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When I Was a Child I Read Books

Marilynne Robinson

3.89 · Rating details · 2,562 ratings · 490 reviews

Since the 1981 publication of Marilynne Robinson’s novel, Housekeeping—a stunning debut that was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize—she has built a sterling reputation not only as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. Her compelling and demanding collection The Death of Adam—in which she reflected on her Presbyterian

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Hardcover, 224 pages

Published March 13th 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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May 25, 2012 Joel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-bought

I don't mean to be overdramatic, but each book I read by Marilynne Robinson gives me slightly more hope that we are not doomed. This book, like much of her work, is ultimately about taking human experience -- that is, the history of ourselves and our institutions of culture, religion, politics, education, and so on --seriously when we consider what and who we are. ...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-about-books, reading

I’ll go ahead and say it: Marilynne Robinson is too smart for me. I can be a lazy reader, seeking the quick answer, the easy answer.

This is not a book for lazy readers. It is not a book for simple readers.

Robinson is thoughtful and compassionate and deep. She sees past the first obvious answer and the second obvious answer and offers explanations that are unexpected and which embrace all we bring to a book. She is spiritual without being dogmatic and she is kind without leaving truth behind.

A b ...more

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Mar 02, 2012 tee marked it as to-read

Shelves: to-buy-and-read

I want to read this because apparently it's going to contain lines like these:

"Say that we are a puff of warm breath in a very cold universe. By this kind of reckoning we are either immeasurably insignificant, or we are incalculably precious and interesting. I tend toward the second view. Scarcity is said to create value, after all."

Sold! ...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Thing Two rated it it was amazing

Shelves: best-of-2012, favorite-non-fiction

As you can probably tell from the number of times I posted interesting thoughts from these essays, I loved this collection! I read Christopher Hitchens's God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and was disappointed, not because of what he was arguing, but by the lack of research he presented with his argument. He seemed to want to say, "I'm Christopher Hitchens and here's what I think ..." and that was that. Marilynne Robinson is polar opposite from Hitchens, not only in beliefs, but i ...more

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Jul 31, 2021 Dave Schaafsma rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I've read all of Robinson's fiction and am a huge fan, so when I saw this essay on audio--twenty minutes--I listened to it, and again, and again, as she is such a good writer, such a careful crafter of sentences, so thoughtful. I'll probably read the rest of it, as it is not writing that one can just breeze through.

I was attracted to this essay by the title, the same title as the book itself, because this was true for me, too, but the essay is less about herself as young reader as it is about h ...more

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Jan 10, 2017 LindaJ^ rated it really liked it

Shelves: bible-related, essays, non-fiction, political, religion

First a caveat -- my rating is based on the 8 of the 10 essays that I understood. The first -- Freedom of Thought -- I found the most challenging and will have to read it again in order to figure out what the point is. The last -- Cosmology -- did not hang together for me. I think I got the point -- that science has not replaced God in understanding human nature -- but would have to read it again to follow the argument.

The other 8 essays I found very interesting and thought they provided much f ...more

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Mar 25, 2013 David rated it did not like it

Sometimes I dislike a book and can't imagine anyone else liking it. This is not such a book. You might like it, but I didn't. I like essays, and her topics (mostly religion, intellectual history, American society/culture) are important and interesting. She teaches at U. Iowa writers' workshop, and I'm open to the possibility that I'm missing something about her writing, but whatever; i didn't care for it. Trying to analyze a little more deeply why not.....

here's a typical excerpt, re John Shelby Sometimes I dislike a book and can't imagine anyone else liking it. This is not such a book. You might like it, but I didn't. I like essays, and her topics (mostly religion, intellectual history, American society/culture) are important and interesting. She teaches at U. Iowa writers' workshop, and I'm open to the possibility that I'm missing something about her writing, but whatever; i didn't care for it. Trying to analyze a little more deeply why not.....

here's a typical excerpt, re John Shelby Spong's "why Christianity must change or die":

