2024 the best novels of the 21st century review

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A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMESE NOTABLE BOOK • WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE

A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A LOS ANGELES TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“[Robinson's] prose is our flight out, a keen instrument of vision and transcendence.” ―O, the Oprah Magazine

Hailed as "incandescent," "magnificent," and "a literary miracle" (Entertainment Weekly), hundreds of thousands of readers were enthralled by Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. Now Robinson returns with a brilliantly imagined retelling of the prodigal son parable, set at the same moment and in the same Iowa town as Gilead.

A luminous and healing book about families, family secrets, and faith from one of America's most beloved and acclaimed authors.

The Reverend Boughton's hell-raising son, Jack, has come home after twenty years away. Artful and devious in his youth, now an alcoholic carrying two decades worth of secrets, he is perpetually at odds with his traditionalist father, though he remains his most beloved child. As Jack tries to make peace with his father, he begins to forge an intense bond with his sister Glory, herself returning home with a broken heart and turbulent past.

Home is a luminous and healing book about families, family secrets, and faith from one of America's most beloved and acclaimed authors.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador Paper; Reissue edition (August 4, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250784026
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250784025
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.35 x 0.89 x 8.34 inches
Reviewer: M. Bones
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Absolutely astonishing book but the audible version is intolerable
Review: I have to say I enjoyed and admired this book more than Gilead and enough to make me want to read Gilead again—though I read it only months ago. The prose is as breathtaking as in Housekeeping and she doesn’t get as carried away with it as she occasionally did in that first book. Not having the ready excuse for sermonizing that Gilead provides also keeps her head above water and the clarity and depth of vision for all of the characters is truly extraordinary.Unfortunately the narration for the audible version is so nauseatingly artificial & "poetic" that I simply couldn't listen to it, even when I was on a long drive. Very disappointing.

Reviewer: Bob and Kristi
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Moving account of familial love and redemption
Review: Home is truly a story of homecoming. It is a parallel story with the book Gilead, which is written from the autobiographical perspective of Reverend Ames. Home is written in the third person, and centers most fully around these three characters in this order: Glory, Jack, their father (Rev. Robert Boughton). Marilyn Robinson hits another home run with this down to earth, moving account of familial love and redemption. She hits on theological themes, interwoven with the warp and woof of everyday ordinariness. Her characters are likable, as we can identity in different ways perhaps with each of them. The author invites us into the kitchen, the parlor, the dining room, the bedrooms, the garden, the barn and into the intimacy of the Boughton family, allowing us to witness the joys and sorrows and memories of a family which are the essence of life lived and experienced. While largely told from the perspective and experiences of Glory, the story’s focal point centers upon the prodigal Jack. The interactions between the three main characters demonstrate hope, frustration, openness and growing trust, mystery and uncertainty, and ultimately an unglorified yet powerful redemption. The book also deals with black and white racial issues which are an important part of Jack’s life and bely the realities of 1950s America, also reminding us of the same tensions most of us continue to try to understand today. In conclusion, Jack is loveable and worth knowing. Glory is a pearl of great price. Robert Boughton is a humble, dignified man seeking to understand his son as his love cannot release him. I highlight recommend Home by Marilyn Robinson.

Reviewer: Mac6uffin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Return to Gilead. Iowa, Not That Other One
Review: When initially published, Home was a companion novel to Gilead, now part of a tetralogy. In Gilead we had elderly John Amos writing a novel-length letter to his young son knowing he wouldn't be around much longer. While it started with Amos's life and his family's story, it drifted into recent events regarding his best friend Reverend Robert Boughton on the occasion of Robert's son Jack returning after many years away. This novel centers on Glory, daughter of Robert, who has returned to her childhood home to take care of Robert near the end of his life. Jack returns as we read in the previous novel, and we see events from Glory's point of view. Marilynne Robinson reminds me of a midwestern Faulkner, with her beautiful prose and intertwining lives in small town Iowa. Full of internal thoughts and relationships, the ending reaches that bittersweet conclusion that the best stories often leave us with.Highly recommended.

Reviewer: voracious reader
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Boring & Tedious
Review: I read both Gilead and Housekeeping and thoroughly enjoyed them both. I suspect that Robinson was pushed by her publisher to create another novel to ride on the coat tails of her Pulitzer Prize winning Gilead. This is what she produced. It is filled with the lyrical and beautiful language found in Gilead and Housekeeping. It just doesn't say much. There is little or no plot, and though I often love character driven novels, this was a bit thin. Maybe I just didn't get it. What was all the fuss about touching Jack's things. Just hanging up his jacket was an earth shattering event. Why could there never be a frank discussion between Glory and Jack? I tried to cast the characters with movie stars to try to make it come alive for me. I used Brad Pitt for Jack, but I could not think of an actor for Glory or the Reverend. Glory is definately a tragic figure, but it is a tragedy of her own making. Why did she return to Gilead after her disappointment with romance? Why didn't she give it another try in the big city? Jack is an alcoholic, the father of a child born out of wedlock, and a thief. He took no responsibility for the child. But why must the whole family walk on eggshells around him? He is a character with many tragic flaws. If he returned home to see if he could be forgiven and brought back into the fold, I sure didn't get it. Maybe all this wasp subtlety is beyond my experience. I grew up with an expressive volatile family , and this book just didn't speak to me. This was supposed to occur in the 60's. Yet merely going for a drive in a car was a big event. Racial views even among the clergy were hardly "christian" or up to date. Was Jack supposed to be a better person because of that? Why did he not join his wife where she was living if life in Gilead would have been so impossible. It just didn't make sense to me. The end was a novel twist and gave the book some oomph at last. But if the book was about the end, it came too late and should have been the center of the story. If you have read Gilead but not Housekeeping, read Housekeeping. Skip this one. Its boring.

