Part Harry Potter, part Narnia, part Donna Tartt, part Bret Easton Ellis... This was a very enjoyable book - much more entertaining than groundbreaking. Nevertheless, I really got into Quentin Coldwater's story... and some of the set pieces really make you want to see this book filmed. I only wish the characters (other than one notable one) had had more redeeming qualities - yeah, I get that people are flawed, even those with magical powers... but most of the time, this seemed to go too fa... (show more)

Part Harry Potter, part Narnia, part Donna Tartt, part Bret Easton Ellis... This was a very enjoyable book - much more entertaining than groundbreaking. Nevertheless, I really got into Quentin Coldwater's story... and some of the set pieces really make you want to see this book filmed. I only wish the characters (other than one notable one) had had more redeeming qualities - yeah, I get that people are flawed, even those with magical powers... but most of the time, this seemed to go too far. However, very entertaining. Good vacation reading. (show less)

Marilynne Robinson has a way of transforming the mundane into something luminous and the ambiguous into disgrace. Set in territory familiar to those who read her 2nd book, 'Gilead', 'Home' is really a companion piece to it. 'Gilead's' protagonist is a supporting role here - the story of the other family in 'Gilead' - an aging retired preacher, his disgraced, dutiful youngest daughter and self-destructive wayward son, all living and trying to get along in the family home. Like 'Gilead', ev... (show more)

Marilynne Robinson has a way of transforming the mundane into something luminous and the ambiguous into disgrace. Set in territory familiar to those who read her 2nd book, 'Gilead', 'Home' is really a companion piece to it. 'Gilead's' protagonist is a supporting role here - the story of the other family in 'Gilead' - an aging retired preacher, his disgraced, dutiful youngest daughter and self-destructive wayward son, all living and trying to get along in the family home. Like 'Gilead', everyone brings their own baggage to this story, yet some deal with it with more grace than others. Glory, the daughter has returned to Gilead in disgrace, to care for her father. Jack, the wayward son appears after 20 years, batting his own demons. Together, they try to care for, seek absolution from and make proud their infirm in body, yet active in mind father, a retired reverend (the best friend of Gilead's Ames). 'Home' chronicles the Boughton household concurrent with the timeline of 'Gilead', peeling back the veneer of the mysterious Jack and 'old Boughton'. Set in the late 1950s, in small-town Iowa, civil rights issues also have a role here - serving as a distant, yet approaching storm and frequent source of discord between father and son.

'Home' and 'Gilead' seem like two parts of a whole - able to stand on their own merits, yet one glimpse of that time and place. Whereas Gilead was a work of introspection and faith, the theme of 'Home' is more of the redemption that can be found in the love of a family. (show less)