Home (Oprah's Book Club)

By: Marilynne Robinson

Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed

Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Hundreds of thousands were enthralled by the luminous voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Home is an entirely independent, deeply affecting novel that takes place concurrently in the same locale, this time in the household of Reverend Robert Boughton, Ames' closest friend.

Glory Boughton, aged 38, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack - the prodigal son of the family, gone for 20 years - comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain.

Jack is one of the great characters in recent literature. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, he is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton's most beloved child. Brilliant, lovable, and wayward, Jack forges an intense bond with Glory and engages painfully with Ames, his godfather and namesake.

Home is a moving and healing book about families, family secrets, and the passing of the generations, about love and death and faith. It is Robinson's greatest work, an unforgettable embodiment of the deepest and most universal emotions.

©2008 Marilynne Robinson (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Robinson's beautiful new novel, a companion piece to her Pulitzer Prize - winning Gilead, is an elegant variation on the parable of the prodigal son's return." ( Publishers Weekly)

Better to read than listen for this one

The actor performs the character voices well but when they switch to narrator's voice, to me they sounded like a voice from the acting days of Barrymore, formal and stagey. I had to stop.

Static plot, but good characters

Struggled to finish as there wasn't much of a narrative. Good realistic characters, but moved quite slowly

Avoid this narrator

Great story but took all I had to stick with it because the narrator was so bad. She ruined a lot of lovely language with her attempts to sound like…I don’t know what!

Should have read it instead.

I enjoy Marilynne Robinson and have listened to Gilead multiple times, but the narrator of Home pushes and over-reads her characters. Old Boughton is rendered as almost yelling much of the time; sounds like a kid in a high school play straining forth a chesty caricature of an old man. When I take the book down off the shelf and read a section, it's a lovely story, but this narration of it is exasperating. I'll be returning it.

Read This Book!

This is a beautifully executed novel, maybe the saddest I've read in a long time, but that's by no means a criticism! Unlike some of the reviewers, I thought the narration was fantastic--absolutely professional, and the movement from voice to voice was as far as I am concerned flawless.

One of My Favorite Books of All Time!

What did you love best about Home?

Marilynne Robinson is a genius, there's no other way to say it. The emotion she is able to infuse into every bit of dialogue is stunning and here characters seem as real to me as anyone I've ever met. This novel tells a simple story, but in such a profound way it will bring you to tears.

Audio reading detracted from story

I thought this book was beautifully written, but there were few characters that I found very likable. Maybe it was the voice characterizations by the narrator on audible that colored my perception of the main characters, especially the elderly father. Annoying voice characterization of the father.

Jack was possibly a good man, but I did not see any redemption by him by the end. I frequently sensed an atmosphere of abandonment by him. In other words, his constant “leaving” or suggestions of “leaving” as he did 20 years earlier that would trigger Glory.

There is no backstory that explains Jack’s estrangement from his family or Glory’s seemingly tortured devotion to it.

Also, I am not a fan of books that do not have chapters. It made coordinating the audible version with the written. Very frustrating.

a tender exploration of two siblings

another book that takes place in Gilead
Jack and Glory are taking care of their father Reverend Boughton during the last weeks of his life and getting to know each other. Tender and harsh at the same time.

Loved this book,

Enjoyed listening to narrattor, story about family members, friends and the relationships that develop between them.

Heart stirring

On so many levels. Hard to find words. Pain, deep personal pain, so well expressed. Redemption of God and family also well expressed even in its imperfections here on earth.