---
product_id: 6929783
title: "When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays"
brand: "marilynne robinson"
price: "$1020"
currency: MXN
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.mx/products/6929783-when-i-was-a-child-i-read-books-essays
store_origin: MX
region: Mexico
---

# When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays

**Brand:** marilynne robinson
**Price:** $1020
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays by marilynne robinson
- **How much does it cost?** $1020 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.mx](https://www.desertcart.mx/products/6929783-when-i-was-a-child-i-read-books-essays)

## Best For

- marilynne robinson enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted marilynne robinson brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays

## Images

![When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kUg4ymJRL.jpg)
![When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41dQCvKfhKL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The capacious heart of Marilynne Robinson
  

*by T***E on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 6, 2014*

Every five years or so, Marilynne Robinson has produced a book of essays, notably  Absence of Mind and The Death of Adam, with the latest arrival When I was a Child I Read Books: Essays.  The best of Robinson shines in these latest essays:  In them she lays out her vision of the American Dream, celebrating the strengths of the American way of life, marked by its liberality (individual freedom), sense of community, and generosity, each informed by a non-sectarian respect for the soul.Like Walt Whitman, she finds that America, with all of its flaws, is better in providing a liberal home for all citizens than alternatives past or present; that America has struggled its way to a much more full but still incomplete democracy, driven by respect for each citizen, which she describes as a non-sectarian religious imperative, arising perhaps paradoxically by the founder's insistence on the separation of church and state.  She suggests that diversity in America's population has contributed more to its vibrancy and  progress than to internal conflict or instability: "We are blessed with the impossibility of arriving at a definition of America that is either exhaustive or final not only because of our continuously changing and self-transforming population but also, as Whitman says, because we have never fully achieved democracy. This is a very reasonable light in which to consider a mingled heritage, full of lapses and errors and therefore often said to be hypocritical or failed, even by those who see themselves as its defenders. By Whitman's lights this process of discovery, with all its setbacks, is a splendid, metaphysically brilliant passage in human history. It is moved by the power of religious imperative because it honors and liberates the sacred human person."She is concerned that Americans maintain their optimism in democracy and some remove from partisanship, and quotes from Whitman's 1871 essay Democratic Vistas: "It is the fashion . . . to decry the whole formulation of the active politics of America, as beyond redemption, and to be carefully kept away from. See you that you do not fall into this error. America, it may be, is doing very well upon the whole, notwithstanding these antics of the parties and their leaders . . .  These savage, wolfish parties alarm me. Owning no law but their own will, more and more combative, less and less tolerant of the idea of ensemble and of equal brotherhood, the perfect equality of the States, the ever-overarching American ideas, it behooves you to convey yourself implicitly to no party, nor submit blindly to their dictators, but steadily hold yourself judge and master over all of them."She is appalled by the current stingy stripping of social and community support in the name of a blind capitalism: "I know that there are numberless acts of generosity, moral as well as material, carried out among its people every hour of the day. But the language of public life has lost the character of generosity, and the largeness of spirit that has created and supported the best of our institutions and brought reform to the worst of them has been erased out of historical memory. On both sides the sole motive force in our past is now said to have been capitalism. On both sides capitalism is understood as grasping materialism that has somehow or other yielded the comforts and liberties of modern life. Capitalism thus understood is seen on one side as providential , so good in its effects that it reduces Scripture with its do-unto-others to shibboleth. The other side sees it as more or less corrupting and contemptible but beyond human powers to resist. . . . What if good institutions were in fact the product of good intentions? What if the cynicism that is supposed to be rigor and the acquisitiveness that is supposed to be realism are making us forget the origins of the greatness we lay claim to-- power and wealth as secondary consequences of the progress of freedom, or, as Whitman would prefer, Democracy?"Robinson suggests that "community, at least community larger than the immediate family, consists very largely of imaginative love for people we do not know or whom we know very slightly."  She defends and celebrates community, obsensibly the writing and academic community but clearly extending  it to society as a whole.  Imagination flourishes ultimately in community, not only because it must be shared to have use or meaning, but because community elicits and shapes an individual's imagination in turn. Our thought lives are inseparable from our communities:  "Language is profoundly communal, and in the mere fact of speaking, then writing , a wealth of language grows and thrives among us that has enabled thought and knowledge in a degree we could never calculate. As individuals and as a species, we are unthinkable without our communities."  She closes her essay on Imagination and Community with this:  "It is very much in the gift of the community to enrich individual lives, and it is in the gift of any individual to enlarge and enrich community. The great truth that is too often forgotten is that it is in the nature of people to do good to one another."The author's essays are written in polished and thoughtful phrases; she can mix similes, analogies, indirect labeling, sarcasm, and some ad hominem to form her arguments, and fold them into complex sentences that a German would surely admire, her self-described debt to Cicero notwithstanding.  Robinson sees and describes the world as a novelist; she is an assured writer who weaves images and ideas into a narrative:  what may seem secondary characteristics are for her necessary parts of a complex whole. She might ask patience of her dear readers:  While her style can sometimes seem unnecessarily tedious, it can also be stimulating, forcing the reader at times to reread a sentence to capture its multiple ideas, often admirably tied together. I have found it impossible to read her lightly, to her credit.Reading some of Robinson's past essays produced in me a certain amount of frustration, not because I sometimes disagreed with her conclusions, but because the writing could come across as episodically ungenerous and uncareful:  brilliant paragraphs followed jarringly by one more polemical or slippery or caustic.  Yet hoping against hope, I chose to read these essays looking for the best of Robinson, and am thankful that I did.  In these essays, hope transcends acknowledged disappointment; in them are revealed the author's heart, and it is a capacious heart, which seems to moderate her bitter mordancy in a wonderful way, blunting the sharp-knifed edge that often marred her previous essay collections without dulling her passion for those ideas that make America great:  Liberality, generosity and community, within and without.(A more detailed version of this review can be found on the Oregon Scribbler.)

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Wondrous love for wondrous prose
  

*by D***K on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 5, 2012*

I have become a huge fan of Marilynne Robinson, especially her non-fiction essays, though her novels, Gilead and Home, were deeply moving even though I rarely read fiction. The present book of essays are food for the soul that may be sagging under the weight of the political idiocy, uncaring ideology, and religion that is devoid of any sense of mystery that is abroad in the land. The extent of commentary on the general content of these essays is so extensive in the reviews that have been written that it would be superfluous for me to add anything about the topics. I share just my personal sense of the impact of these essays.Robinson's prose is always dense and full of lengthy complex sentences. But oh, the elegance and the intellectual and emotional impact those words make as she builds her arguments on the various topics that have grabbed her attention. Throughout, she is imparting the importance of the religious imagination for the understanding of human nature and human behavior as it is being played out on the political stage of 2012 America. Always, there is the literary history that she has delved into that brilliantly illuminates your thinking and understanding of the human problems she is addressing. At the core is the Bible and the theology of Calvin from the protestant reformation. She makes you think, oh does she make you think. If that isn't your taste, you can take a pass on this book. Otherwise, be ready for much to get under your skin in a salvific way.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    excellent exposition for the liberal arts
  

*by R***R on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 29, 2022*

A passionate and thoughtful argument for the liberal arts and Congregationalist religion. Moving and accurate about their centrality in America’s best traditions

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.mx/products/6929783-when-i-was-a-child-i-read-books-essays](https://www.desertcart.mx/products/6929783-when-i-was-a-child-i-read-books-essays)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Mexico*
*Store origin: MX*
*Last updated: 2026-03-12*