Author Marilynne Robinson went viral recently when an interview of her by President Obama appeared in the New York Review of Books. Obama, it turns out, is a huge Robinson fan, particularly of her last two novels, Gilead and Lila. The president allowed as how he met her at an awards ceremony at the White House and subsequently had dinner with her and a great conversation which led him to want to do the interview. He told her he had fallen in love with the main character in both books, Pastor John Ames.
On Oct. 27 Robinson will publish a book of essays The Givenness of Things, about contemporary society, religion, and culture. President Obama particularly liked the essay about fear, or as he describes it, “fear and the role that fear may be playing in our politics and our democracy and our culture,” as he describes the way she looks at it “through the prism of Christianity.”
Read Full Article »