A minor

I haven't read much Trollope. I borrowed The Warden twice from the library and honestly can't remember if I finished it. (I tend to think not, but maybe so. Guess I need to check it out a third time in either case...)

Anyway, I haven't read much Trollope, and I've read even less Marilynne Robinson, but I'm interested in her new book, Home. Something makes me think she's continuing the tradition of Trollope and, more recently and perhaps more pulpishly, of Susan Howatch in writing clergy and "family saga-type novels which describe the lives of related characters for long periods of time fiction."

I read and enjoyed all of Howatch's church novels (the Starbridge series and St Benet's trilogy). A while back, I listened to the first few chapters of Robinson's Gilead on tape and just couldn't get into it at the time. I'll eventually give it another try. But I'm thinking of trying Home first.

Here are two articles that have whetted my appetite (thanks to Pastor Tom Clark of Tri-City Church & Academy in Somersworth, NH):

"Return of the Prodigal Son" by A. O. Scott in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, September 19, 2008
"At 'Home' With the Past: In Life and In Her Novels, Marilynne Robinson Looks Back to Find Meaning" by Bob Thompson in The Washington Post, Monday, October 20, 2008, Page C01

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Related post: "Clerical Fiction," which links to John Barach's post of the same title, which links to Lauren Winner's article, "Mitford Rules: Jan Karon and the clerical novel" (Books & Culture, Nov/Dec 2005, Volume 11, Issue 6), which mentions Trollope, Howatch, and Robinson all in the same sentence.