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Marilynne Robinson Considers Biden a Gift of God - The New York Times

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For years, I had a secondhand paperback copy of Marilynne Robinson’s 1980 novel, “Housekeeping,” on my bookshelf that I never got around to reading. Then one day I picked it up. Not altogether too long later, I put it down, finished. In the plain-spokenness of its language, the grace and dignity of its characters, the simplicity of its story and its intimations of spiritual transcendence, “Housekeeping” is a book that transformed how I see my place in the world. (And I’m not alone: Former President Barack Obama has talked about how Robinson’s work influenced him.) Robinson, who for years taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, hasn’t given us a new novel since “Jack” in 2020, but she does have a new nonfiction book that will be published next month. “Reading Genesis” is, as the title suggests, Robinson’s literary analysis of the first book of the Old Testament — one writer’s appreciation of the enduring work of others. Like so much of Robinson’s writing, the book is alive with questions

For years, I had a secondhand paperback copy of Marilynne Robinson’s 1980 novel, “Housekeeping,” on my bookshelf that I never got around to reading. Then one day I picked it up. Not altogether too long later, I put it down, finished. In the plain-spokenness of its language, the grace and dignity of its characters, the simplicity of its story and its intimations of spiritual transcendence, “Housekeeping” is a book that transformed how I see my place in the world. (And I’m not alone: Former President Barack Obama has talked about how Robinson’s work influenced him.) Robinson, who for years taugh

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