In my adventures to read all the Pulitzer Prize novels for Fiction, I came across Marilynne Robinson's "Housekeeping" after seeing her novel "Gilead" on the list. I had never read her work before and at the time I did not have access to her winning book, so I read "Housekeeping" instead.
The cover of this book haunted me and drew me in. The idea that the end of the story might be masked in fog and an uneasy ride intrigued me. It is a story of two young girls who live in Fingerbone, Idaho who are taken care of several family members after their mother drives the family car into the lake and kills herself. There is history in this lake as it is the same one their grandfather died in years before. It is a story about surviving a barren emotional landscape that has its moments of joy and wonder.
“There is so little to remember of anyone - an anecdote, a conversation at a table. But every memory is turned over and over again, every word, however chance, written in the heart in the hope that memory will fulfill itself, and become flesh, and that the wanderers will find a way home, and the perished, whose lack we always feel, will step through the door finally and stroke our hair with dreaming habitual fondness not having meant to keep us waiting long.” -Marilynne Robinson
This book has stayed with me over the years. It touched me. I wrote a poem about it and it pushed me to read more of her books. I think you won't be sorry if you give this book a try.
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