Winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award A modern classic, "Housekeeping" is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. ...
Read More
Winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award A modern classic, "Housekeeping" is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transcience.
Read Less
Add this copy of Housekeeping to cart. $3.82, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Farrar Straus Giroux.
Add this copy of Housekeeping to cart. $3.82, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Farrar Straus Giroux.
Add this copy of Housekeeping to cart. $3.82, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Farrar Straus Giroux.
Add this copy of Housekeeping to cart. $3.82, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Farrar Straus Giroux.
Add this copy of Housekeeping to cart. $3.82, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Farrar Straus Giroux.
Add this copy of Housekeeping: a Novel to cart. $7.99, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1981 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Housekeeping: a Novel to cart. $31.48, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1981 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Add this copy of Housekeeping to cart. $80.00, like new condition, Sold by modlitbooks rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from San Francisco, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Farrar Straus Giroux.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fine in fine dust jacket. Signed by author. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 219 p. Audience: General/trade. A fine copy in fine dust jacket, signed by Robinson on the title page, no other markings. First printing of this 25th anniversary re-issue of Robinson's landmark novel.
Add this copy of Housekeeping to cart. $100.00, very good condition, Sold by Grendel Books, ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Springfield, MA, UNITED STATES, published 1986 by Farrar Straus Giroux,.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 0374173133. The author's first book. Fourth printing. Light foxing on top and fore edges, else near fine in a near fine (light age toning to flaps), price clipped dust jacket.; 219 pages.
Was anxious to see what all the hype was about-----well it is a story of a dysfunctional family, with 2 young sisters caught in the middle. In some ways it is frightening to know that some people even exist, and can live off the grid quite serenely, taking along young psyches, who cannot make a conscious choice. I found it mind boggling!
KassandraPhoenix
Jul 23, 2008
Can you hear the trains?
I bought this book for a graduate class Fall of 2007 but I didn't have to read it so it lingered on my shelf for quite some time. I'm not entirely sure why but I always told myself when I had the time I was going to read this novel. Perhaps it was because of the haunting picture on the cover, with train tracks fading into the fog, but I had a feeling it was going to be different than other novels I have read.
Well, I was definitely right about that.
Told through the viewpoint of Ruth or "Ruthie", this novel discusses the importance of family, transience, loss, and the importance of communication. Ruth and her younger sister Lucille lose their mother Helen (she drives off a cliff) and live with their grandmother, then their two great-aunts, then finally with Sylvie their eccentric and transient aunt. The entire time they live in their grandmother's home by a glacial lake. Their grandfather died in a train wreak and drowned in that same lake before they were born.
The entire novel centers around trains. Sylvie never knows what time it is unless she hears a train go by, there are hobos hanging around the trains, and they talk about the people at the bottom of the lake that died in the train wreak. The town of Fingerbone lives and dies around the world of trains. Also, what I did like about Robinson's writing style is that her sentences are long and full of syllables, much like the cho-cho-choo of a locomotive keeping pace.
The title for the novel Housekeeping comes about when Sylvia realizes that she may lose custody of Ruth (since Lucille willingly decided to leave and live somewhere else) and attempts to clean herself and her life up. The town feared that her transient lifestyle began to affect Ruth (and they were correct). So she began to do all methods of housekeeping in an attempt to clean up and look presentable to society, in the process she tries to change her very nature.
I don't think I would recommend this novel to a friend just because I didn't personally feel any sort of connection with it. Robinson's connections with the lake, family, people, nature, and darkness are all very clever and written in a unique style, but I personally did not enjoy it. One critic remarked that Robinson wrote about the most ordinary things in her own perspective, and I do agree, but at times she drones on and on and on which makes it is very difficult to connect to the characters; at times it feels she is just trying to make her own point in Ruth's voice.
