The Marilynne Robinson Appreciation Society

Back in 2012, Marilynne Robinson wrote an introduction to a new edition of William Faulkner’s ‘The Sound and the Fury.’ Although we missed this, Will McDavid, writing at Mockingbird, took notice:

Maybe it’s her easy command of language, her gently probing (rather than assertively polemical) style of argument, maybe that it’s one of the few pieces I’ve read on Faulkner’s opus that seems like it takes the novel’s now less-than-in-vogue religious sensibilities seriously. At any rate, the publishers got it right with asking her to do it.

Although McDavid provides a few excerpts from Robinson’s essay, to enjoy the full piece, consider this a fine opportunity to pick up Faulkner’s treasured classic—or enjoy it all over again. We should mention, too, that there are echoes of epic southern literature in Lila, so there could hardly be a better time to brush up on that genre’s masterpieces.

(As far as we can tell, the ISBN for the hardcover version containing Robinson’s introduction is 9780679600176.)

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An interview between Marilynne Robinson and George B. Handley in Humanities, a publication of the Brigham Young University College of Humanities. Although the interview took place in 2011 in Salt Lake City, it appears it is just now being published.

As usual, there are many good excepts; this one, on knowledge of others:

I think that lots of us love other people, which overrides the difficulties that are always involved in knowing other people. I think sometimes we intuitively know people much, much more profoundly than we could articulate any knowledge of them. Sometimes people we know very briefly in very bracketed circumstances are people we can feel that we know.

And this, on narrative:

I think we make narrative because we are narrative-making creatures. We enjoy it because we are narrative-enjoying creatures. We weep over the fates of people who don’t exist because for some reason or other they’re paradigmatic for us or they populate our souls, simply because they’re mediated to us through language. This is amazing.

And finally, this piece on fiction, which feels appropriate in the light of Lila’s imminence:

I think fiction should be deeply felt. I think it should aspire to integrity in its own terms. I think it should assume that, like language itself, it’s more brilliant as a phenomenon than it is brilliant in any individual intention.

The latter quote is a working summary of Robinson’s fiction: Deeply felt and aspiring to integrity on its own terms.

Our thanks to reader Robbie Taggert for sending this link. (The link is to an Issuu edition of the magazine; you may need Flash installed on your computer, or the Issuu app on your mobile device, to read the content.)

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Fresh off the FSG Work in Progress site is a brief excerpt of ‘Lila’.

Lila, homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, steps inside a small-town Iowa church—the only available shelter from the rain—and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins a new existence while trying to make sense of the life that preceded her newfound security.

Neglected as a toddler, Lila was rescued by Doll, a canny young drifter, and brought up by her in a hardscrabble childhood. Together they crafted a life on the run, living hand to mouth with nothing but their sisterly bond and a ragged blade to protect them. Despite bouts of petty violence and moments of desperation, their shared life was laced with moments of joy and love. When Lila arrives in Gilead, she struggles to reconcile the life of her makeshift family and their days of hardship with the gentle Christian worldview of her husband which paradoxically judges those she loves.

Revisiting the beloved characters and setting of Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Gilead and Home, a National Book Award finalist, Lila is a moving expression of the mysteries of existence that is destined to become an American classic.

Our thanks to Dr. Jennifer Holberg for the tip.

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One of the areas where we expect significant growth in the coming years is the academic study of Robinson’s work. The magnitude of her literary influence being a given, it’s only a matter of time before the floodgates of scholarship open.

In keeping with that, reader Ross Melanson sends us a paper he delivered to the MLA annual convention in 2008, in which he surveys the foundations and motivations of her work, particularly with regard to her Calvinism:

In terms of motive, Robinson’s theology of openness seeks to redress the warping, hardening, and contracting of systems of belief systemic within her own era and she is motivated by the desire to revitalize the authenticity of the initial impetus for them. It also seeks to question the sense of conclusion in much of modern American thought.

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Many more details about Lila are out now since we’ve last updated—including the beautifully designed cover.

Most importantly, the book will be released on Tuesday, October 7, 2014. Mark your calendars and get in line now! As with every time Robinson releases a new book, we encourage you to buy your copy from a local, independent bookstore.

Review copies are now circulating to a fortunate few. (We haven’t received a review copy; if you’re in a position to do something about this, please do get in touch.) There are a few reviews out already, most notably the review from Publishers Weekly, which describes it as “a masterpiece of prose in the service of the moral seriousness that distinguishes Robinson’s work.” A. O. Scott’s review from the New York Times Book Review is excerpted online, but presumably embargoed until closer to the book’s release date.

Like you, we look forward with great anticipation to this new novel—what is sure to be a forthcoming feast of fine prose.

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Just what it says on the tin. A question-and-answer interview with Sarah Pulliam Bailey at Religion News Service:

In an interview, Pultizer-prize winning writer Marilynne Robinson explained why she thinks Christians are fearful, why she loves John Calvin and whether she’ll join Twitter.

In response to the question, “What kinds of fear do you see in Christians today,” Robinson answers:

“I do think in both cases it’s a little bit un-Christian to have thinking and behavior governed by fear.”

