---
title: "When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson"
description: "Most of the time I finish books that I start.  Sometimes it is months for me to finally work through a book.  But I usually do eventually finish. But this week I stopped reading two books. I was bored..."
url: https://bookwi.se/when-i-was-a-child-i-read-books-by-marilynne-robinson/
date: 2012-12-14
modified: 2012-12-14
author: "Adam Shields"
categories: ["Book Reviews"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson

[![When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Hps601CvL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374298785/)Most of the time I finish books that I start.  Sometimes it is months for me to finally work through a book.  But I usually do eventually finish.

But this week I stopped reading two books. I was bored and just didn’t want to struggle through these books that were no longer interesting.  I had already given them a good trial.  I was about half way into both books (11 hours of audio between the two of them).

I picked up When I Was a Child I Read Books at the same time I picked up [Gilead](https://bookwi.se/gilead-a-novel-by-marilynne-robinson/).  I started When I Was a Child first.  And pretty quickly switched to Gilead.  I loved Gilead.  It is a wonderful novel written a lot like a memoir.  It is honest and real and a bit sad but still hopeful for the idea that a pastor can still make a difference in the world.

But When I Was a Child was different.  It has long essays.  I have this on audiobook and the first three essays are all around an hour.  It is not that Robinson is not a good writer.  She is a great writer.  But I kept listening and feeling like I had been jerked all over the place.

For instance one of the essays deals with austerity.  So we get a long discourse on capitalism and ideology and the Soviet Union and fear.  But it wraps around and around and around and in the end (I guess like a good essayist) we come back to investigating our own issues.

This is similar to a discussion of freedom of thought at the beginning  which oddly also discusses capitalism, ideology, the Soviet Union and fear.

I kept thinking as the start of the essays that just because someone is a good writer, does not mean they are qualified to discuss global political issues or economics.  And by the time the essay was done I kept thinking well she does know what she is talking about.  But why did it have to take so long.

Maybe I would feel differently if I had read the essays instead of listened to them.  But I gave up.

I did see through a [blog post by Tim Challies](http://www.challies.com/resources/new-notable-book-reviews-6) that John Piper reviewed When I Was a Child (I think I picked up the book primarily for the title.  It is a great title.)  Piper liked the book, but suggests that she writes like John Owen, “her sentences sound like translations of good Latin.”

Try reading [Piper’s review](http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/writing-like-cicero-for-the-sake-of-the-soul) and maybe you will have the patience that I lacked.

**When I Was a Child I Read Books Purchase Links: [Paperback](http://www.amazon.com/When-Was-Child-Read-Books/dp/1250024056/), [Kindle Edition](http://www.amazon.com/When-Child-Read-Books-ebook/dp/B0071VUVSC)**

###### Related articles

- [Gilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson](https://bookwi.se/gilead-a-novel-by-marilynne-robinson/) (bookwi.se)

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