When I Was a Child I Read Books (Hardback) By (author) Marilynne Robinson

Full bibliographic data for When I Was a Child I Read Books

Title

When I Was a Child I Read Books

Authors and contributors

By (author) Marilynne Robinson

Physical properties

Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 206
Width: 141 mm
Height: 224 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight: 340 g

Audience

College/higher education
General/trade

Language

English

ISBN

ISBN 13: 9780374298784
ISBN 10: 0374298785

Classifications

BISAC category code: REL113000
BISAC category code: LCO010000
Dewey: 814.54
Dewey: 814.54
Nielsen BookScan Product Class: T3.4

Publisher

Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc

Imprint name

Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc

Publication date

13 March 2012

Publication City/Country

New York/US

Main description

Marilynne Robinson has built a sterling reputation as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, not only as a major American novelist, but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In When I Was a Child I Read Books she returns to and expands upon the themes which have preoccupied her work with renewed vigor.In “Austerity as Ideology,” she tackles the global debt crisis, and the charged political and social political climate in this country that makes finding a solution to our financial troubles so challenging. In “Open Thy Hand Wide” she searches out the deeply embedded role of generosity in Christian faith. And in “When I Was a Child,” one of her most personal essays to date, an account of her childhood in Idaho becomes an exploration of individualism and the myth of the American West. Clear-eyed and forceful as ever, Robinson demonstrates once again why she is regarded as one of our essential writers.

Review quote

Praise for "When I Was a Child I Read Books" "Brilliant . . . As the credo of a liberal Christian, Robinson's new book of essays stands on its own. But it is also an illuminating commentary on her novels . . . This collection is a rewarding reminder that the author's faith infuses every word she writes . . . Like every good preacher, Marilynne Robinson judges others while including herself--in theory at least--in the judgment." --Andrew Delbanco, "New York Times Book Review""With her newest book of essays, "When I Was A Child I Read Books," Marilynne Robinson affirms that my deep admiration and respect for her are well-placed. 'Every great question is very old, ' she writes, and here, as has been the case throughout her career as a writer, the great questions concern her most. Robinson displays an exceptional gift for deciphering the zeitgeist and offering generous counsel . . . Not only is her book wise; it is full to the brim with clear, resonant, melodic prose. These essays do two things very well. First, they provide a clear, largely unflattering diagnosis of America . . . Second, her essays affirm the extraordinary meaningfulness of words . . . She wants to dig deeply into our minds, examine the history and biases that underlie our assumptions, and re-animate our consciousness . . . Every measured sentence in this book serves as a bracing antidote to the thoughtless bobble-headed chorus of consumerism, the bellicosity of atheistic scientism, and the monotonous, disorienting mantras of the economists. Robinson uses her extraordinary gifts as a thinker and writer to offer a close-up look at what our world is and how we got here, and she very deliberately complicates our assumptions . . . Robinson seeks to waken rather than enchant, and her deliberate complications shatter the simplistic, polarizing rhetoric that plays fast and loose with truth as it fumbles for sound-bite clarity . . . "When I Was A Child" doesn't offer much for the earnest optimist, eag

Biographical note

Marilynne Robinson is the author of the novels "Housekeeping "(FSG, 1981), "Gilead"""(FSG, 2004), winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and "Home "(FSG, 2008), and three books of nonfiction, "Mother Country" (FSG, 1989), "The Death of Adam "(1998) and "Absence of Mind "(2010). She teaches at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.