Perhaps of most interest to the modern audience, Bailey asks, “Are you going to get on Twitter anytime soon?” Robinson responds:

I don’t have anything to with any of that.

Thank God.

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A surprisingly enthusiastic review of Flannery O’Connor’s recently recovered journals. Robinson has complained of O’Connor’s influence in the past, but this piece shows another side to her thinking on the century’s greatest writer of short horror stories. 

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More love for Robinson from another thoughtful blogger at The American Conservative, in this case Rod Dreher. He finishes with a great question:

Question for the room: if you are someone who counts yourself as a conservative or traditionalist religious believer, are there any voices from the liberals in your faith that you take seriously, and listen to? Likewise, if you are a liberal within your faith tradition, are there any conservative or traditionalist voices that speak to you, and serve to challenge you in a constructive way? If so, who are they, and what is it about them that captures your attention and respect?

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Thoughtful post by Robert Long on “Why Marilynne Robinson’s literary—and liberal—Calvinism appeals,” courtesy of The American Conservative, AKA “The only conservative political magazine I have ever actually enjoyed reading.” 

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Hot on the heels of this week’s fourth-novel news, Nick Moran at The Millions reports Marilynne Robinson has not one but two new books in the works—the second, a book about the Old Testament:

“Marilynne Robinson is at work on a book about the Old Testament[…]. Word on the street is that it won’t come out until after she finishes Lila, her third book set in the Gilead universe.”

We’ve heard talk of a Old Testament book before, so this news isn’t greatly surprising. Even so, it’s good to know that Robinson continues her prodigious and prolific writing apace, and we look forward to reading whatever new books of hers come along.

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Marilynne’s Robinson fourth novel will be called Lila, and tell the story of John Ames’ second wife.

We’ve been waiting for this news for two years. The announcement comes via Jane Ciabattari and a few others on Twitter:

LILA, new novel coming from @bookcritics winner Marilynne Robinson: about homeless young woman who arrives mysteriously in Gilead

— jane ciabattari (@janeciab)

September 10, 2013

As it turns out, the title was originally leaked on Facebook by Robinson’s literary agency over a year ago.

As readers of Gilead will remember, Lila is Ames’s second wife. (Ames’s first wife, Louisa, died during childbirth, along with his newborn daughter Rebecca.) Lila first appears at the back of Ames’s church in Gilead on Pentecost Sunday while he is preaching. She eventually proposes to him, which he calls “the most thrilling thing that every happened to me in my life.”

Very little of Lila’s story, or the means by which she arrived in Gilead, is revealed in either Gilead or Home, making it possible that Robinson always intended to develop her character more fully in a separate novel. It’s unknown to us yet whether or not Lila will take place principally in the town of Gilead, as was the case with Home, or whether its setting will vary.

That’s all we know right now, but rest assured we’ll be searching for more details and will share them as we get them.

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A piece we linked a few days ago by Tom Montgomery Fate alluded to an interview Fate had done with Marilynne Robinson several years ago. Lo and behold, we missed it.

In this 2006 interview from Sojourners, Robinson and Fate discuss Gilead, religion and writing, and many other topics. To draw out one answer in particular:

“[T]here isn’t any necessary relation between the scope of one’s mind and where they live. Ames is highly educated. He knows what books to read, he knows what’s going on in the world, and thus is intellectually sophisticated. A life lived well is never wasted no matter what the scale of that life is.”

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Author Tom Montgomery Fate has a lovely piece in this morning’s Chicago Tribune reflecting on Gilead and the life of pastors. Fate’s own father, it turns out, was Robinson’s pastor for a time.

In addition to Fate’s reflection, which is worthy of your time on its own, he points out that Robinson eulogized his father Russ Fate in the Iowa City Press-Citizen. While that link is behind a paywall, Tom Fate excerpts a worthwhile quote from it in his own article. Robinson, on pastors:

There is no way of reckoning the value good pastors bring to the lives and communities that are privileged to know them, or the extent of their influence, which is usually quiet, unfolding over time.

To our friends and colleagues who are pastors: This is for you.

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The weekend after being awarded a medal by the President, Marilynne Robinson was back home in Iowa City, preaching at her church on the lectionary text, Amos 7:7–17 and Luke 10:25–37. In this sermon, she considers the parable of the Good Samaritan:

“The impulse to be kind manifest in the parable of the Good Samaritan is a human impulse, rarer than it ought to be and beautiful wherever it finds expression. Christians can know that they honor God Himself whenever they honor another human being, showing that they understand the value of his or her dignity, life, peace and safety. Jesus, man of sorrows, Son of Man, gives us most explicit instruction on this point. If we fail in our reverence toward others, it is not because we don’t know better.”

And she continues:

“The revelation we are given in Matthew’s parable of the Great Judgment is not simply that heaven blesses acts of mercy, but something vastly more astounding, that Christ is present in those who are vulnerable to our oppression or neglect, and that Christ feels and remembers in his own person every kindness that is done to them. It is not the pathos of the world but its profound sacredness that is shown to us. At issue in our parable is not how the word neighbor is to be understood, but what is meant by the word love. That one verb expresses the right relation of ourselves to God and of ourselves to whomever circumstance puts in our way.”

Our sincere thanks to Ethel Bloesch for sending us this link.

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