More differences ...

... Nige on Home. (Hat tip, Dave Lull, who wonders if Nige and Bryan are planning some sort intervention on my behalf.)

As I noted on this post, Garret Keizer felt many of the same objections to Robinson's novel as I did. So did Nige. But for both, in the end, the novel not only worked, but was deeply affecting. I am quite willing to entertain the notion that the deficiency may be mine. Should I re-read it? Maybe, but I confess that the thought of spending any time in the immediate future in the company of the Boughtons does not appeal. Their place in Gilead reminds me uncomfortably of certain stuffy households I had to visit while a small child. I should perhaps have made it clearer than I did in my review that Home is simply not to my taste. I don't like the people inhabiting it and am not in sympathy with its theology (mine is much more Chaucerian). It is a credit to Robinson's skill as a novelist that she can create characters to which one can relate so passionately, even if the passion is negative. Maybe if Nige and Bryan agree to re-read Brideshead Revisited (which moved me to tears when I read it this past summer for the first time 40 years), I could revisit Robinson's Iowa, and we could all compare notes.