A Political Companion To Marilynne Robinson

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A Political Companion to Marilynne Robinson

Author : Shannon L. Mariotti
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813167787
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis A Political Companion to Marilynne Robinson by : Shannon L. Mariotti

Download or read book A Political Companion to Marilynne Robinson written by Shannon L. Mariotti and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2016-11-08 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marilynne Robinson is arguably one of the most important writers of our time. Her voice resonates across the richly imagined American landscapes within which she grounds her stories of love and loss, alienation and belonging, injustice and redemption. Robinson's award-winning body of work -- including Gilead, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Home, winner of the Orange Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award -- has cultivated admiration all over the world, offering readers new and profound interpretations of the meanings of transience, presence, convention, and resistance. In A Political Companion to Marilynne Robinson, Shannon L. Mariotti and Joseph H. Lane Jr. assemble both rising and established political theorists to explore the juxtaposition of Robinson's nonfiction works and her novels, and to examine their connections to contemporary political issues. The collection analyzes Robinson's writings on American democracy, community, and freedom, and it includes an engrossing interview with the author specifically conducted for this volume. From an exploration of the democratic potential in being a "housekeeper of homelessness" to a study of models of action against racial injustice, this volume provides fascinating new insights into Robinson's work and how it reflects and reassesses American political culture and theory.

A Political Companion to Flannery O'Connor

Author : Henry T. Edmondson III
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813169410
Total Pages : 398 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis A Political Companion to Flannery O'Connor by : Henry T. Edmondson III

Download or read book A Political Companion to Flannery O'Connor written by Henry T. Edmondson III and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2017-07-21 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed author and Catholic thinker Flannery O'Connor (1925--1964) penned two novels, two collections of short stories, various essays, and numerous book reviews over the course of her life. Her work continues to fascinate, perplex, and inspire new generations of readers and poses important questions about human nature, ethics, social change, equality, and justice. Although political philosophy was not O'Connor's pursuit, her writings frequently address themes that are not only crucial to American life and culture, but also offer valuable insight into the interplay between fiction and politics. A Political Companion to Flannery O'Connor explores the author's fiction, prose, and correspondence to reveal her central ideas about political thought in America. The contributors address topics such as O'Connor's affinity with writers and philosophers including Eric Voegelin, Edith Stein, Russell Kirk, and the Agrarians; her attitudes toward the civil rights movement; and her thoughts on controversies over eugenics. Other essays in the volume focus on O'Connor's influences, the principles underlying her fiction, and the value of her work for understanding contemporary intellectual life and culture. Examining the political context of O'Connor's life and her responses to the critical events and controversies of her time, this collection offers meaningful interpretations of the political significance of this influential writer's work.

When I Was a Child I Read Books

Author : Marilynne Robinson
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374709416
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis When I Was a Child I Read Books by : Marilynne Robinson

Download or read book When I Was a Child I Read Books written by Marilynne Robinson and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2012-03-13 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marilynne Robinson has built a sterling reputation as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, not only as a major American novelist, but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In When I Was a Child I Read Books she returns to and expands upon the themes which have preoccupied her work with renewed vigor. In "Austerity as Ideology," she tackles the global debt crisis, and the charged political and social political climate in this country that makes finding a solution to our financial troubles so challenging. In "Open Thy Hand Wide" she searches out the deeply embedded role of generosity in Christian faith. And in "When I Was a Child," one of her most personal essays to date, an account of her childhood in Idaho becomes an exploration of individualism and the myth of the American West. Clear-eyed and forceful as ever, Robinson demonstrates once again why she is regarded as one of our essential writers.

Lila (Oprah's Book Club)

Author : Marilynne Robinson
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374709084
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis Lila (Oprah's Book Club) by : Marilynne Robinson

Download or read book Lila (Oprah's Book Club) written by Marilynne Robinson and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award National Book Award Finalist A new American classic from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gilead and Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson, one of the greatest novelists of our time, returns to the town of Gilead in an unforgettable story of a girlhood lived on the fringes of society in fear, awe, and wonder. 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.

