Book Review

Housekeeping
by Marilynne Robinson

I have mixed, but overall positive feelings about this book. It enchanted me at times, and then bored me at others. This novel is about two sisters, Ruth and Lucille, who are orphaned by their mother's suicide and end up in the care of their eccentric aunt Sylvie, a former drifter. Told from Ruth's perspective, it's a very inward book, concerned more with observation and perception than with plot. Robinson has a way with words and a gift for striking insight. The prose feels like the water that is one of its most prominent motifs. However, there were times when the book really dragged, which are imperfectly outweighed by the times it enthralled.