Notes from Book Group October 2008

This month we discussed Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. Robinson's debut novel depicts two sisters whose efforts to cope with loss, abandonment, and insecurity illustrates the vulnerability of human relationships and the transient nature of the world. This book gives a glimpse into the nomadic life of a person incapable of forming lasting human bonds. Although the story was a bit slow moving it contained many humorous passages and was overall entertaining.

Set in a remote Idaho community where the grandfather’s train plunges over the edge of the bridge leading into Fingerbone, the novel contrasts social relationships in the family unit, and the eccentric female characters. Ruth and Lucille are abandoned, first by their mother’s suicide, then again by their grandmother’s death. Next the grandmother’s two sisters came to stay with Ruth and Lucille but decide that they are just too old to be caring for young children, so they get in touch with the girls’ crazy Aunt Sylvie who is mentally unbalanced and never stays in one place for very long. Sylvie sets up housekeeping on the family farm with total disregard for the two girls wellbeing. She lets everything on the family farm go into a state of disrepair, starts strange collections – hoarding useless items and cluttering the house with them, and she even lets the children stop going to school. In an attempt for a normal life, Lucille leaves the farm and moves into town with a favorite teacher leaving Sylvie and Ruth to fend for themselves. In the end Ruth joins Sylvie in her world of madness and life of wandering.