The Death of Adam

Author : Marilynne Robinson
Publisher : Picador
ISBN 13 : 1466866535
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis The Death of Adam by : Marilynne Robinson

Download or read book The Death of Adam written by Marilynne Robinson and published by Picador. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this award-winning collection, the bestselling author of Gilead offers us other ways of thinking about history, religion, and society. Whether rescuing "Calvinism" and its creator Jean Cauvin from the repressive "puritan" stereotype, or considering how the McGuffey readers were inspired by Midwestern abolitionists, or the divide between the Bible and Darwinism, Marilynne Robinson repeatedly sends her reader back to the primary texts that are central to the development of American culture but little read or acknowledged today. A passionate and provocative celebration of ideas, the old arts of civilization, and life's mystery, The Death of Adam is, in the words of Robert D. Richardson, Jr., "a grand, sweeping, blazing, brilliant, life-changing book."

The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction

Author : Daniel O'Gorman
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134743777
Total Pages : 629 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (347 download)

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Book Synopsis The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction by : Daniel O'Gorman

Download or read book The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction written by Daniel O'Gorman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 629 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of contemporary fiction is a fascinating yet challenging one. Contemporary fiction has immediate relevance to popular culture, the news, scholarly organizations, and education – where it is found on the syllabus in schools and universities – but it also offers challenges. What is ‘contemporary’? How do we track cultural shifts and changes? The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction takes on this challenge, mapping key literary trends from the year 2000 onwards, as the landscape of our century continues to take shape around us. A significant and central intervention into contemporary literature, this Companion offers essential coverage of writers who have risen to prominence since then, such as Hari Kunzru, Jennifer Egan, David Mitchell, Jonathan Lethem, Ali Smith, A. L. Kennedy, Hilary Mantel, Marilynne Robinson, and Colson Whitehead. Thirty-eight essays by leading and emerging international scholars cover topics such as: • Identity, including race, sexuality, class, and religion in the twenty-first century; • The impact of technology, terrorism, activism, and the global economy on the modern world and modern literature; • The form and format of twenty-first century literary fiction, including analysis of established genres such as the pastoral, graphic novels, and comedic writing, and how these have been adapted in recent years. Accessible to experts, students, and general readers, The Routledge Companion to Twenty-First Century Literary Fiction provides a map of the critical issues central to the discipline, as well as uncovering new perspectives and new directions for the development of the field. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of contemporary literature.

A Political Companion to W. E. B. Du Bois

Author : Nick Bromell
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813174929
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis A Political Companion to W. E. B. Du Bois by : Nick Bromell

Download or read book A Political Companion to W. E. B. Du Bois written by Nick Bromell and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2018-03-16 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary scholars and historians have long considered W. E. B. Du Bois (1868--1963) an extremely influential writer and a powerful cultural critic. The author of more than one hundred books, hundreds of published articles, and founding editor of the NAACP journal The Crisis, Du Bois has been widely studied for his profound insights on the politics of race and class in America. An activist as well as a scholar, Du Bois proclaimed, "I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy." In A Political Companion to W. E. B. Du Bois, Nick Bromell assembles essays from both new and established scholars from a variety of disciplines to explore Du Bois's contributions to American political thought. The contributors establish a conceptual context within which to read the author, revealing how richly and variously he engaged with the aesthetic and theological modalities of political thinking and action. This volume further reveals how Du Bois's work challenges and revises contemporary political theory, providing commentary on the author's strengths and limitations as a theorist for the twenty-first century. In doing so, it helps readers gain an understanding of how Du Bois's work and life continue to stimulate lively and constructive debate about the theory and practice of democracy in America.

