Home by Marilynne Robinson

Our family has enjoyed two fantastic weeks of vacation this summer. Our first week was spent with friends in Northern California doing day trips to Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Napa. I got very little reading done that week. We spent the next week in upstate New York at our friend's "farmhouse" which is really a well appointed vacation home. That is an annual event for our family devoted to fishing, hiking, eating and reading. By far, the most enjoyable read for me was Marilynne Robinson's new book, Home. I received an advanced reader's copy, but you should expect it in stores next month.

As many of you will recall, Robinson's second novel was the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead in which we hear the elderly voice of a Congregationalist minister, John Ames, writing a letter to his young son. He is giving the account of his family, particularly the deep divide that existed between his abolitionist father and grandfather who supported the inclusion of Kansas into the United States as a slave state. Gilead also introduces us to Ames' best friend, the Presbyterian minister, Robert Boughton.

Home is an independent novel that takes place concurrently with Gilead but the focus shifts to the Boughton family. Glory and Jack, two of Robert's adult children have returned home for reasons unique to each. Glory is caring for her dying father and Jack has come home to reconcile with his past. There are many reasons to recommend this book, but none greater than Jack. Always the black sheep, Jack is a complex character who struggles to reconcile his deep knowledge of the Christian faith and his personal and familial experience.

Home is a beautiful work about families, faith, forgiveness, the cultivation of intimacy and the vapor of life. It is Robinson's masterpiece. I encourage you to order it now and set aside some time when it arrives.