Reddit reviews Housekeeping: A Novel

Anything by Cormac McCarthy. Especially All The Pretty Horses.

Tom McCarthy's first novel (no relation to Cormac) really impressed me. It's about a man who no longer feels his actions are genuine after a debilitating accident forces him to re-learn how to function his body.
"“Ever since learning to move again,” he explains, “I’d felt that all my acts were duplicates, unnatural, acquired.” Like a character in a novel by Philip K. Dick, he comes off as something between a normal person and a programmed automaton""
Eventually he spends the money from the injury lawsuit creating bizarre and elaborate recreations of memories (or invented scenarios) where he felt more 'real' or natural. The book is truly strange, and following the protagonist down the twists of his psychosis is uncomfortably easy, like the border between his mind and yours isn't as thick or as firm as you'd like it to be.


God is Dead by Ron Currie, Jr. is a series of short stories around the premise that God came to Earth as an African woman only to be killed, and subsequently eaten by wild dogs. The stories are about the varying reactions to the confirmed death of God, and include teenage suicide pacts, child-worshipping cults, and an interview with the dog who ate the flesh of God.
It's a quick read (fewer than 200 pages), and the stories will stick with you.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson isn't exactly new, but it's easily the most beautiful book I've ever read. It packs more loneliness and pain than should be possible in 219 pages, but every word is perfect. If you like gorgeously constructed, compact prose, read this book.


And for whatever reason, I adore Denis Johnson's Already Dead every time I read it, and then promptly forget the majority of its plot. I couldn't tell you much of what happens, but the characters are bizarrely archetypal forces, and again, the prose is beautiful.

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EDIT: Just realized I missed your stated admired authors. If you're into the Carver-esque, "dirty-realism" scene, God is Dead might not be your thing, and perhaps not even Remainder (which, though psychologically realistic and philosophically intriguing, is not exactly "realism.") Cormac definitely would be, though, if you're not already familiar.

On the "gritty real-life" front, John Brandon's Arkansas was solid and entertaining, but doesn't particularly stand out in my memory. Apart from that, and the novels I mentioned above, I haven't read much in this style recently, apart from the classics (Carver!). Too much school=not enough reading, unfortunately.

Housekeeping is a great literary novel. It doesn't have a mother as the protagonist, 2 young orphan sisters are the main characters. There's a lot of soul searching and wondering if a normal life of housekeeping is the best life. The author, Marilynne Robinson, recently won a Pulitzer for a more recent book and so there's been more interest in this one.

Housekeeping: A Novel https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312424094/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_pA8ZzbTKJE0F3

I read this as part of a college English class, Literature by Women. I don't actually remember reading anything about motherhood, except for The Handmaid's Tale, for that class, which seems kind of odd looking back.

Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping. Beautifully written and incredibly immersive. Some of the best descriptions of nature I've ever read--they somehow completely avoid being trite, which is a real rarity.

Marilynne Robinson's HOUSEKEEPING. Very possibly the finest coming of age novel by a living American author.