Home: What It Means and Why It Matters

by Mary Gordon

Where do you live? The answer to this seemingly simple question can be more complicated than you'd think.
Drawing on personal experience, Mary Gordon examines various forms of abode-from her childhood house in Far Rockaway to apartments in Palo Alto, Rome, and the Upper West Side-as well as the very concept of “home” and how it has evolved over time. Rich in insightful observations from writers and thinkers as diverse as Gaston Bachelard, Le Corbusier, Emerson, Colette, and Edith Wharton, At Home skillfully provokes us to probe our own thoughts about what “home” truly means to each of us. Notions of safety, morality, cleanliness, comfort, and the changing nature of the family are just a few of the colors Gordon uses to paint an intriguing portrait of a place we all thought we knew.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction

101 pages, Hardcover

First published April 5, 2011

About the author

Mary Catherine Gordon is an American writer from Queens and Valley Stream, New York. She is the McIntosh Professor of English at Barnard College. She is best known for her novels, memoirs and literary criticism. In 2008, she was named Official State Author of New York.

Reviews

[Francine Apollo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tiny little book, 3 chapters and fewer than 100 pages.

I enjoyed it because it is well written and researched as well (with Endnotes). The book reminds me of an assignment given by a former colleague...she wanted international students to convey the idea of home in a classroom paper. We scoured college catalogs for a few books back then...this one would have been wonderful, alas the assignment was long before this 2010 publication.

Also like it because the author conveys the importance of place and our reaction to it. It reminds me of the novels that Frances Mayes has written about the American South and her home in Tuscany. Mayes evokes for the reader a sense of space/place and Mary Gordon elaborates on it in this book.

Short and sweet!

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, so it was a little dense and boring and I didn't read ALL of it even though it was under 100 pages. But there were some interesting parts about privacy and the evolution of our concept of home.

And so there you go.

[ASEEL · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the way it was written but the content is absolute nonsense.

[Sian Lile-Pastore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting (though quite slight) look at what home means to you. It's mainly the author's ideas of what home means to her, but she also nicely links her ideas to those of Bachelard and Auden, and there are lots of nice quotes.

We picked this up at an airport on our way home, and it does make you feel pretty cosy.

[Kelly Griffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been thinking a lot about home lately; what it is and why it matters. If you're wondering about those things too, don't read this book. It won't help.

I found it rambling (although I'm sure someone somewhere has described it as a 'meditation'), and ultimately unsatisfying.

[Julie Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting perspective on home and how it has changed through the years.