Some readers and critics have described Robinson as an old fashioned 19th century novelist in modern clothing, and it’s only because of the sheer poetic, crystal quiet beauty of her prose, they say this without the usual cynical sneer. ‘Housekeeping’ carries the most poignant lament for a lost sibling, since Tennessee Williams wrote ‘The Glass Menagerie’.

Twenty five years is a long time to wait, even if you didn’t know you were waiting.

‘Gilead’, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, is not a lament, but it is full of longing. It’s the last farewell from a dying old man, to his impossibly young son.

Reverend John Ames, third generation preacher, describes his pacifist father and his bloodied grandfather’s troubled relationship in Kansas, during the struggle for abolition and the ensuing American Civil War. In the telling, reverent Ames reveals his anxious fear of a younger namesake, John Ames, named in honour of him years ago by his best friend, who has returned to the small community in Iowa, like a prodigal son as possible suitor and rival father to the Reverend’s young wife and his son.

Robinson balances this very personal and yet still metaphorical story with exquisite prose, attentive to landscape and history. It is a very American story, a good distance away from the brutal pyrotechnics of the modern American urban novel. It reveals the spiritual America we’ve nearly forgotten, the heartland in the heartland.

If it appears old fashioned, it is only because it is written as the very best books are, with one voice for one reader.

Note - “Housekeeping” was released as a film in 1987, beautifully filmed and directed by Bill Forsyth, it was criminally tagged and promoted as a “comedy”.

Mark Gallacher was born in 1967, the youngest of seven children, and grew up in Girvan, a small town on the west coast of Scotland. The sea at his front door, the Ayrshire hills at the back. His father died in a traffic accident when he was five years old. He graduated from Dundee College of Technology and moved to England and worked in Manchester for a number of years. He returned to Scotland and lived in Edinburgh. In 1999, crazy with love, he moved to Denmark to live with his Danish girlfriend. They have one son. They are still crazy. His pamphlet of poetry, ‘More Than A Dedication’ was published by Envoi Poets Publication - “profoundly moving” - Chapman Magazine; “haunting poems that deserve to be read and re-read”- New Hope International. To read Mark's story, 'Grace Williams' on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2004 Laura Hird All rights reserved.