"In fairness, Christianity also suffers terribly at the hands of Bishop Spong, though he may not be wholly conscious of this fact. He gives an account, with Episcopal self-assurance, of what Christians believe, which I, who have long answered to that description, read with true astonishment." (p. 98)

It's not the wordiness itself that gets to me, though this is a long way of saying "I disagree with his account of what Christians believe.". I think what's annoying about it to me is (a) hyperbole (read with true astonishment), (b) seemingly pointless circumlocution ("have long answered to that description" -- really? people describe you as Christian and you agree? or you're just saying you're Christian.), and (c) condescension (with Episcopal self-assurance, not..wholly conscious....).

Another excerpt, from an essay about growing up in Idaho:

"A man in Alabama asked me how I felt the West was different from the East and the South, and I replied that in the West "lonesome" is a word with strongly positive connotations. I must have phrased my answer better at the time, because both he and I were struck by the aptness of the remark, and people in Alabama are far too sensitive to language to be pleased with a phrase such as "strongly positive connotations". For the moment, it will have to serve however." (p. 88).

OK, so to start we have the kernel of a semi-interesting observation - being a loner is viewed more favorably in the West. Not the first time I've heard that, but no problem. At this point, though, you could give an anecdote about being accepted as a bookish introverted young person in Idaho, or cite a character from a movie, or contrast the ease with which you fit in the West vs. in midwest later in life, or a hundred different possibilities. Maybe the worst choice (IMO) is to locate this observation as being something you said to someone (boring, no more vivid or informative than just saying it now), report that you can't remember how you put it (then why include this fragment of conversation?), brag that you undoubtedly put it well because both of you were struck by how well (ugh) and wrap it up with disingenuous "for the moment" (you're publishing this -- it's forever, not for the moment).

Probably shouldn't go on at such length. I'm just trying to figure out why I hated this book so much. Oh well. Next! ...more

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May 16, 2012 Jane rated it it was ok

Marilynne Robinson’s first novel, "Housekeeping", was published in 1980, and she has written two further novels: "Gilead", which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, and Home, which won the Orange Prize in 2009. "Gilead" and "Home" contain many positive values, so "When I was a child I read books", a collection of essays, was met with anticipation and will likely arouse the interest of her readership.

Robinson has the convinced written style of an essayist. She comments on present-day North American soci Marilynne Robinson’s first novel, "Housekeeping", was published in 1980, and she has written two further novels: "Gilead", which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, and Home, which won the Orange Prize in 2009. "Gilead" and "Home" contain many positive values, so "When I was a child I read books", a collection of essays, was met with anticipation and will likely arouse the interest of her readership.

Robinson has the convinced written style of an essayist. She comments on present-day North American society and its values, analysing characteristics of its thought and religious life. Robinson’s skills as an essay writer do not quite match up to the great essayists: stylistically, it is not always easy to understand which idea or person she is referring to, which is especially challenging if one is already straining to follow her train of thought.

Some general impressions about the way the writer comes across: One weakness is Robinson’s tendency to group people into two opposing camps, to indicate how narrow the debate has been thus far. Yet the problem is that there is often little evidence that those camps really existed before she came to characterise them! For example, is America really divided into “those who cannot embrace fundamentalist religion [and] scorn the past[, and] those who embrace it [and] despise the present”? Nevertheless, Robinson’s essays are interesting historically, falling within the context of contemporary American questions in the first decades of the millennium.

There are some difficulties with the philosophical framework of this collection of essays, which emerge early on. They are perhaps not as evident in Robinson’s fiction, but worth being aware of in terms of this book. In early chapters, Robinson refers to Walt Whitman, a 19th century poet and essayist, and draws out especially his framework of opposition to religious traditions, signs and creeds. Robinson seems to argue that “individual experience”, somehow conceived as only synonymous with a society without dogma, is the basis of American democracy. She leaves little space for the idea that people come from existing contexts which transcend their individual experience, and unfortunately this excludes the idea that they could be a part of a tolerant dialogue.

