When I Was A Child I Read Books
by Marilynne Robinson
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
78%
Critic Reviews: 35
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
86%
Reader Ratings: 62
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Synopsis
A thoughtful new collection of shrewdly written essays by the acclaimed author of Gilead, Home, and The Death of AdamEver since the 1981 publication of her stunning debut, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson has built a sterling reputation as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, not only as a major American novelist (her second novel, Gilead, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize) but also a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. Her compelling and demanding... more
About Marilynne Robinson
Published: March 13, 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Genre: Religion & Spirituality. Non-fiction. 224 pages
- All Critics: 35
- Positive: 28
- Negative: 7
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The New York Times | 20 Apr 2012
As one reads through her learned essays, a dash of leavening humor now and then would have been welcome. . .
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The Washington Post | 14 May 2012
Taut, eloquent and often acerbically funny. . .
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The Guardian | 8 Mar 2012
Robinson is adept at studying the small print and reading between the lines but she never forgets to look up at the stars.
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The Wall Street Journal | 3 Apr 2012
The greatest pleasures of this book are its provocations, which are inseparable from its prose.
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The Telegraph | 15 Mar 2012
...admirers of her novels who hope to find an equivalent clarity and authority in her essays may find them hard work.
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The Independent | 18 Mar 2012
Her rhetoric is of the gentle, thoughtful kind that nevertheless hides a rapier, which she unleashes just when she needs it.
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Chron.com | 10 Mar 2012
As a reader... you sense that the collective punch of these writings would be stronger if you shared her familiarity with Calvin, Walt Whitman, the Bible, John Frederick Oberlin, and so on.
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Review (Barnes & Noble) | 20 Mar 2012
It is impossible not to be fortified and enlarged by a few hundred pages in her company.
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Kansas City Star | 8 Mar 2012
...Robinson’s essays are occasionally clouded by a note of defensiveness.
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Denver Post | 25 Mar 2012
. . .overall the fascinating expression of a rooted and contrary mind.
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Book Reporter | 7 May 2012
Generous, humane and occasionally witty. . .and her new essay collection is a bracing display of all those character traits in abundance.
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The Globe and Mail | 13 Apr 2012
I read When I Was a Child I Read Books slowly, not only because I was savouring the books’ gorgeous language, but also because I had to ride out the swells of wonder that another human soul could express ideas as crystalline and beautiful as those in her book.
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Kirkus Reviews | 15 Dec 2011
Articulate and learned descriptions and defenses of the author's Christian faith.
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Commentary | 30 Mar 2012
The partisanship and intellectual negligence of When I Was a Child I Read Books is a pity
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New York Observer | 13 Mar 2012
Even when one disagrees with her, Ms. Robinson is always worth reading because she is as gifted a stylist as the English language has at present.
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Boston.com | 25 Mar 2012
...a glimmering, provocative collection of essays, each a rhetorically brilliant, deeply felt exploration of education, culture, and politics.
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Dallas News | 20 Apr 2012
. . .it’s a call to engage in greater empathy, modesty, generosity and compassion.
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Macleans | 19 Apr 2012
Throughout it all, Robinson—learned, humane and unfailingly civil—is a pleasure to read.
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Wichita Eagle | 25 Mar 2012
If you read “When I Was a Child,” be ready to have certain assumptions challenged and to think through important issues while enjoying a master of prose.
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The National | 11 May 2012
The effort required to relish the collected works presented here will be worth it.
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New Statesman | 26 Mar 2012
. . .light relief is welcome in arguments that are burdened at times by their high style and religious obfuscation.
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Financial Times | 23 Mar 2012
Robinson imbues ordinary, concrete details with grace. . .
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National Post | 16 Mar 2012
...a valuable contribution to public discourse in the United States.
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American Magazine
Marilynne Robinson may not be a prolific as some writers, but the rewards offered by her body of work are rich indeed.
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The Wilson Quarterly
One comes away from Robinson’s work with the sense that the life of the mind involves empathy and compassion as much as intellect.
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The Miami Herald | 16 Mar 2012
There is no room in Robinson’s writings for meanness, for invective.
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Publishers Weekly | 19 Dec 2011
Her project is a hard-edged liberalism, sustained by a Calvinist ethic of generosity.
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Scotsman.com | 13 Mar 2012
Her vision of a universe where irony is as ubiquitous as energy is profoundly appealing.
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The New York Times | 20 Apr 2012
...this collection is a rewarding reminder that the author’s faith infuses every word she writes.
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Christianity Today
The essays are tonic for our adoration-starved religious and scientific cultures, bracing in their critique and hope-giving in the alternative way of seeing that they open up for us.
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Kirkus Reviews | 15 Dec 2011
Robinson is a splendid writer, no question—erudite, often wise and slyly humorous
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NY Observer | 13 Mar 2012
It’s time to recognize that Ms. Robinson is also a thinker of the first order, one of the finest we have ever had.
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London Evening Standard | 8 Mar 2012
...she is an inspired monitor of the sublime — and a superlative writer of fiction.
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Shelf Love | 9 Apr 2012
I ended up enjoying these essays very much
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The Globe and Mail | 6 Sep 2012
I read...slowly, not only because I was savouring the books’ gorgeous language, but also because I had to ride out the swells of wonder that another human soul could express ideas as crystalline and beautiful as those in her book.
Full ReviewWhen I Was A Child I Read Books