A Literary Delving into the Work of Marilynne Robinson - Research Paper Example

Notwithstanding the fact that she has turned out just three works of fiction in a writing career spanning three decades, Marilynne has won hallowed acclaim in the world of American literature, the American West in particular, on par with America’s finest contemporary writers. It is no ordinary accomplishment considering the fact that ‘the world of literary publishing runs on schadenfreude’ (Bobrow). Marilynne’s very first novel Housekeeping, finalist for the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and winner of Hemingway Foundation / PEN Award under first best novel category and also the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, became a hallmark of her unique writing style (often compared to the Old Testament and the stateliness of Melville) that is persuasive, insightful and unfashionably sincere on the one hand and her profound psychological themes on the other.

The book rewrote the tradition of American transcendentalism and qualified her for the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award in 1990 and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1997. It would be interesting to note that Housekeeping was originally inspired by a series of metaphor she wrote down during the years she pursued her Ph.D. (Fay). The novel lyrically explores a number of eccentric women like Ruth, Lucille and Sylvie and their grief, isolation and longing.

It also focuses on how prolonged disconnection from family and society can affect life. Through these characters, Marilynne gives us a reflection of the lonesome spirit that dwells within all of us. The geography of Ruth’s world bears resemblance to the landscape of Fingerbone, modeled on Sandpoint, Idaho. That Housekeeping continues to receive steady and serious academic attention is a testimony to the permanence of its status as a major work of literature (Champion 321). It took twenty four years for Gilead, Marilynne’s second fiction to arrive and the interval left many of her admirers wondering if she was going to be a one-novel wonder.

The book became a swift bestseller in spite of its slow and meditative narrative. It received the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, Ambassador Book Award and the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. The book, which is an epistolary tale of a dying preacher and his full inner landscape in the form of a long letter to his young son, explores the motion of consciousness in the face of loss. Deftly juxtaposing the secular and the religious, language and silence and thoughts of death and appreciation for life, the narrative encompasses history, religion and humanity through the eyes of John Ames.

Gilead portrays wonderfully the power and limitations of consciousness when one is on the tenuous boundary of life and death (Shaffer 805). Contrary to her reputation, Marilynne’s third novel Home, companion to Gilead, was finished at amazing speed. Published in 2008, the book received the 2009 Orange Prize for fiction apart from being nominated for the National Book Award. Home, however, is not a sequel to Gilead. It is possible for a reader to pick up either book first. Home revisits the prodigal son and tells us the story of spoilt Jack from the perspective of Glory.

In Marilynne’s writing, much like in Emerson’s, nature forms the normative ground. Through John Ames, the protagonist in Gilead,