A particular strain of subjectivism comes through in this book. From my perspective, at least, this perspective enjoyed its ascendancy in the 1960s but now it seems at odds with present-day experience. For example, Robinson asserts that “the situation of the undergraduate rarely encourages systemic doubt”. Perhaps that was the case for an older generation, but now undergraduates are usually exposed to things like postmodernism, which definitely encourages systemic doubt!

Robinson’s subjectivist approach to societal issues is mirrored in her theological assertions. Robinson weaves Calvinist ideas of reality into many of her essays. She also draws from other influences, such as cognitive science, but in a confusing turn, blends cognitive insights with metaphysics, leaving us with confusing definitions of things such as the soul and the relationship between nature and grace.

I would recommend staying with Robinson's fiction, and giving these essays a miss.
...more

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Dec 20, 2014 Carly rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction, spiritual-non-fiction

There's no doubt that Robinson is bright, and thoughtful. And well-read. But sometimes I think when readers feel intimidated by an author's intellect, they say "Great! Amazing! Insightful!" with the hope that others will not notice how deeply confused they are. After all, if the reader is confused by something, and there are big words present in the text, that reader often feels deeply ashamed at not having "got it" and lays on the praise extra thick in hopes of not being asked to comment furthe There's no doubt that Robinson is bright, and thoughtful. And well-read. But sometimes I think when readers feel intimidated by an author's intellect, they say "Great! Amazing! Insightful!" with the hope that others will not notice how deeply confused they are. After all, if the reader is confused by something, and there are big words present in the text, that reader often feels deeply ashamed at not having "got it" and lays on the praise extra thick in hopes of not being asked to comment further. I think it's great practice to, when you're confused, say "I'm confused," rather than assume that a writer's verbosity and seeming intelligence renders them smarter than you and above criticism.

This collection of essays is challenging, but that doesn't make it valuable. Robinson's essays are insightful, but tedious. I appreciate watching a brilliant woman play in the depths of her own mind, which is what I feel Robinson did in these essays, and I can appreciate it for what it is. But, the fact remains that I am tired of reading thoughts on Freud, on Walt Whitman, on Edgar Allen Poe, on Biblical history. I could never read another word by or about Freud ever again and still live a full, meaningful life. In fact, it would be a great relief.

I am deeply invested and curious about historical margins, not so much the centers. This book was entirely about, and in discourse with, some of the most central centers to exist: the history of white people (when generally referring to everything from antiquity to modern U.S. culture, Robinson is always talking about white people. She seemingly never finds it necessary to distinguish the truth that "antiquity" doesn't HAVE to mean European antiquity, though it does when she refers to it. And nary a mention of the ubiquitous presence of slavery throughout all of these histories she explores. The unrecognized invisibility of non-white, non-European experiences, discourses and histories in this text left me feeling bored as hell, and irritated); and Biblical history. I want to take winding paths and hear voices unheard, while Robinson is interested in adding her nuance to mainstream ideas that have been unspooled and re-spooled time and time again, for centuries. This is just a fundamental difference in interest and style, so to each their own, I suppose.

I don't feel like I am Robinson's audience. I visualize the type of person who would boast about this book's brilliance: he usually only reads books written by dead white men, you see, and a woman writing about the dead white men he idolizes is a progressive feather in his collection. This is probably cruel to say. I have nothing but kind things to say about Robinson's fiction. I find Robinson's fiction tender, insightful and oddly like coming home. Her fiction both challenges me, and coaxes me into her world of big ideas and histories. I cannot say the same about these essays.

Let me say, I love being challenged by a book. I love it when I feel knocked down a few pegs, or opened to new perspectives, or told exactly how and why I'm wrong. But the biggest challenge I faced upon reading this collection of essays was maintaining my interest.

