Housekeeping the Novel "Housekeeping" by

Housekeeping The novel "Housekeeping" by Marilynne Robinson starts with "My name is Ruth." And concludes with Ruth's comment that she had "never distinguished readily between thinking and dreaming" and with the realization that her "life would be much different if I could ever say, This I have learned from my senses, while that I have merely imagined." In Housekeeping, the author has tried to convey the message of how lives change radically simply when nothing seems to be happening.

The author's lively and illustrated language floats and flows out of Ruth's most secret self, as a reminder to all of how difficult and unattainable it is to get under another person's skin. Analysis of the Book The novel is critically and commercially acclaimed for its beauty and elegance. Many writers and critics have praised not only the worth of the story but the lyrical style of writing which has given the book a new form of existence.

Robinson's exquisite expression and eloquent use of words has made this book a treasure of its own in the library of English Literature and there is no doubt that any praise given to this writer and this book is undeserving. The town of Finger Bone provides the setting of this novel. The main characters are all residing in a home which is right next to an intimidating and often fatal lake.

The imagery and details provided by the writer about the whole scenery are astonishing: "Buttercups are the materialization of the humid yellow light one finds in such places...but the deep woods are as dark and stiff and as full of their own odours as the parlor of an old house." The family seems to have a history of sorrow and tragedy, which is both real and at times supposed by the reader.

Ruth is one of the main characters of the novel as well as the narrator of the novels' accounts. Both Ruth and her younger sister Lucille had been orphaned at a young age and had been handed over to their grandmother by their mother to the isolated town of Fingerbone. Their mother disappeared soon after and was later found drowned in a friend's car in a lake where the sisters' grandfather had been drowned in a train wreck which had also drowned in the cold waters of that lake.

The sisters have both lived their whole lives in a homely residence beside a lake in Idaho, which is detailed very adeptly in the novel, yet Ruth has always had a feeling of not belonging, she feels that she, along with her sister, Lucille "had spent our lives watching and listening with the constant sharp attention of children lost in the dark.

It seemed that we were bewilderingly lost in a landscape that, with any light at all, would be wholly unfamiliar." The grandmother, who was in charge if taking care of the girls was an old women and also suffered from rapid depression attacks. She is an aloof, slightly isolated woman -- but she does care and love both the sisters in her own distinct way and pays heed to all their needs which is obvious in the novel.

After the grandmother passed away, the girls were taken in the care of two elderly relatives, Lily and Nora, who lived a lavish and comfortable life in San Francisco and were very aware of the luxuries that were no longer theirs. They moved to Fingerbone take care of the girls and reminded the girls every now and then about the lives that they had given up and left behind for the girls' well wishes.

Both these characters are cleverly depicted so that they are kind and amusing at the same time, and their absence is not missed. The conversations between the aunts and the sisters were designed to be one of a kind and extremely funny. However, these two don't seem to be cut out for the job, taking care of two girls seems to be a lot for these two.

They are weighed down by the responsibility that comes with it, conjure up almost every frightful situation that they could about the circumstances they might face and end up running back to their comfortable lives in San Francisco, after luring a mysterious relative in the form of Aunt Sylvie who makes her entrance into the girls' lives and the novel.

Aunt Sylvie has an unexplained vibe about her, for instance the stories that she has told the girls have all been related to or revolved around a bus or a train. In fact she is a transient, psychologically and sensitively un-wanting and untrained for the errands she has to take on. The character of Aunt Sylvie is what carries the rest of the novel; her influence on the girls is very evident throughout the remainder of the novel.

She has been a traveler for long, not settling down and being independent in the face of the world. For this reason she has been kept away from her family and close friends. She has been 'riding the rails' from one place to another. Of course her character, too, is magnificently depicted in the author's expression with a calm and sympathetic side to it. She is a question mark for all the people of Fingerbone, even the girls are clueless about who she really is.

Being such an independent spirit, she has her own notions about life and sometimes seems to sweep into.