Author:  Marilynne Robinson
Publisher:  The Noonday Press, 1997
Available in: Quality paperback, 224 pages. $11.00 (ISBN 0-374-52518-8)
Genre:  Fiction

Summary

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

Recommended by: Doris Lessing

“I found myself reading slowly, then more slowly this is not a novel to be hurried through, for every sentence is a delight.”

Author Biography

Marilynne Robinson was born and raised in Idaho, where her family has lived for several generations.  She received a Ph.D. in English literature from Brown University in 1977.  Housekeeping, her first novel, was originally published in 1981 and won the PEN/ Hemingway Award for First Fiction.  Mother Country, an examination of Great Britain’s role in radioactive environmental pollution, was published in 1989.  Robinson now lives in Iowa City, Iowa, with her family.

Topics to Consider

What does the concept of “housekeeping” mean to the various characters in the book?  Why is the idea of housekeeping such an important one?  How does it fit your ideas of housekeeping?

Do you find that the three generations of Foster women share certain unusual or eccentric qualities?  Do they have similar attitudes toward men and marriage?  Do you notice a family resemblance between these women?  Is there anyone in your family to whom you bear a resemblance?

Why do you think Sylvie and Helen eventually reject their own husbands so completely?  Did their husbands deserve to be rejected, or did it have more to do with their own needs?

Do you feel, as Ruth seems to, that Lucille’s defection from the family unit was an act of emotional dishonesty and betrayal?  Or was it the only way she could save herself?  What would you have chosen if you were part of this family?

If you were one of Sylvie’s acquaintances or neighbors, you might consider her mad.  After seeing her through Ruth’s eyes, do you believe that she is in fact mad?  Which of the characters in the book do you think are mad?  Which ones are sane?

Do you agree with the sheriff that Ruth would be better off separated from Sylvie, in a “normal” household?  Do you believe that if he were to succeed in separating her from Sylvie at this point, Ruth would grow up to lead a normal life?

How do Ruth and Lucille, each in their own way, deal with their mother’s abandonment and death?  Does Lucille share Ruth’s view that all things are impermanent?  Do you?

Discuss the different ways in which people cope, or fail to cope, with grief and loss.

What does the concept of “family” mean to the various members of the Foster family?  What does it mean to you?

This book was first published in 1981.  Would your experience reading the book then before the notion of dysfunctional families was popularized have been any different?