The "World's Best Writer of Prose"

Marilynne Robinson is the author of Gilead, which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is my favorite book. Not just for the subject matter, but Robinson doesn't write like anyone. It's tough to draw comparisons. In 30 years, she has written three novels, and each one has a distinctly different voice.

I just started her newest book, Home, and Googled (when will that word be added to the Dictionary?) her to see what people are saying. I ran into Bryan Appleyard writing for Britain's The Sunday Times who wrote titled his profile, "Marilynne Robinson: world's best writer of prose." Appleyard's point is that Robinson is the greatest current writer of prose. I'm pretty sure I agree, I haven't read anything better that's come out recently. It's a great article, but read Robinson first. Here's Appleyard's great closer:

Now let me be clear - I’m not saying that you’re actually dead if you haven’t read Marilynne Robinson, but I honestly couldn’t say you’re fully alive.

This post is nothing more than to get you to pick up Gilead and read it. It is definitely not a book that everyone will read or like, because it's not a memoir and not written by a twenty-something urbanite. Robinson is six-four and almost as old as dirt, but her prose in and of itself is timeless. She has no trend or style that she follows or that others can follow, rather she is in that unique category of writing that my professors call classic, not popular.