Book Summary and Reviews of Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson

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Cathryn Conroy

Examining Genesis as Literature: Not an Easy Read but a Profound One
What this book is: Literary criticism of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
What this book is not: A theological or religious analysis of the Book of Genesis.

Every student of literature, no matter that person's religion or lack thereof, should read the Bible—as a great work of literature, not necessarily as religion. And it should be read more than once. So many prized works of literature—from Shakespeare to Steinbeck—reference passages and people in the Bible. If you haven't read the Bible as a piece of literature, you probably won't understand those references.

In this profound book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson, has written what is essentially a long essay of literary criticism, analyzing the Book of Genesis for its plot, characters, themes, and symbolism. Most important, she analyzes the big stories (and some of the smaller ones) in terms of their political and historical context and importance, delving into their meaning and perspective—as literature.

For example, she demonstrates how much of the book Genesis is what is called a "pastiche" in literature; that is, it imitates and reinvents similar stories from other ancient traditions, such as the two Creation narratives and the Flood, which were also part of the myths of Canaan and Babylonia. She views the Flood as a parable about how we humans ruined the world so much that God may have been tempted to fully destroy it, but He didn't. She shows how the main characters, such as Cain and Abraham, are deeply flawed but still beloved by God. Robinson insists that Abraham following God's word to sacrifice Isaac was actually an admonition against child sacrifice, a common practice in some ancient cultures. Forgiveness and grace are the predominant themes of Genesis. Other literary devices she explores include literary structure, parallelism, repetition, framing devices, and paradox.

All 50 chapters of the Book of Genesis, published in the traditional King James Version, follow the essay. I read the essay over five days, and during each of those days, I also read 10 chapters of Genesis, which more or less allowed me to keep current with the essay's topics.

If you're looking for a more religious analysis of Genesis, move on. This isn't your book. But if you want to better understand the first book of the Bible as literature—and, therefore, references from Genesis in major literary works—dive right in. Just know this. It's not an easy read. Instead, it's an erudite study, worthy of graduate school study in English, not theology.

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