A Political Companion to James Baldwin

Author : Susan J. McWilliams
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813169925
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis A Political Companion to James Baldwin by : Susan J. McWilliams

Download or read book A Political Companion to James Baldwin written by Susan J. McWilliams and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In seminal works such as Go Tell It on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, and The Fire Next Time, acclaimed author and social critic James Baldwin (1924--1987) expresses his profound belief that writers have the power to transform society, to engage the public, and to inspire and channel conversation to achieve lasting change. While Baldwin is best known for his writings on racial consciousness and injustice, he is also one of the country's most eloquent theorists of democratic life and the national psyche. In A Political Companion to James Baldwin, a group of prominent scholars assess the prolific author's relevance to present-day political challenges. Together, they address Baldwin as a democratic theorist, activist, and citizen, examining his writings on the civil rights movement, religion, homosexuality, and women's rights. They investigate the ways in which his work speaks to and galvanizes a collective American polity, and explore his views on the political implications of individual experience in relation to race and gender. This volume not only considers Baldwin's works within their own historical context, but also applies the author's insights to recent events such as the Obama presidency and the Black Lives Matter movement, emphasizing his faith in the connections between the past and present. These incisive essays will encourage a new reading of Baldwin that celebrates his significant contributions to political and democratic theory.

A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass

Author : Neil Roberts
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813175631
Total Pages : 426 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass by : Neil Roberts

Download or read book A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass written by Neil Roberts and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2018-06-29 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A splendid opportunity to rethink Douglass’s political thought . . . relevant today given the discourse of white nationalism in the United States.” —Choice Frederick Douglass was a writer and public speaker whose impact on America has been long studied by historians and literary critics. Yet as political theorists have focused on the legacies of such notables as W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, Douglass’s profound influence on Afro-modern and American political thought has often been undervalued. In an effort to fill this gap in the scholarship on Douglass, editor Neil Roberts and an exciting group of established and rising scholars examine the author’s autobiographies, essays, speeches, and novella. Together, they illuminate his genius for analyzing and articulating core American ideals such as independence, liberation, individualism, and freedom, particularly in the context of slavery. The contributors explore Douglass’s understanding of the self-made American and the way in which he expanded the notion of individual potential by arguing that citizens had a responsibility to improve not only their own situations but also those of their communities. A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass also considers the idea of agency, investigating Douglass’s passionate insistence that every person in a democracy, even a slave, possesses an innate ability to act. Various essays illuminate Douglass’s complex racial politics, deconstructing what seems at first to be his surprising aversion to racial pride, and others explore and critique concepts of masculinity, gender, and judgment in his oeuvre. The volume concludes with a discussion of Douglass’s contributions to pre- and post-Civil War jurisprudence. “Rich insights from scholarship both old and new. A fine collection.” —Political Theory

A Political Companion to Philip Roth

Author : Claudia Franziska Brühwiler
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813169291
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis A Political Companion to Philip Roth by : Claudia Franziska Brühwiler

Download or read book A Political Companion to Philip Roth written by Claudia Franziska Brühwiler and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2017-06-23 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philip Roth is widely acknowledged as one of the twentieth century's most prolific and acclaimed writers. Roth's first novel, Goodbye, Columbus (1959), received the National Book Award, and he followed this stunning debut with more than thirty books -- earning another National Book Award, two National Book Critics Circle awards, three PEN/Faulkner Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. Throughout his career, Roth delighted in controversy but often denied that he sought a role as a public intellectual. His statements and vigorous support of suppressed writers in communist Czechoslovakia, however, tell a different story. In A Political Companion to Philip Roth, established and rising scholars explore the myriad political themes in the author's work. Several of the contributors examine Roth's writings on Jewish identity, Zionism, and American attitudes toward Israel, as well as the influence of his work in other countries. Others investigate Roth's articulation of the roles of gender and sexuality in US culture. This interdisciplinary examination offers a more complete portrait of Roth as a public intellectual and cultural icon. Not only will it fill a gap in scholarship, but it will also provide a broader perspective on the nature and purpose of the acclaimed writer's political thought.

