Home (Oprah's Book Club)
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3.1 • 112 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This bittersweet novel about the complexities of family is best listened to with a box of tissues nearby. A sequel of sorts to Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer-winning Gilead, Home takes place in the same small Iowa town during the same 1950s time frame, but it’s a standalone story. When ailing minister Robert Boughton gets a visit from two of his eight children, Glory and Jack, the family’s emotional turmoil bubbles to the surface. Jack’s a lifelong ne’er-do-well who fled town 20 years ago, while a broken engagement has left Glory emotionally shattered. The three family members awkwardly dance around their problems in a way that’s both relatable and heartbreaking, struggling to love each other despite their profound feelings of anger, envy, and disappointment. Narrator Maggi-Meg Reed’s rich, colorful performance makes us feel like a fly on the wall of the Boughton home. Robinson nails the push and pull of family dynamics, revealing many emotional truths about the human condition.
Customer Reviews
Slow, but good!
This is not a fast paced, suspenseful novel. It is a good, thoughtful human story. Excellent narration, not too many characters to keep track of. It is about family, relationships and human nature. Highly recommended for a good read.