Home — A Novel To Be Savoured — Martin

In order to talk about Home, it’s impossible to not talk about Gilead (2004),Marilynne Robinson’s wonderful Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. That’s because the home spoken of is in the imaginary town of Gilead, Iowa, and the characters are those from the previous novel. When I read Gilead, I didn’t want it to end. Robinson has, thankfully, added to her earlier triumph.

The differences are subtle. Gilead is a beautiful, literary novel, written from the perspective of an elderly Congregationalist minister John Ames. Beginning in 1956, he is writing about his life to his young son, who he fears will have few direct memories of his father, if the minister’s heart condition continues to deteriorate. Ames had lost his first wife in childbirth, and has recently married a much younger woman. Ames’ best friend is Gilead’s Presbyterian minister, William Boughton. Both men have named a son after each other. John Ames Boughton (Jack), unfortunately, became a wayward man who left his family in disgrace when he left Gilead. Gilead moves slowly but surely because Robinson’s powerful characters wrestle through important life issues with both weakness and deep faith.

Home takes place in the early ‘60s. It comes from the perspective of Glory, the youngest of William Boughton’s children. She has returned “home” to care for her aging father, after her own life hasn’t turned out as she had hoped. Significantly, Jack also returns “home” after a twenty-year, uncommunicative absence. He hadn’t even appeared at his mother’s funeral. Jack’s life has moved from disappointment to disaster, and now he has alcoholism and years of broken relationships to deal with.

Glory struggles with the faith she learned from her parents, Jack’s narrow rejection of salvation despite his intellectual acknowledgement of Christian truth, and the town’s readiness to write Jack off for his sins. She views things through a more complex lens. Glory has her own sins to deal with, and has such compassion for her troubled brother because she understands how circumstances sometimes turn against us.

I highly recommend Home, but suggest you should start with Gilead. If we’re fortunate, Marilynne Robinson will write yet another sequel. I know I’ll be ready to buy it.

Home is published by Harper Collins (2009)

D.S. Martin is Music Critic for Christian Week. He is the award-winning author of the poetry collections Poiema (Wipf & Stock) and So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed (Rubicon Press). They are both available at: www.dsmartin.ca

Loverly Book Covers! - Grove

I just got the "Okie-dokie" to share the amazing cover for Talking to the Dead with you! Yeah!!

Amy Kiechlin at David C. Cook is the brilliant mind behind this fantastic cover. When I first saw it, my jaw dropped. In an e-mail, I said, " Amy, you are very, very talented - you've taken the feeling of the book and translated it into a cover that tells the story."

She wrote back, saying, "I had a lot of fun doing it, and I too, just felt that God’s hand of creativity was giving me the design ideas and imagery that was outlined so beautifully in your writing."

I've said it before, but it bears repeating; the folks at David C. Cook have been a dream to work with. These talented, creative people go beyond the extra mile to ensure a stellar product from start to finish. One sense I get when I talk to the folks there, is that they honestly love their job. They are in it for the love of great books and take delight - true delight in the creative process with all its bumps and wiggles.

I've lost count of the hours I've spent gazing at this cover. It's just so perfect - such a hand and glove fit for the story I've written (and am still editing). And I've shed a few happy tears over it too. My husband pronounced it "Perfect." I asked him what he liked most about it and he said, "Your name's on it." Sweet feller.

Here's the blurb:

Twenty-something Kate Davis can’t seem to get this grieving widow thing right. She’s supposed to put on a brave face and get on with her life, right? Instead she’s camped out on her living room floor, unwashed, unkempt, and unable to sleep—because her husband Kevin keeps talking to her.Is she losing her mind?Kate’s attempts to find the source of the voice she hears are both humorous and humiliating, as she turns first to an “eclectically spiritual” counselor, then a shrink with a bad toupee, an exorcist, and finally group therapy. There she meets Jack, the warmhearted, unconventional pastor of a ramshackle church, and at last the voice subsides. But when she stumbles upon a secret Kevin was keeping, Kate’s fragile hold on the present threatens to implode under the weight of the past…and Kevin begins to shout.Will the voice ever stop? Kate must confront her grief to find the grace to go on, in this tender, quirky first novel about embracing life.

I'm so excited to be able to share this with you! Thanks for stopping by!

Bonnie Grove is the author of the upcoming book Your Best You: Discovering and Developing the Strengths God Gave You (Beacon Hill Press, March 1, 2009. Her debut novel, Talking to the Dead (David C. Cook) will hit stores June 1, 2009. Learn more at www.bonniegrove.com.

Death of the Novel - Wright

The Globe and Mail review section reported recently on the poor sales Booker fiction nominees have garnered. For the last few years we’ve been hearing much about ‘the death of the novel’. Could it be true? Probably not, given the phenomenal sales of the Harry Potter series and The Da Vinci Code.

Perhaps the reading public is just weary of ploughing through books trumpeted by literary critics. Readers have told me lately of their disillusionment with many modern novels. When queried further they often point out what caused them to let their current reading projects gather dust. They often turn their guns on ‘literary fiction’.

Many complain of trying to keep track of too many characters. Some writers introduce a plethora of people right in the first few chapters. Other novelists bring in a new character in every chapter, or in alternate chapters. Readers have to keep going back to check on who was who. Confusion results.

Other readers express disillusionment with the prevalence of dark stories. Tales of child abuse and rape. Bullying. Wildly dysfunctional families. Serial killers galore. Small towns hiding terrible secrets. Are there no ‘normal’ people left on planet earth, normal but interesting? True, evil exists. But . . .

In an attempt to gain a following, many of today’s novelists seem to be ever on the search for some novel literary device—as if there was anything new under the sun. Many stories project complicated flashbacks, changes of scene or point of view. Where are the stories of one main protagonist that move from A to Z in a linear progression?

What about unbelievable scenarios? The antagonist with a scheme to blast the earth out of orbit, or threaten the globe with some new pandemic. The discovery of some deadly new weapon or the release of some ghastly animal mutation. Then there are the novelists who posit some revolutionary discovery that proves that Jesus never existed, that the Christian faith is based on a lie or that the Vatican hides deadly secrets. Far fetched plots have become too legion to be novel.

Other readers complain that too many novels have no redemptive element. They are not just looking for the traditional fairy tale ending, but at least some change, some growth in the characters.

Then again, there are all the edgy novels that press the boundaries of good taste. Insisting on reality, these writers pour into their depictions anything that is thought by polite society as gross. Eroticism runs wild. Swearing abounds.

Have I heard readers right? Obviously a great variety of tastes in literature exist. But personally, I believe that the novel is not dead but slumbering awaiting those writers who will give us good old fashioned stories again.