on my list of favorite reads.
Aug 18, 2021betsymarzoni rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
To me this was a heart-wrenching story about the long lasting effects of abandonment. Sisters Ruth and Lucille are abandoned by their mother, left on their grandmother's porch to await their mother's return while she drives off a cliff…
Apr 13, 2021loella rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
The movie based on Housekeeping is a shimmering, elusive poem of visual style and meditative mood that I found totally resonant with Marilynne Robinson's novel, one of the most acclaimed first novels I can recall. It is narrated by its…
Mar 15, 2021maipenrai rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Because I loved the novel Gilead, I had very high hopes for this novel written 25 years earlier. Although the style of writing that would later win the Pulitzer is evident, I was left with a feeling of a lack of coherence. One character…
Jan 17, 2021rclane rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The mournful malaise that infiltrates was captivating but heavy.
Dec 22, 2020
Didn't finish, only made it to pg 18. Not my style of reading.
Jul 07, 2019
Because of the high ratings I would like to say that I enjoyed reading this book, but I didn’t. I experienced it as dragging on with tiresome, inconsequential and repetitive details.
Mar 10, 2019maipenrai rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Because I loved the novel Gilead, I had very high hopes for this novel written 25 years earlier. Although the style of writing that would later win the Pulitzer is evident, I was left with a feeling of a lack of coherence. One character…
Jan 12, 2019ReaderWriterSTS rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
The writing is elegant, but at times its elegance gets in the way. The unceasing descriptions of the dreary landscape become grating, even as well-written as they are - and perhaps that is exactly as the author intended it - to cause the…
Jul 27, 2018RogerDeBlanck rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
With the success of Marilynne Robinson’s remarkable Pulitzer-winning novel Gilead in 2005, few people remembered that her first novel appeared twenty-five years earlier with similar accolades. Housekeeping was published in 1980 to great…
Mar 25, 2018SunsetBranch rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Don't worry about the story, just read it for the amazing prose
Jul 11, 2017mperson rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Great book
Oct 10, 2016Giddyfeet rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Riveting - do read in a heat wave as it's a cold and wet setting that can chill you to the bone - emotionally and physically!
Oct 28, 2015Zoomerofall rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
The writing in this is stunning, but too over-the-top. It's relentless, even when stunning description is not needed, and it gets in the way of character development and story telling. And the tone is so dreary and sad. I know this is…
Sep 21, 2015DorisWaggoner rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
If I hadn't already read "Gilead," "Home," and "Lila," I'd probably have given this book five stars. But having read them all first, and going back to Robinson's first novel, it's easy to see that it IS her first novel. The promise is…
Aug 27, 2015GLNovak rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I think you are going to either love this book or rate it, as I did, as a bit above average only because the writing itself is so evocative. There is little 'housekeeping' in the usual sense in this book. In fact the majority of the…
Nov 12, 2014moonshine7 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
she weaves a beautiful story with very memorable imagery.