Housekeeping (40th Anniversary Edition)

A Novel (Picador Modern Classics)

By: Marilynne Robinson

Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer

Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

"[Narrator Therese] Plummer's talented performance is both illuminating and poignant." (AudioFile Magazine)

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award

Fortieth Anniversary Edition

This program includes a bonus conversation with the author.

A modern classic, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother.

The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere".

Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival and the dangerous and deep undertow of transience.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

©1980 Marilynne Robinson (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"So precise, so distilled, so beautiful that one doesn't want to miss any pleasure it might yield." (The New York Times Book Review)

"These tiny little titles are pocket-sized, shiny, and gorgeous. Featuring authors like Marilynne Robinson and Jeffery Eugenides, they're the kind of books you'll have to own the entire set of, because they're just that pretty - and it happens to be lovely that they fit in just about every bag you own. You can't be caught anywhere without a book, of course." (Julia Seales, Bustle)

"Our books today are the neatest little things you’ll see in the rest of 2015’s book-year: a set of Modern Classics from Picador Press, done up in a neat bow!" (Open Letters Monthly)

Magical and poignant vivid memoir.

This intriguing memoir is the true and inspiring story of a girl who grew up on a chicken farm in rural New Jersey. The narrator (who is the author) is the child of struggling, immigrant Holocaust survivors. The story is told through very compelling vignettes in which the author views her child self, re-living formative experiences. Usually, I think it's a mistake when an author reads their own work on Audible. But in this case, Tuzman’s childlike and confident voice is the perfect vehicle for this visionary narration. The author's eloquent revelations of beauty and grace provide a redeeming, lucid contrast to the difficulties described. This story shines as a vivid recollection of childhood experiences, which grew into the author's unique and stirring spiritual path. It will appeal to anyone who appreciates aspirational accounts about overcoming adversity. Yet more than that, I highly recommend it for its compelling narrative, depth of insight and magical vision to steer a guiding path through troubled times.

Elegant, haunting

To my delight, the audio version is a wonderful accompaniment to the novel. Glorious distilled prose tells the story of Ruthie, Lucille and their aunt, Silvie. While set in the last century in an austere and rugged setting, the threads of loss and heritage and resilience are vibrant today. Beautiful.

Literary fiction

Wonderful words and descriptions that tells a story that goes almost nowhere. Beautiful words, but not memorable.

glorious syntax but...

I appreciate the head on confrontation between the realities of death and destruction, the wild hope of resurrection. A pedestrian narrator, a plot with almost no move ment or male perspective distracted me.

Unsettling

Cold, haunting, lonely. Very well read. I will buy the book so I can look at particular passages. I am awed by this author's genius.

A small and perfect novel

Certainly a book for people who don’t quite fit into the conventional world. But nature is also main character here and I’m ready to drive to Idaho tomorrow to experience it.

Beautiful writing

A wonderful book about the balance between order and chaos. It motivated me to start making my bed!

Overall not bad

I listened to this during a long drive it kept me awake and interested. There are some points during the book that seem a little redundant where it almost goes into too much detail and the story becomes stagnant but it picks back up and the ending was good.

Everything

I'm glad I listened to this wonderful book. My two sisters and I were left by our mother at an age too early for two little girls and a baby to be left by their mother.As a result of this I learned no other woman would be a mother to us.We never knew where or who we would be with next.I love Housekeeping because Marilynn Robinson hit the nail on the head...

Beautiful language

The text is rich and remarkable in its descriptors and attention to detail.
The beginning is slow, but as the story unfolds, the narrator’s inner dialogue explores so many of life’s imponderables. I was drawn into her world in fascination. Wonderful to listen to!