Standouts: "Austerity as Ideology"; "When I was a Child" ...more

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Mar 07, 2022 Claire rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

It is my fault that I didn’t like this book. A lesson in reading the blurb not just the title and a quick look at the author. I was expecting a series of essays about childhood reading and instead got a collection of essays about human nature with a heavy spiritual bent. I was propelled by a couple of interesting historical analyses early on in the collection and my respect for Robinson as an author of fiction. At the end of the day there was just too much God here for me. That’s a me thing, so ...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Ty rated it really liked it

"I would say, for the moment, that community, at least community larger than the immediate family, consists very largely of imaginative love for people we do not know or whom we know very slightly. This thesis may be influenced by the fact that I have spent literal years of my life lovingly absorbed in the thoughts and perceptions of - who knows it better than I? - people who do not exist. And, just as writers are engrossed in the making of them, readers are profoundly moved and also influenced ...more

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Oct 27, 2014 John rated it really liked it

A GR friend of mine, Kristen, wrote a review of this book that led me to read it. I'm about halfway through now and my attitude toward it (in terms of stars) has ranged from 2 to 5, settling for the moment at 4.

As I mentioned in a comment under Kristen's review, I find Robinson's writing a bit dense. I consider this my fault, pretty much a consequence of my vocabulary and literary background being less robust than Robinson's. The obvious solution to this problem is for me to read the book with d ...more

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Oct 01, 2014 Kristen rated it it was amazing

My favorite of this collection of essays was "Freedom of Thought." It gave me a real interest in seeking out some ancient literature--a genre which has never before interested me. Virgil's Aeneid and the Epic of Gilgamesh, in particular, and maybe City of God...I'd like to read now. Creating a new curiosity is always a good thing.

I respect Robinson's careful style---she has a very direct and absorbing feeling about her as a narrator.

Just one of the many sections I enjoyed:

"Religious experienc ...more

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Dec 29, 2013 Roy Kesey rated it it was ok

Marilynne Robinson has written three of the great novels of the last forty years. Her first novel, Housekeeping, is on my Indispensables shelf with Jesus' Son, Invisible Cities, Rayuela, At Swim-Two-Birds, et al. So it gives me little pleasure to write about When I Was a Child I Read Books--even less than it gave me to read it.

Starting with what is surely one of the worst titles in titular history.

What else. The tone ranges from arrogant to airless (with rare glints of a grim sort of academicky ...more

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Dec 12, 2020 Rosemarie rated it it was ok

Shelves: library-books-2020

This book was a real disappointment. The title is very misleading-the book wasn't about reading, her childhood or fiction.
It was a collection of long-winded essays and made for a tedious read.
Even the cover was misleading. ...more

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Nov 16, 2020 Jarrett DeLozier rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If I had a million dollars I would be greatly tempted to spend it all on copies of this book to give to everyone I see.

READ IT.

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Mar 25, 2012 Justin Evans rated it really liked it

Shelves: essays

Robinson now has three novels and four books of non-fiction to her name; she might end up as the E. M. Forster of the early twenty-first century (I consider that a great compliment). Thankfully this book of essays is a step up from Absence of Mind, although not quite up to the quality of Death of Adam. WIWACIRB, hereafter WIW, is a much easier read than DoA, but that's not necessarily a good thing- much of the pleasure of her first book of essays came from the prose, which did a nice job remindi Robinson now has three novels and four books of non-fiction to her name; she might end up as the E. M. Forster of the early twenty-first century (I consider that a great compliment). Thankfully this book of essays is a step up from Absence of Mind, although not quite up to the quality of Death of Adam. WIWACIRB, hereafter WIW, is a much easier read than DoA, but that's not necessarily a good thing- much of the pleasure of her first book of essays came from the prose, which did a nice job reminding its readers that syntax can be enjoyable. WIW continues the main tasks of that book, though: an attempt to refute reductionism, particularly with reference to human abilities (a noble task), and an attempt to convince everyone that Calvinism is really great (which, honestly, seems to be to contradict the former). [Addendum: just flicked through DoA again, and it turns out that WIW is better on the ideas side. I still think DoA is more attractively written, though.]

