Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

This book was given to me by a friend who described it as dreamlike. I certainly see what he meant. This first novel is told from the point of view of Ruth who, with her sister Lucille, is orphaned by their mother's suicide and live in their deceased grandmother's home with a series of aunts, and finally with their aunt Sylvie, who has lived her life as a transient up until then. The girls expect to be abandoned again and watch for signs of it daily. The lines between imagination and reality are very blurred for Ruth and her aunt Sylvie. Sylvie prefers to live in darkness, wandering alone through the woods by day and spending nights by candlelight. One of the most compelling scenes was when the three of them are sitting in the darkened kitchen and suddenly Lucille reaches up and turns on the light, which illuminates harshly the dirt and chaos around them. Sylvie and Ruth quickly turn the light off and retreat again into darkness. Robinson writes with great lyricism and fascinating extended metaphors. I would have to say that at times, this got in the way of the story. But it’s an amazing first novel.