Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2024-03-05
Ezra Klein & Marilynne Robinson: books mentioned on The Ezra Klein Show
Marilynne Robinson on Biblical Beauty, Human Evil and the Idea of Israel
Ezra Klein recommended Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, and discussed Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. Marilynne Robinson recommended Piers Plowman by William Langland and Theologia Germanica by Susanna Winkworth, and discussed The Republic.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Gilead
Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning epistolary novel, Gilead, is a profound meditation on faith, family history, and grace, told through the extended letter of an aging Congregationalist minister to his young son.
Recommended“Marilyn Robinson is one of the great living novelists her book Gilead won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 200 five it is easily among my favorite novels if you have not read it you really should”
Where to get it
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Reading Genesis
Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson is a deeply contemplative non-fiction work in which the esteemed author offers a theological and literary interpretation of the biblical Book of Genesis.
Discussed“but her latest book book goes directly to the source it is called reading Genesis and it is exactly that it is Robinson's deep reading of the biblical Book of Genesis”
Where to get it
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Housekeeping
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson is a celebrated debut novel that explores themes of grief, transience, and the profound, haunting isolation experienced by two orphaned sisters raised by eccentric relatives in a remote Idaho town.
Discussed“um Gilead I think is very much this way it's very much uh a constant reminder to see what is around you that you'll write about something like laundry as you do in your book housekeeping and say something you know about this line of laundry”
Where to get it
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The Republic
Plato's foundational classical text "The Republic" explores justice, political structures, and the nature of reality.
Discussed“he's doing sort of what Plato does you know in the Republic he's creating an ideal culture that with very ancient features”
Where to get it
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Piers Plowman
Piers Plowman by William Langland is a monumental 14th-century English allegorical poem that explores Christian themes of truth, honesty, and the quest for a righteous life through a series of dream visions.
Recommended“and one of my favorite books is Pier Plowman William langland coming out of the 14th century I just finished reading the Theology of germanica which is an anonymous work 14th century written in German”
Where to get it
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Theologia Germanica
Theologia Germanica is an anonymous late fourteenth-century mystical treatise written in German that explores the union of the human soul with God through self-abandonment and pure love.
Recommended“and one of my favorite books is Pier Plowman William langland coming out of the 14th century I just finished reading the Theology of germanica which is an anonymous work 14th century written in German”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (3) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“but she has all these other beautiful books housekeeping lla Jack many many more”
“but she has all these other beautiful books housekeeping lla Jack many many more”
“but she has all these other beautiful books housekeeping lla Jack many many more”