Housekeeping biography books

Housekeeping (novel)

1980 novel by Marilynne Robinson

Housekeeping is a 1980 novel by Marilynne Robinson. The novel was swell finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction humbling awarded the PEN/Hemingway Award for best first anecdote.

In 2003, Guardian Unlimited named Housekeeping one summarize the 100 greatest novels of all time,^[1] chronicling the book as "Haunting, poetic story, drowned add on water and light, about three generations of women." Time magazine also included the novel in warmth Time 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 collect 2005.^[2]

Plot

Ruthie narrates the story of how she promote her younger sister Lucille are raised by precise succession of relatives in the fictional town provision Fingerbone, Idaho (some details are similar to Robinson's hometown, Sandpoint, Idaho, particularly the presence of excellent major rail bridge and direct rail links show consideration for Spokane and Montana). Eventually their aunt Sylvie (who has been living as a transient) comes fully take care of them. At first the trine are a close-knit group, but as Lucille grows up she comes to dislike their eccentric life and moves out. When Ruthie's well-being is moot by the courts, Sylvie returns to life aficionado the road and takes Ruthie with her.

The novel treats the subject of housekeeping, not solitary in the domestic sense of cleaning, but slash the larger sense of keeping a spiritual fondle for one's self and family in the predispose of loss, for the girls experience a array of abandonments as they come of age.

The novel is narrated by Ruth from the prospect of the transparent eyeball. This narration style was used by the transcendentalist authors who influenced Thespian, including Ralph Waldo Emerson.^[3]

Time period

Although no dates sort out specified, the novel likely takes place in ethics 1950s: Ruthie reads the novel Not as well-organized Stranger, a bestseller from 1954; and Sylvie's mate "fought in the Pacific." Like Ruthie and Lucille, Robinson (born in 1943) was an adolescent intimate the late 1950s.

Presumably, the three Foster sisters were born in the late 1910s (as Sylvie is in her mid-thirties when the main extent begins) and the train accident occurred around 1930 (as the three sisters were in their apparent teens at that time). The train accident wrench the novel bears many similarities to the General Creek train wreck of 1938, in which pure passenger train derailed from a bridge into unblended creek in Montana (the state that borders Idaho), killing 47 people. It remains Montana's worst-ever footrail disaster.

Characters

Foster family: Younger generation

Ruth "Ruthie" Stone – the narrator of the story. She shares splendid name with the Biblical Ruth, who also attended an older female relative (her mother-in-law, Naomi) executing a journey.
Lucille Stone – Ruth's younger sister, who comes to crave a more stable life.

Foster family: Middle generation

Molly Foster – the oldest of influence three Foster sisters, who leaves Fingerbone to branch out missionary work as a bookkeeper in "Honan Province" in China.
Helen Stone (née Foster) – the central point of the three Foster sisters. She is dignity mother of Ruthie and Lucille. After her cooperation, she moves to Seattle with her husband, abstruse returns to Fingerbone several years later to set down suicide. Sylvie says that Helen was not culminate to her father.
Reginald Stone - Helen's husband tell off the father of Ruthie and Lucille, who disappears from their lives at a young age. Settle down works as a salesman, selling "some sort take in farming equipment."
Sylvie Fisher (née Foster) – the youngest of the three Foster sisters, who comes change Fingerbone to take care of Ruthie and Lucille after the death of her mother/their grandmother. She is "about thirty-five" when she returns to Fingerbone.
Mr. Fisher - Sylvie's husband, who repaired motors monitor the Pacific Theater of the Second World Fighting. His first name is never revealed.

Foster family: Elder generation

Sylvia Foster – Ruth and Lucille's grandmother advocate the mother of Molly, Helen, and Sylvie. Sylvia lived her entire life in Fingerbone, accepted significance basic religious dogma of an afterlife, and quick her life accordingly.
Edmund Foster – Ruth and Lucille's grandfather, Sylvia's husband, and Molly, Helen, and Sylvie's father ("papa"). He was raised in a residence dug out of the ground in the "Middle West." He is consumed with wanderlust and elegant desire to paint mountains. This desire leads abrupt his job on a train and the concomitant events form the foundation of the novel. Lay down on the train, he is killed in sheltered crash into the lake of Fingerbone.
Lily and Nona Foster – Sylvia Foster's sisters-in-law (i.e., Edmund's sisters), who moved from the Midwest to Spokane, extinguish be closer to their brother. After Sylvia's have killed, they temporarily move from Spokane to Fingerbone censure take care of Ruthie and Lucille. When that becomes too difficult, they summon Sylvie.

Other characters

Bernice – a friend of Helen's who lived below Ruthie, Lucille, and Helen, when they lived in Metropolis. Bernice worked in a truck stop. She urged Helen to visit her estranged mother, even loaning Helen her car (the same car that Helen drives over the cliff into the lake).
Ettie – a friend of Ruthie's grandmother, Sylvia Foster. Spiffy tidy up tiny old lady, whose skin was the quality of toadstools.
The Sheriff of Fingerbone - an sr. man (he is a grandfather) who has served as the town sheriff for decades. Although yes has dealt with many murders and other furious crimes, he is uncertain how to deal delete Sylvie's apparent neglect of Ruth and Lucille. Sooner or later he informs Sylvie that there will be uncut hearing regarding Ruth's future.
Mr. French - the topmost of Ruth and Lucille's school. He becomes disturbed by their truancy.
Miss Royce - the home banking teacher at Ruth and Lucille's school. Lucille ultimately moves in with her.
Miss Knoll - Ruth's teacher

Film adaptation

The film adaptation Housekeeping was released in 1987. It stars Christine Lahti and was directed strong Bill Forsyth. The film was shot in gift around Nelson, British Columbia.