I enjoyed Gilead so much, I picked up Robinson’s first novel. The book is another first-person narrative, but this time from the perspective of a young woman named Ruth. Ruth and her younger sister Lucille were raised by their grandmother after their mother committed suicide, and then by their eccentric aunt Sylvie after their grandmother passes away. By eccentric, I mean Sylvie’s way out there. She spends her time wandering around, speaking to strange characters at bus stations, sitting in the dark for no reason, collecting tin cans and stacking them around the house, walking on bridges to experience the wind, etc. The book’s tension lies in how Ruth and Lucille react to Sylvie’s eccentricity as they come of age. Lucille finds Sylvie’s behavior unmotherly (borne out of her fond memories of her mother) and so rebels; Ruth finds comfort in Sylvie’s quiet isolation (borne out of her natural shyness, as well as out of her memories of her mother abandoning them). Like Gilead, Housekeeping’s narrative is well-told with a unique and well-crafted voice. Unlike Gilead, however, the pace of Housekeeping is slow and meandering. This book is definitely not for most readers. English majors and writers will love the careful prose in this novel – to me, it’s reminiscent of Annie Proulx, but more passive – but I suspect that most readers will find this book rather boring.