Here Robinson argues against the reductionisms of contemporary 'rational choice' economics, scientism and the new atheism, and does it very well. As presented in popular forms, these three theories are, as she says, ideologies, and they do, as she argues, reduce our sense of wonder at ourselves in possibly harmful ways.

Her approach is often restricted to American concerns, which is fair enough, and she makes excellent points: the extreme 'patriotism' of contemporary American defenders of capitalism is probably due to the fact that America has only very rarely been a capitalist country; it's nice to know that a nineteenth century edition of Webster's defines socialism as 'agrarianism,' something that many Americans thought and think is a good thing. Also:

"Lately we have been told and told again that our educators are not preparing American youth to be efficient workers. Workers. That language is so common among us now that an extraterrestrial might think we had actually lost the Cold War."

Zing. Robinson offers some counter-weights to these reductionisms: education, particularly in the humanities; a sense of wonder; a greater immersion in history. This would be much more palatable if she wasn't so fond of saying things like "Calvinism is uniquely the fons et origo of liberal Christianity," which would come as news to the Anglicans/Episcopalians, Vatican II Catholics and liberation theologians she treats with so much scorn. Her 'me against the world' shtick can get tiresome, too- on what planet are abolitionists stigmatised?? Does she seriously think early Americans were fleeing religious persecution in the abstract, and if so, why did almost all of them try/succeed in setting up state churches? Does she honestly believe that the Old Testament was 'neglected and suppressed' throughout the middle ages?

Most of this can be forgiven, since the people she's arguing with are even more tendentious ('Monotheism causes war!' Um... tell that to the Greeks. And Romans. And Hindus.) What cannot be forgive is her failure to distinguish between rationalism and idealism. For whatever reason, everyone likes to cap their criticisms of other people's thinking by making a large scale procedural claim. Here, Robinson would have us believe that, say, rational choice economics is bad because it is "driven by righteousness and indignation to conform reality to theory." And yet she *praises* the Mosaic law because "the vision of the society preexisted the society itself." In both cases, reality is meant to conform to theory; but this is bad in one case and good in the other? Could it be that the problem with rational choice theory is not its procedures and methods, but its content? Alternatively, and I suspect this is what she means, economics looks only at how things are, and not how they should be; the Law looks at how they should be, not just how they are. This is not a problem of theory and reality, but of reality and ideals.

Anyway, the book is well worth reading, if only for zingers like this: "The notion that the laws ought to be ahistorical is no more sophisticated than the insistence that they are in fact ahistorical." ...more

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Jul 06, 2015 Blair Hodges rated it liked it

3 1/2, really, but it ranks this low because it was one of the weaker of Robinson's outstanding books in my very subjective view. Out of ten essays I loved 2 and liked 4 more, the other 4 were either so-so or uninteresting/weave-y. It's a collection of pieces exploring contemporary politics, religion, and thought about human nature and our place in the cosmos, with some asides about her background, writing, and teaching. She's definitely not satisfied with the status quo in today's politics, edu 3 1/2, really, but it ranks this low because it was one of the weaker of Robinson's outstanding books in my very subjective view. Out of ten essays I loved 2 and liked 4 more, the other 4 were either so-so or uninteresting/weave-y. It's a collection of pieces exploring contemporary politics, religion, and thought about human nature and our place in the cosmos, with some asides about her background, writing, and teaching. She's definitely not satisfied with the status quo in today's politics, education, or religion, and she has a masterful way of expressing herself, even though it sometimes becomes distracting, or makes me pause to wonder where she's going.