ETHICAL REALISM: NUMINOUS VISIONARY EXPERIENCE IN MARILYNNE ROBINSON'S SELECT WORKS

Author : Dr. M. HERMINA
Publisher : Ashok Yakkaldevi
ISBN 13 : 1312661259
Total Pages : 205 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (126 download)

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Book Synopsis ETHICAL REALISM: NUMINOUS VISIONARY EXPERIENCE IN MARILYNNE ROBINSON'S SELECT WORKS by : Dr. M. HERMINA

Download or read book ETHICAL REALISM: NUMINOUS VISIONARY EXPERIENCE IN MARILYNNE ROBINSON'S SELECT WORKS written by Dr. M. HERMINA and published by Ashok Yakkaldevi. This book was released on 2023-04-24 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American writing in English has been acclaimed around the world for its radical innovative approaches towards, novel writing. The American writers match with the pace of the world, with their individuality, creativity and ideology. The women novelists are recognized from their originality and versatility of their works. They mirror the realistic picture of their contemporary world with the revolutionary spirit. These women writers have shaped their literary endeavors to establish American literature as an inextricable part and have highlighted the new dimension and depth of American fiction. The twentieth century novelists have played a noteworthy part in modern fiction and have viewed the society from a realistic attitude and humanistic concern. Philosophy, psychology and theology frame the method of characterization and plots. The American culture is presented at the exploration of the psychological state of human mind. They portray individuality within the social and political realities especially among the familial relationships. According to feminist writers, their writing is a process of discovering reality and an attempt to fathom and communicate the true significance of humanity.

Absence of Mind

Author : Marilynne Robinson
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300166478
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Absence of Mind by : Marilynne Robinson

Download or read book Absence of Mind written by Marilynne Robinson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-25 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought—science, religion, and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, Absence of Mind challenges postmodern atheists who crusade against religion under the banner of science. In Robinson’s view, scientific reasoning does not denote a sense of logical infallibility, as thinkers like Richard Dawkins might suggest. Instead, in its purest form, science represents a search for answers. It engages the problem of knowledge, an aspect of the mystery of consciousness, rather than providing a simple and final model of reality.By defending the importance of individual reflection, Robinson celebrates the power and variety of human consciousness in the tradition of William James. She explores the nature of subjectivity and considers the culture in which Sigmund Freud was situated and its influence on his model of self and civilization. Through keen interpretations of language, emotion, science, and poetry, Absence of Mind restores human consciousness to its central place in the religion-science debate.

Housekeeping

Author : Marilynne Robinson
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1250060656
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis Housekeeping by : Marilynne Robinson

Download or read book Housekeeping written by Marilynne Robinson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house is in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transience."--

Marilynne Robinson

Author : Rachel Sykes
Publisher : Manchester University Press
ISBN 13 : 1526134675
Total Pages : 168 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis Marilynne Robinson by : Rachel Sykes

Download or read book Marilynne Robinson written by Rachel Sykes and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-29 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best known for a trilogy of historical novels set in the fictional town of Gilead, Iowa, Marilynne Robinson is a prolific writer, teacher, and public speaker, who has won the Pulitzer Prize and was awarded the National Humanities Medal by Barack Obama. This collection intervenes in Robinson’s growing critical reputation, pointing to new and exciting links between the author, the historical settings of her novels, and the contemporary themes of her fictional, educational, and theoretical work. Introduced by a critical discussion from Professors Bridget Bennett, Sarah Churchwell, and Richard King, Marilynne Robinson features analysis from a range of international academics, and explores debates in race, gender, environment, critical theory, and more, to suggest new and innovative readings of her work.

