Book Review: Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson

Reading Genesis 
By Marilynne Robinson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2024)
344 pp

Every author chooses how to tell a story by crafting narrative that targets a specific audience. In “Reading Genesis,” author Marilynne Robinson chose to spin a tale that is far above the reach of even the most sophisticated reader. Authors do not always choose a story. In some instances, the story chooses them, tormenting them with recurring thoughts during the day and unwanted dreams by night, giving authors no choice but to write the story. I think Ms. Robinson was possessed by the concept of the book of Genesis and had no choice but to write this story. And it is quite a story, a plodding literary analysis containing hundreds of archaic and little used words that sorely diminish the potential for anyone to understand what cannot be explained.

In the author’s attempt to explain the unexplained, I, the reader, am left weeping and gnashing my teeth. Robinson states, “As to causality, the text offers three models, each arguably sufficient—human experience, divine act and sacred history—which differs from history as it is usually understood in that it has all the reality of things passing or past irrespective of the fact that in particular may have not happened yet.” Does Robinson mean that the present or real time in the book of Genesis is omniscient story telling because whoever wrote the bible (one or several authors) already knew the ending? If the author of Genesis is indeed Him (God), then it’s okay to confuse readers further because mere mortals can never fully understand God’s nature, and only God should know or does know the story’s ending. Indeed!

Robinson asserts “the modern prejudice to associate theologically important narrative with folklore is often to diminish its capacity for meaning.” Finally, we are getting somewhere! Is Genesis truth, fiction or a powerful mythology aimed at providing life lessons to guide and instruct human beings? Robinson never resolves this question satisfactorily. We are to assume He (God) is the author of Genesis and many other biblical texts, including some from the New Testament. If the earthly and providential are separate in theory only, then why is there no cohesion here and so much confusion? In “Reading Genesis, Robinson does not achieve the confluence of human experience, divine actions and sacred history.

One truism does miraculously assert itself. God is so strong and merciful that He can allow space for “people to be who they are, for humanity to be what it is.” I’m taking this to mean that humans beings, as imperfect as they are, still enjoy the umbrella protection of divine providence. (The almighty welcomes us home no matter how far we have gone, no matter how far we have been lead astray.) The author does succeed in getting the reader to ponder the essence of creation, where “Love and grief are, in this infinite creation, things of the kind we share with God.” It is wonderful to think that no matter who we are or wherever we go, we are never alone; God is always with us. As Robinson noted, “The lord tells Jacob that He will be with him wherever he goes. All places are the same.” Embracing the essential truth of how—in our divine likenesses—we are valuable to God is a worthy, if not noble, exploration.