A few things it made me ponder more:

-The problematic nature of biblical criticism is problematic, though I think she goes too far in lumping it all together. Good thoughts on anti-Semitism in the way the Old Testament is interpreted by both believers and non.
-The OT ethic of care for stranger, for social justice, is overlooked by contemporary conservative Christians much to her dismay.
-Various uses and misuses of history by liberals and conservatives; misinterpretation of Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney on the one hand, for instance, and uncritical views of a Christian past much different from what it really was on the other.
-What is human nature? (A theme she returns to even more in The Givenness of Things. The gist is this: Beware easy answers of neo-Darwinists and new atheists re: our genes and selfishness. Isn't the cosmos and our place in it miraculous and unbelievable?
-The dangerous nature of ideologues as those who require purity and avoid complexity. (49)
-Individualism and community, she favors the former as a way of being in the world more than she thinks contemporary society does. Her Calvinism receives discussion as usual, though it sounds different than much of the Calvinism I hear about today.
-The nature of language and building community was an especially interesting part, especially noting something as simple as the fact that humans have conjured an incredible number of words to describe the appearance and behavior of light. ...more

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Apr 12, 2012 brinley rated it it was amazing

I have heard many a recommendation for Robinson's book "Housekeeping", yet for one reason or another I never had an interest, & have placed it low on my list of other books to read. Lately all my interest is in poetry and non-fiction; fiction has held a place in my heart in times past, but it seemed as though I had "moved past" the unreal, didn't have time for it. (Although you know, reality and shit, what is it really? Everything's a fiction in one sense, I get it.) Anyway when I found out abou ...more

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Dec 09, 2014 Megan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: religious-literature, nonfiction

This is that rare breed, a thoughtful book by a Christian writer; too often books by Christian writers turn into "Christian books," and lose the "thoughtful" part. As a woman of faith myself, I share most of her assumptions without necessarily sharing her conclusions; this makes her writing particularly challenging and thought-provoking. Also, Robinson regularly calls cultural assumptions, from several different "corners" of culture, into question. (One such assumption is that human beings are m ...more

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Oct 07, 2013 Jaime rated it really liked it

As I write this review, I am purposely not allowing myself to go back and look at all that I underlined. There is no shortage of brilliant sentences to share, but it strikes me as more important to consider what I have retained without the assistance of the text.

So.

Listen, the lovely thing about this book of essays is that it nails so many things in our culture so concisely and so intelligently that it will make like-minded readers feel less alone in this world.

Although at times I felt that the ...more

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Apr 13, 2015 Corinne Wasilewski rated it it was amazing

At a time when people’s thoughts are reduced to 140 characters, instant gratification is the norm, everybody’s talking but nobody’s listening, and culture is reduced to the lowest common denominator, enter Marilynne Robinson. (Robinson rides into town with guns blazing). Now, here is a woman who stands out from the crowd. Wise. Articulate. Bold. A woman of discernment. A straight shooter. And probably most important of all -- a woman who reads. And just what is Marilynne reading, you ask? The l ...more

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Sep 10, 2014 Adam rated it really liked it

Shelves: recommended-essays

It's weird, reading Robinson as a Calvinist. Some of her defense of our tradition includes ideas I'd reject, but I'm glad to admit her broader arguments. For instance, despite my stronger emphasis on the distinction between law and Gospel, it's a pleasure to feel so at home in her argument for Calvin's and Moses' liberality. I feel similarly about her humanism -- she's more optimistic than I am (I probably have that "...“liberal” or “progressive” tendency—both words in quotes—to give the past aw ...more

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Jan 20, 2015 Kristi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: essays

This book is exceptional.

Here are a few reasons why I recommended this book to a friend:

Reason 1: She writes beautifully, imaginatively, in an engaging way and most lucidly.
Reason 2: This book is a compilation of essays on formative subjects such as community, imagination, politics, religion and tribalism, to name but a few. She explores these concepts through the lens of English literature, morality and being. For this reason, her writing is suffused with careful analysis of culture and it's a ...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Joye rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: essays

What an amazing, thoughtful, intelligent, direct writer!! I was so impressed with the thought put into her various essays/arguments. She has some strong opinions and backs them up with powerful well thought out verbal stands. She is obviously well read and informed and is a compassionate person concerned about the current state of affairs of the human race. I recommended this book to everyone, but take it slowly!

