Marilynne Robinson
Jun. 9th, 2009 06:58 pmWith Marilynne Robinson winning the Orange Prize to the gushing of the judges, perhaps this is a good time for me to admit that I HATED Gilead. Hate hate hated it.
A bit of background: Gilead, Robinson's previous novel, won the Pulitzer Prize and received pretty much universal praise and adulation from critics. It's about a clergyman who believes he is dying as he looks back on his life. I was predisposed to like it.
Sadly, I was bored stiff after about thirty pages. Thankfully it was a short book. I wouldn't have struggled through it, except that about halfway through, I gave up on any idea of reading it properly and speed-read for the only aspect of the story that interested me. I have no idea whether it was well-written or well characterised, or anything else for which it has received so much praise, because I was too busy going, "Why? Why, why, why would anyone think this is interesting?" (I repeated this mostly to myself, but occasionally to my long-suffering boyfriend.)
Anyway. Interestingly, her new book Home picks up the only plot strand in which I was interested in Gilead. And since it won the Orange Prize so overwhelmingly, I suppose I'll have to pick it up to see (much like I did with Gilead) what all the fuss is about.
No doubt I'll be either ranting or raving about Home here soon, so watch this space.
A bit of background: Gilead, Robinson's previous novel, won the Pulitzer Prize and received pretty much universal praise and adulation from critics. It's about a clergyman who believes he is dying as he looks back on his life. I was predisposed to like it.
Sadly, I was bored stiff after about thirty pages. Thankfully it was a short book. I wouldn't have struggled through it, except that about halfway through, I gave up on any idea of reading it properly and speed-read for the only aspect of the story that interested me. I have no idea whether it was well-written or well characterised, or anything else for which it has received so much praise, because I was too busy going, "Why? Why, why, why would anyone think this is interesting?" (I repeated this mostly to myself, but occasionally to my long-suffering boyfriend.)
Anyway. Interestingly, her new book Home picks up the only plot strand in which I was interested in Gilead. And since it won the Orange Prize so overwhelmingly, I suppose I'll have to pick it up to see (much like I did with Gilead) what all the fuss is about.
No doubt I'll be either ranting or raving about Home here soon, so watch this space.