Reviewer: France
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Great read, used for bookclub and very pleased! Made for good conversations

Reviewer: Placeholder
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: HOME is not just a sad novel. It is sad because it deals with the absence of grace and empathy in human relationship and the bitterness caused by it. There is a JACK in every other person in some way or the other who once bitten is twice shy. JACK could be a portrait of you and me under different situations. The author has brought out the complexity of human behaviour in exquisite prose. The novel is not for the itching mind.

Reviewer: Kylie Di Mauro
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Deep thoughtful read, but way too slow, long and drawn out for me. Good if you have heaps of time on your hands.

Reviewer: Anne
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book is set at the same time as "Gilead" and although they can be read as stand alones I felt that my reading experience of this book was enhanced because I knew the other side of the story and I also was aware of the reason why Jack's recent relationship was a problem - knowing these things added to the tension when you read how the family reacted to Jack and how he felt about it.Jack Broughton was one of a family of children born to a preacher in the small town of Gilead. he was never an easy child and he found that he just couldn't conform so none of his family ever trusted him. The lack of trust caused Jack to act out and do things that made him less trustworthy and then he felt even more alone. As the story starts this very prodigal son returns home to his ailing family and spinster sister Glory having lived a life of which he is ashamed. Jack's father is delighted to see his son and welcomes him with open arms but as the stpry develops the lack of trust and the inability of these two man to reconcile poisons their relationship and leaves Jack alone again.This is a harrowing and sad story in which very little happens. It challenges our ability to understand difference and to give and accept forgiveness. The story is told from Glory's point of view as she struggles to give up her plans for marriage and children having been betrayed by her lover. Glory finds that if she gives up everything of herself she can settle for a life looking after her father and the family home, albeit with regrets. Jack can find no place in his family home but having been rejected by the woman he loves he fears that there may be no place for him anywhere. The book is set at the end of the 1950s and race riots and the struggle for black equality find their way into the home via the radio. Jack has lived in that bigger world and so has Glory but their father rejects a lot of change in favour of what he believes to be right and in doing so he rejects Jack.The book is written in a leisurely style but although nothing much seems to happen this is a tight and well observed novel about families, relationships and past hurts. Jack wants to be accepted for who he is despite the mistakes he has made and will probably keep on making but his father can only accept him if he changes and he doesn't think that Jack can or will. Love is not enough to repair the broken bridges in this family.I found this book very thoughtful and could see the issues that teh author discusses very clearly. I found it a powerful piece of writing which moved me to tears on more than one occasion. A fitting companion piece to "Gilead".

Reviewer: tamako
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: 　アメリカ文学の正統である。ホーソンの宗教、フォークナーの社会、ヘミングウエィーの正義、かつて読んだアメリカ文学の古典。宗教はアメリカ建国の契機であり、人種問題はアメリカの歴史そのものだ。作者はそれを遠景に、人間の悲しみと希望を描く。２００８年のアメリカがこういう作品を歓迎することに、改めて感心する。　　小説の舞台は５０年代、保守的な田舎町の聖職者一家。老いた一人暮らしの父の屋敷に、不承ながら戻った主人公の３８歳の末娘グロリィ。（この主人公はまるで神がつかわした救いのようだ。）そこへ消息不明だった兄のジャックが２０年ぶりに舞い戻る。静まり返った屋敷で、互いを気遣う密やかな３人の暮らしが始まる。　ジャックは何故戻ったのか。親と子。罪と赦し。聖書の放蕩息子の寓話が語られる。放蕩息子は罪を償えるのか。聖職者である父はそれを赦せるのか。寛容だった父は、今では頑迷な偽善者に見える。むしろ放蕩息子のジャックが悲哀に満ちた殉教者のようだ。老いた父の心ない言葉とそれに耐える息子。　　グロリィ自身、婚約者が既婚者と判明し、高校教師の職を捨て、故郷に逃げ帰ってきたのだ。この先自分はどうするのか。兄に同情し、父の老いを悲しみ涙するだけなのか。やがてこの一家の問題が、TV画面に他人事のように映る黒人の公民権運動と無縁ではないことわかる。　　小説前半は分かりにくい。しかしそれも、この小説が前作のピューリツア賞受賞作品『Gilead』と連作であることで納得がいく。両者を読んだ時に、作者の構想の大きさと深さが、全貌を現すのかもしれない。しかし、取りあえず、父と息子の哀しい心のすれ違いに、主人公グロリィ同様、涙すればいいだろう。