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Apr 29, 2020 Celeste rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

These essays are among the deepest and most beautifully written that I’ve come across. They are also some of the most complicated I’ve ever read. The density and complexity reminded me of philosophy texts I read in college. This collection is definitely intended to be read slowly and thoughtfully instead of being rushed through. Marilynne Robinson is perhaps the most astoundingly intelligent person whose thoughts I’ve ever been privileged to read. What she has to say about patriotism and governm ...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Dean Anderson rated it liked it

It’s tempting to say that as an essayist, Marilynne Robinson is a great novelist. Of course, no matter what the first clause of the sentence is…Robinson would still be a great novelist. Her 2004 novel, “Gilead” won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award and sold a whole lot of copies. And I liked it, a lot. 1980’s “Housekeeping” and 2008’s “Home” are also great works of fiction.
Some of the essays in this collection are bring history, theology and insight together and allow the reader (at least It’s tempting to say that as an essayist, Marilynne Robinson is a great novelist. Of course, no matter what the first clause of the sentence is…Robinson would still be a great novelist. Her 2004 novel, “Gilead” won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award and sold a whole lot of copies. And I liked it, a lot. 1980’s “Housekeeping” and 2008’s “Home” are also great works of fiction.
Some of the essays in this collection are bring history, theology and insight together and allow the reader (at least me) to look at things in a whole new way. And some of the essays have the air of an academic journal that is only read when it’s assigned.
My favorite essay in the book is the last, “Cosmology” which begins puzzling on how Edgar Allen Poe in his work, ’Eureka’, seemed to anticipate 20th century physicists ideas about the Big Bang. She uses this as a starting point to assert that the human mind has tools beyond science to consider the big questions of life. She bemoans that students rely only on the theories of Darwin and Freud to understand the human condition. She argues that not only does that limited perspective lead to a poorer life, it leads to poorer fiction.
I appreciated her defense of great Christian leaders of American history, such as Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney, whose intellectual, social and moral achievements are belittled by modern historians who have different theological perspectives (or believe mistakenly believe they have no theology.) As the father of a Knox College student, I was happy to read Robinson give honor to many of the small Midwestern colleges that stood up for the rights of women and enslaved African Americans. (This in the essay, “Who Was Oberlin?”)
But there were essays that made intellectual leaps and bounds that I couldn’t follow. Maybe it’s because I’m not bright enough (certainly well within the realm of possibility) but I think Robinson at times leaves dots disconnected.
And there are times where I think she just gets things wrong. In the essay, “Austerity as Ideology”, she ponders Winston Churchill’s famous Iron Curtain Speech. She seems to argue that the speech hurt the tender feelings of Joe Stalin, still hurting for WW II, and was the reason for the Cold War. No where in the chapter does she talk about the military aggression of the Soviet Union, or their oppression of the people of Eastern Europe (let alone the slaughter of their own people.) She seems to subscribe to a moral equivalence between the East and West of that period that strikes me as morally bankrupt.
In the same chapter, she frets about those that call for austerity in government budgets, that might cut education budgets. (She seems to feel academics are holy creatures that never waste money.) She seems to think the two wars of the Bush and Obama years were the only budgetary challenges of the 21st decade and yet she never mentions vast majority of government spending goes to entitlements.
Marilynne Robinson does have a great mind, but at times I think she buys into the group think of the academic world. But in the area of the church and theology, she fights the received Ivy League wisdom and come up with true and powerful thoughts.
Reading everything Robinson writes is a worthy endeavor. But it would probably be best to start with the fiction.
(And frankly, I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t at least one chapter about what she read as a child. Was she more of a May Alcott or Ingalls Wilder fan?)
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Feb 16, 2015 Nathan Marone added it

I did not read this book. I listened to Marilynne Robinson read it. That distinction is important to me, because Robinson's voice, so gentle and yet unwavering, is a source of great comfort to me. It is not just the timber of her voice, but the content of her words that I fine incredibly reassuring. The experience of listening to her is one of wonder.

