Home wins Orange Prize
Here's a first.
Me suggesting a book I haven't actually read.
But Marilynne Robinson's novel Home has just won the Orange Prize for fiction ... so I figure there must be something in it.
So now I'm throwing the floor open for reviews... if anyone has finished it yet?
She beat first-time British novelist Samantha Harvey, who was in the running for The Wilderness, a story about a man who has Alzheimer's.
The Orange Prize shortlist also included American authors Ellen Feldman and Samantha Hunt; Irish writer Deirdre Madden and Pakistani/British author Kamila Shamsie.
Apparently the decision to give the prize to Robinson was unanimous and Fi Glover, who chaired the judging panel, called the book "kind, wise, enriching and exquisitely crafted".
The story centres around Jack, the prodigal son of the Boughton family, who returns home after 20 years looking for refuge.
He is an alcoholic who cannot hold down a job and is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and his traditionalist father.
The prize celebrates fiction writing by women around the world and Robinson received the £30,000 prize plus "Bessie" - the limited edition bronze figurine.
Her previous books are Housekeeping (1981) and Gilead (2004).
So, there you go ... that's the facts and figures for you, but has anyone actually read it ... and what's it really like??
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Vicki Kellaway - a Merseyside reporter who would happily spend her days lounging about and reading - if she won the lottery. Vicki's in a book club, which consists of six girls who meet once a month to discuss their latest tome, drink a few glasses of wine and eat far too much cheese.
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I have read all of the Orange short list this year, and have to admit that the only one I didn't manage to finish was Home.
I think the main reason for this was that I read Gilead the week before, and they were just too similar. Both books were packed with reflective wisdom, and were beautifully written (although I thought Gilead was the better written of the two) I can see why other people love these books, but I like a bit more action, and I didn't connect with the characters in either book.
My favourite from the list was Wilderness, but it is heartbreaking, so make sure you have your tissues ready if you decide to read it!
I read the full shortlist this year also, and Home was my favourite, closely followed by The Wilderness.
In preparation for Home, I read Gilead a month or two before, and didn't like it that much. The one thing I did like was Jack's story. Since Home is more about Jack and his sister Glory, I was much more interested in it. Glory's point of view was welcome after Gilead, which is written as a diary of an aging man to his young son, and therefore VERY MALE.
Lizzy Siddal also liked Home the best on this year's shortlist, and she did not read Gilead first, so it is not necessary. However, from what I can gather, to have any sympathy for Jack, Gilead is a must. Marilynne Robinson, when discussing the book at Southbank the night before the prize ceremony, said that she hoped the two books stand alone.
I have read both Gilead and Home, two months apart, and while I loved the former I was a bit disappointed by the latter. Maybe I should have waited longer.
I found Home rather ordinary in comparison (although still beautifully written). It is told from Glory's point of view, but, unlike Gilead, in the third person singular, and it contains lots of dialogue.
Jack remained a frustrating mystery to me. I also found it hard to get into Glory's head sometimes. F.e. several times in the book Glory apologizes to Jack after saying something, and Jack graciously accepts, but I never understood why what she said warranted an apology in the first place.
It also didn't help that Home is 80 pages longer than Gilead. I prefer concise books.
Perhaps Glory could see that the family had done Jack a disservice by treating him like the black sheep all his life. Perhaps he had a lot to offer the world, especially his non-racist attitudes when it was the norm to be otherwise.
While admiring the writing in Home, I think you have to like this sort of thing to really enjoy it - for myself, I'm not sure.
The dominant Christian stance of Robinson's characters can be a little wearing, particularly when the philosophising and homily-making is predominantly middle-America in style and content. The fact remains that as with Gilead, these people are basically dull, with little knowledge of the world beyond their small town Christian community and have attitudes which caused this reader at least to want to fling open the windows and let some life in.
Like many people of religious conviction, Robinson's characters have "settled" opinions which provoke little dialogue with the reader. Robinson's people believe that the greatest virtue is to remain the same, to stay where you are or at least to return home, and they are content to replay centuries-old debates about predestination and the nature of the soul rather than to engage seriously with the world around them.
I can't understand why Home won the Orange Prize - its retrogressive, overly American (in a small-minded, fundamentalist sort of way), and is just a bit too "precious" for me.
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