Housekeeping

 

By Marilynne Robinson

The scene: a small rural railroad town. A terrible train crash occurs near the town that kills several people, including the spouse of Sylvia, leaving her to raise her three daughters alone. One daughter, Helen, leaves town and has two daughters of her own, Ruth and Lucille. She returns to her home town and to her mother, Sylvia, after her husband abandons her. Leaving the girls with her mother, she kills herself. 

Sylvia is an old lady and not the most affectionate of grandmothers. She drops dead and her dead husband's two elderly sisters move into the grandmother's house to take care of Ruth and Lucille. But they are spinsters and not used to children and so they send for Sylvia's nearest daughter, Sylvie. 

Sylvie is a vagrant. She never settles for long in one place and her preferred mode of transportation is to simply hop on a freight train. She's a bum, in other words. Probably not the best person to be in charge of two young children. Once she moves back into her childhood home, she sort of takes care of the two girls. But meals are irregular and the kids are pretty much in charge of themselves. It's obvious that Sylvie is disconnected from reality in a way that is a danger to the children. Ruth accepts this strange neglectful parenting but Lucille, who has her feet more firmly planted on the ground than her older sister, wants out. She eventually moves in with one of her teachers, leaving Ruth to the erratic attentions of their Aunt Sylvie. Over time Sylvie draws Ruth into her vagrant lifestyle and they leave town together to avoid Ruth being taken away for her own good. 

I didn't like this book. My sympathies were totally with Lucille and I found Sylvie creepy and selfish. The same with Helen who kills herself rather than try to raise her two daughters on her own. About the only thing I will remember about this book was how much I didn't like it. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.