The title may dupe you into thinking that this is a memoir of sorts, sweetly looking back at Robinson's Idaho upbringing as she romantically read I did not read this book. I listened to Marilynne Robinson read it. That distinction is important to me, because Robinson's voice, so gentle and yet unwavering, is a source of great comfort to me. It is not just the timber of her voice, but the content of her words that I fine incredibly reassuring. The experience of listening to her is one of wonder.

The title may dupe you into thinking that this is a memoir of sorts, sweetly looking back at Robinson's Idaho upbringing as she romantically read a lot of books and kept to herself. There is a little of that, yes, but the thrust of this collection of essays is not the mere sentiments of childhood gone, but the idea that books and the reading of them shapes us incredibly as individuals. Even in their unread state most of us are vastly influenced by the books that have come before us; for if we haven't read them, surely someone else has and has taken the trouble to impute their ideas to others. Those ideas creep through history, almost silently, landing at the now, to which Robinson, in all her erudition, is so graceful.

A Christian by religious affiliation, Robinson has a high regard for mankind. Among other reasons, we are made in God's image and therefore exceptional among all life. Both her fiction and these essays attest to this underlying belief. But Robinson reaffirms that old theology by considering humans outright - our histories, our accomplishments, our woeful mistakes and grievous sins. She finds the utmost grace in the Law of Moses, a finding so rare and necessary among Christians today. She finds an incredible lack of human understanding in new atheism that can be corrected by interacting with the whole of humanity and the cosmos itself. She finds richness in the mostly forgotten histories of midwestern institutions of higher learning. All this among many other things.

I am prejudiced, of course. I've read Robinson's fiction with amazement, I share her religion, and I've listened to a good deal of her in videos. It comes as no surprise to me that this collection of essays filled me with the same sense of having listened to a person that I can trust and understand, one that I might relate to soul to soul.

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Aug 23, 2013 Sophy Kohler added it

Reviewed for Business Day WANTED: Better known for her novels, among them award-winners such as Housekeeping and Gilead, Marilynne Robinson tackles the universe, humanity and everything else besides in her newest and most earnest essay collection, When I Was a Child I Read Books.

While niche readers like the Archbishop of Canterbury have declared these pieces to be “pure gold”, they make for some truly laborious reading, that is, for those of us less aroused by phrases like “Austerity as Ideolog ...more

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Aug 04, 2013 Buz Trevor rated it it was ok

I Had been recommended this book. I am an atheist but I do not like some of the anti theological polemic by people like Christopher Hitchens. The friend who recommended the book said that I would find Marylynne Robinson's essays to be an expression of what a thoughtful Christian brought to the world. I guess you would say a humanistic approach.

I found the essays frustrating much of the time. The style consists of complex sentences wherein I sometimes lost the thread of the argument.

The book wou ...more

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About Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson

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Marilynne Summers Robinson (born November 26, 1943) is an American novelist and essayist. Across her writing career, Robinson has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, National Humanities Medal in 2012, and the 2016 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. In 2016, Robinson was named in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people.[2] Robinson be ...more

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“I experience religious dread whenever I find myself thinking that I know the limits of God’s grace, since I am utterly certain it exceeds any imagination a human being might have of it. God does, after all, so love the world.” — 41 likes

“I love the writers of my thousand books. It pleases me to think how astonished old Homer, whoever he was, would be to find his epics on the shelf of such an unimaginable being as myself, in the middle of an unrumored continent. I love the large minority of the writers on my shelves who have struggled with words and thoughts and, by my lights, have lost the struggle. All together they are my community, the creators of the very idea of books, poetry, and extended narratives, and of the amazing human conversation that has taken place across the millennia, through weal and woe, over the heads of interest and utility.” — 27 likes

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