Let me repeat: thanks to you all for sending worries and good wishes while we endured our most recent storm. Once again we were--and are--lucky: we live in an old house built on high-ish ground (so no flooding); we had plenty of food; and we only lost power for 36 hours.
While I could have used my storm time to do something useful, mostly I read and dozed off. So did the other three people in my house: Mr FS, Frugal Son, and his friend Michael--the last two seeking refuge from New Orleans.
I did enjoy my reading. I finished Home by Marilynn Robinson. When I finished it, I realized I didn't remember the beginning very well, so I re-read the whole thing.
Home folds into Robinson's earlier Gilead in an interesting way. So I re-read Gilead too.
Then I decided to re-read Robinson's first novel Housekeeping, published more than 20 years before her second. Housekeeping is her most challenging--and overtly literary--novel, very allusive.
I needed some help with it. By that time, the power was on and I had the internet again. Believe it or not, you can watch a lecture by Yale professor Amy Hungerford on the novel. Wow! You too can experience an Ivy League education.
I learned a lot (and there are lectures on other works too). I was also comforted by the fact that the Yale students didn't seem any more prepared than mine do. Most hadn't read the book!
I hope everyone has a chance to take a look at these novels. They are wonderful.
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