Jack (Oprah's Book Club)

Author : Marilynne Robinson
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374719659
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis Jack (Oprah's Book Club) by : Marilynne Robinson

Download or read book Jack (Oprah's Book Club) written by Marilynne Robinson and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller Named a Best Book of 2020 by the Australian Book Review, AV Club, Books-a-Million, Electric Literature, Esquire, the Financial Times, Good Housekeeping (UK), The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Literary Hub, the New Statesman, the New York Public Library, NPR, the Star Tribune, and TIME Marilynne Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, returns to the world of Gilead with Jack, the latest novel in one of the great works of contemporary American fiction Marilynne Robinson’s mythical world of Gilead, Iowa—the setting of her novels Gilead, Home, and Lila, and now Jack—and its beloved characters have illuminated and interrogated the complexities of American history, the power of our emotions, and the wonders of a sacred world. Jack is Robinson’s fourth novel in this now-classic series. In it, Robinson tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the prodigal son of Gilead’s Presbyterian minister, and his romance with Della Miles, a high school teacher who is also the child of a preacher. Their deeply felt, tormented, star-crossed interracial romance resonates with all the paradoxes of American life, then and now. Robinson’s Gilead novels, which have won one Pulitzer Prize and two National Book Critics Circle Awards, are a vital contribution to contemporary American literature and a revelation of our national character and humanity.

Marilynne Robinson, Theologian of the Ordinary

Author : Andrew Cunning
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1501359002
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Marilynne Robinson, Theologian of the Ordinary by : Andrew Cunning

Download or read book Marilynne Robinson, Theologian of the Ordinary written by Andrew Cunning and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2020-12-10 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marilynne Robinson, Theologian of the Ordinary posits that Robinson's widely celebrated novels and essays are best understood as emerging from a foundational theology that has 'the Ordinary' as its source. Reading Robinson's published work, and drawing on an original interview with Robinson, Andrew Cunning constructs an authentically Robinsonian theology that is at once distinctly American and conversant with contemporary continental philosophy of religion. This book demonstrates that the Ordinary is the source of Robinson's writing and, as a phenomenon that opens onto a surplus of meaning, is where Robinson's notion of transcendence emerges. Robinson's theology is one centered on the material reality of the world and on the subjective nature of one's encounter with oneself and the physical stuff of existence. Arguing that the Ordinary demands an artistic response, this book reads Robinson's fiction as her theological response to the surplus of meaning in ordinary experience. Under the themes of grace, language, time and self, Cunning locates the ordinary, everyday grounding of Robinson's metaphysics.

The Elusive Everyday in the Fiction of Marilynne Robinson

Author : Laura E. Tanner
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192650211
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (926 download)

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Book Synopsis The Elusive Everyday in the Fiction of Marilynne Robinson by : Laura E. Tanner

Download or read book The Elusive Everyday in the Fiction of Marilynne Robinson written by Laura E. Tanner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-08 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Framing Marilynne Robinson's fiction within the dynamics of everyday life, this study highlights the tensions of form and content that haunt moments of transcendence in her work. Robinson's novels, it argues, construct a world that is mimetic as well as symbolic and revelatory. Although the heightened apprehension of the quotidian in Robinson's novels often registers powerfully and beautifully in representational terms, its aesthetic intensity is enacted at the expense of characters who patrol the margins of the ordinary with unceasing vigilance. Inhabiting the everyday self-consciously, her protagonists perform a forced relationship to the ordinary that seldom relaxes into the natural or the familiar; scarred by grief, illness, aging, and trauma, they inhabit a world of transcendent beauty suffused with the terrifying threat of loss. Stiffly perched on the edge of un-cushioned furniture or propped awkwardly in the midst of someone else's conversation, Robinson's characters hover in the margins of a lived experience they are often forced to observe self-consciously and vigilantly. The signature acts of transfiguration that punctuate Robinson's narratives originate from and anticipate the inevitability of absence: the death of loved ones (Housekeeping), the impending death of the self (Gilead), the fracture of family (Home), the repetition of trauma and abandonment (Lila), the prohibition of everyday intimacy in interracial romance (Jack). Highlighting the tensions of the uncomfortable ordinary that disrupt a trajectory of transcendence in her fiction, this book situates Robinson's novels within sociological, psychological, and phenomenological studies of trauma, grief, aging, race, and gender, as well as narrative theory and everyday life studies. Focusing on the experiential dynamics of the lived worlds her novels invoke, The Elusive Everyday argues for the complexity, relevance, and contemporaneity of Robinson's fiction.