It’s 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 … She published no new fiction for 24 years, devoting herself instead to deep study of Marx, Darwin and the history of political thought. In many ways, What Are We Doing Here? is a response to those years of study, a repudiation of Marx and Darwin, of powerful ideologies of any stripe that simplify the world … Most of the essays in this new book were delivered as speeches, and some repetition is inevitable. But so too is our desire for more — for the refinement of her ideas instead of the rehashing — especially since the final essay, which takes an unexpectedly personal turn, delivers like no other.
...an erudite, authoritative and demanding collection that probes questions of faith and doubt, history and ideology that both divide America and bring it together … This elegantly written book’s appeal to general readers who lack an intimate familiarity both with Christian scripture and Protestant history may frankly be somewhat limited … Robinson’s arguments that the state of discourse in contemporary America is frustrating, and that we could all stand to think for ourselves and be kinder, are familiar but evergreen. Heady and forceful, composed and serious, Robinson warns readers against despair and cynicism, encouraging us instead to embrace — ideally, in her opinion, through ‘Christian humanism’ — ‘radical human equality and dignity.’
This collection is no meager response to human grandeur, but rather a celebration of it. Here Robinson debunks the historical myths and political tropes we fall prey to (that capitalism fuels America, for example, or that everything is reducible to a cost-benefit analysis, or that Puritans were pale-faced shamers). Such clichéd thinking, she suggests, only deepens our divisions and denigrates who we are. In essays that challenge our current myopia, Robinson praises our past and our potential. She sheds light. She muses. She quotes great thinkers and poets. She marvels. There is always in these essays the sense of the divine behind every human encounter … Not all the essays are easy. Her ruminations are meandering and deep — ideas river off, etymologies are explored, histories examined. The reader will do well to keep her paddle in the current, for it is well worth the ride.
Though the political context is urgent (‘We have surrendered thought to ideology’), it is not the point of what she is attempting. Her studies represent a call to seriousness, as Christians used to understand that term – not as an unsmiling severity, but a steady determination to look beyond our immediate worldly concerns. Among the most affecting essays in this book is a disquisition, or perhaps sermon, on the nature of hope, considered (alongside faith and love) as one of the three ‘theological virtues’...The argument is sophisticated and persuasive. But the exhortations of sermons are alien to modern literary sensibilities. Her religious essays are removed from the provocative strangeness of her novels.
In What Are We Doing Here?, her third collection of essays since 2012, she again discourses with depth and sensitivity on an impressive range of topics in theology, philosophy and contemporary American life … Robinson is at her most accessible and eloquent when, as a ‘self-professed liberal,’ she focuses her critical eye on prominent aspects of our current political climate … Readers who share Robinson’s strong political views will appreciate how forcefully she defends them in this challenging but worthwhile collection.
The voice of her essays seems to speak from a podium or pulpit. The difference between her fiction and nonfiction is akin to the one between practice and theory, or between a swim in a mountain lake and a lecture, delivered with unexpected brio and occasional thunder, on the properties of water ... At a time when academia can resemble an archipelago, the disciplines more specialized than finch beaks in the Galápagos, Robinson’s audaciously heterodox thinking can exhilarate ... Nevertheless, Robinson is at her best when drawing upon her own reservoirs of learning in theology, history and literature to fill in the omissions of others. When she aims polemically at certain of the sciences, or at modern and postmodern thought, her narratives create their own black holes ... 'This country is in a state of bewilderment that cries out for good history,' Robinson writes here — to which I can imagine what my grandmother might say, were she alive and seated in the lecture hall. The same thing I would say, though I left the church long ago: Amen.
In What Are We Doing Here?, Robinson frequently rambles, layers on obscure references, heads off on extended tangents. She delights, too, and inspires. But, in the end, she buries these gems under mountains of impenetrable text. That is a shame, because we really do need her gems, now more than ever.
Lastly, something that seems to be either laziness or vanity mars this book. These pieces were originally lectures, and they have been published unedited. What works in the oral format often doesn’t in the written, and worse, because these pieces were never meant to appear together, the same insights and arguments are repeated throughout, many times nearly word for word ... Challenging, twisty, contentious, surprising, inspiring — Robinson goes after the biggest questions, and proves herself equal to the task.
As an essayist and public intellectual, Marilynne Robinson is our contrarian laureate ... Robinson tilts at other windmills of convention in her new book of essays, wearing her scarlet U (for unhip) with pride as she does ... It suffers from overlap, the bane of essay collections. The same deplorable determinists and maligned enlightened heroes pop up with wearying frequency ... Robinson’s keen insights, expressed in bracing, lyrical, and gorgeously composed prose, nevertheless make What Are We Doing Here? absorbing. She also amply demonstrates her belief that the age of marvels has not passed.
Sometimes though, Robinson’s ideas are more beautiful than persuasive, as much as I’d rather not set up such a contrast ... To see people as utterly improbable, so uniquely themselves, is to see them not as just everyone else, but as yourself too. To see yourself as wrapped in a universe more knowable each day and yet still unfathomable, is to know yourself, and everyone else too. That’s humanism illuminated by belief. That’s the vision of Marilynne Robinson. Take it to heart.
Robinson gathers trenchant essays about faith, values, and history … Robinson is at her most lyrical when writing about Barack Obama, whom she much admires and believes to have been the ideal president for 21st-century America: ‘dignified, gracious, competent, and humane,’ showing endurance ‘more than heroic.’ The author also writes with rueful anger about the vicious slander that her mother saw on Fox News. Sharp, elegant cultural analysis.
This collection of 15 essays by Pulitzer-winning author Robinson is sometimes cranky and rambling, but always passionate. Robinson’s crankiness comes out in her love of Puritans, Calvinists, and Oliver Cromwell, and her annoyance at history’s maligning of them. Yet it also stems from her passion for art and beauty, a humane deity, and a world run more by moral compass than balance sheet … An essay or two rambles too much—’Untitled’ is aptly named—but Robinson’s overall trajectory is clear and important. Her eloquent work stands up for a compassionate faith, the value of education, and a sense of decency.
