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Marilynne Robinson, 2008

Date Read: 3/14/23

I'm not entirely sure what I think of this novel. It tended towards repetitiveness. There was an awful lot of people not saying things and not communicating, which I imagine is difficult to express on the page.

I think the idea was to create the feeling in the reader that the characters had: feeling suppressed, enclosed, separated from each other. But for me, it just was kind of boring, if I'm completely honest.

This novel also requires an awful lot of reading between the lines. I don't know if the other novel(s) set in the same town would answer questions for me (although it does state it can be read alone). I also don't know that I'm very interested in learning more.

For the most part, this felt like an intrusive look into people's private lives at a very bad point in time. I don't know if I was supposed to learn something from it? It felt alternatingly intrusive and repetitive. Like looking through the curtains of the same house every night, but each night they're just watch TV.

Length: 325 pages in hardcover

Rereadbility: no

Classic: not in comparison to the other classics I've read. It isn't bad. It just also isn't great.