What are We Doing Here?

`An intellectual autobiography - a starchy, ardent and, on occasion, surprisingly personal account of what it means to be the custodian of one's conscience in a world saturated with orthodoxies.In other words, it's a passionate treatment of one of Robinson's longtime preoccupations. A dying reverend instructs his young son in "Gilead," her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel: "The Lord gave you a mind so that you would make honest use of it. I'm saying you must be sure that the doubts and questions are your own not, so to speak, the moustache and walking stick that happen to be the fashion of any particular moment." [Here is] a repudiation... of powerful ideologies of any stripe that simplify the world' New York TimesWhether she is investigating the work of great thinkers or discussing the way that beauty informs and disciplines daily life, in these brilliant essays Marilynne Robinson impels us to action and offers hope. ` Hope is to be distinguished "very sharply" from optimism, which is not in abundant supply in these essays. "Hope is loyalty." Robinson urges her audience to stand by what makes us human - "creative, knowing, efficacious, deeply capable of loyalty". The argument is sophisticated and persuasive' Guardian`Bracing, stringent ... continually challenges' Telegraph