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    Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
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    Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
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    Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
    Audiobook3 hours

    Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

    Written by Sebastian Junger

    Narrated by Nick Landrum

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the author of THE PERFECT STORM and WAR comes a book about why men miss war, why Londoners missed the Blitz, and what we can all learn from American Indian captives who refused to go home.

    Tribe is a look at post-traumatic stress disorder and the challenges veterans face returning to society. Using his background in anthropology, Sebastian Junger argues that the problem lies not with vets or with the trauma they’ve suffered, but with the society to which they are trying to return.

    One of the most puzzling things about veterans who experience PTSD is that the majority never even saw combat—and yet they feel deeply alienated and out of place back home. The reason may lie in our natural inclination, as a species, to live in groups of thirty to fifty people who are entirely reliant on one another for safety, comfort and a sense of meaning: in short, the life of a soldier.

    It is one of the ironies of the modern age that as affluence rises in a society, so do rates of suicide, depression and of course PTSD. In a wealthy society people don’t need to cooperate with one another, so they often lead much lonelier lives that lead to psychological distress. There is a way for modern society to reverse this trend, however, and studying how veterans react to coming home may provide a clue to how to do it. But it won’t be easy.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateJun 16, 2016
    ISBN9780008168209
    Unavailable
    Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
    Author

    Sebastian Junger

    Sebastian Junger is the bestselling author of The Perfect Storm and A Death in Belmont. He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and has been awarded a National Magazine Award and an SAIS Novartis Prize for journalism. He lives in New York.

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    Reviews for Tribe

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    • 5/5
      I had checked out Home when it first came out but turned it quickly back when, thinking it was too much like Gilead. The reviews for Home continued to pour in and all of them were good. So I went back to it. And loved it. Robinson knows the Prodigal Son.
    • 5/5
      I waited to write my review of [Home] until I had re-read parts of Marilynne's Robinson's previous novel [Gilead]. Though each book can stand separately, Home's main character, Jack Boughton, appears in Gilead as a ne'er do well who is a disappointment to his father, a minister in the Presbyterian church. (Among the main teaching of that denomination is the theory of "pre-destination", that when you are born you are already sentenced, in the eyes of God, to be among the "Saved" or cast into hell.) "Home is where when you have to go there, they have to take you in." This quote from the poet Robert Frost is one of the underlying themes of the novel Home. But not only is Jack Boughton "taken in" by his widower father, but his younger sister Glory as well. Both have been wounded in the battle of life and both are welcomed by their father - Glory, in fact, becomes her father's caretaker. Another theme is that of the Prodigal Son. Reverend Boughton has been waiting 20 years for his son's homecoming. Jack Boughton was known as a troublemaker to the citizens of the town and a disappointment to the members of the church's congregation. We never learn all the details of Jack's shortcomings, but Ms. Robinson gives us good details and we can fill in the rest. The Reverend Ames, who tells the story in Gilead, does not appear often in Home. However we learn enough about his relationship to the Boughton's so that we feel Ames's disapproval of Jack. There is also an interesting interplay between the two preachers. The denomination of Reverend Ames does not believe in pre-destination. By the end of the story, the reader wonders how strongly Rev. Boughton is committed to it.This story takes place in the 1950's when organized religion is starting to fall away as the main prop of American society. Also the importance of the family and the culture of small-town life - we, reading this in the future know what happens. In the book the characters stumble blindly toward what they hope will turn out to be a better world.This is one of those books where you want to yell at the character "No!" "He didn't mean it that way!" "Don't do that!" The society is flawed, we know there will be a turn-over, but we grow to care for all the characters, Ms. Robinson makes them very real and what we feel is sadness as they try to live in a society that is becoming undone.
    • 5/5
      A beautiful novel about family and love, faith and loyalty, and soul-deep pain, this story rings true in my own soul. It was powerfully moving! The story is set in Gilead, the town for which Robinson's prize-winning novel was written. Oh my!
    • 3/5
      Characters had potentially interesting lives but it is too slow-paced to be great. The daughter resents having to care for the ailing father, the prodigal son's return is not a wild success, and their miserable lives go on. Nothing much happens, the same conversations happen over and over, and in the end, no wisdom emerges.
    • 5/5
      a very sad novel, but one with a lot of meat. one of the best novels i've read
    • 3/5
      I loved the book Gilead, but had a harder time liking its companion book Home. The writing is very understated as is the action and the interaction between the characters. Robert Boughton, the ministerial family patriarch is in his last weeks of life. Glory, 38 years old and the youngest daughter of eight children, has returned home to care for him. Jack Boughton, the ne'er do well son who has been absent for twenty years also returns to the family home in the town of Gilead, Iowa.All three main characters have suffered major disappointment, psychic pain, and loss partly related to their own actions. The pastor lost his church. Glory realized that she would never marry the already married fiance in whom she has invested her youth and her finances. Jack, always the black sheep of the family, returns an alcoholic who is trying to make peace with his past. I've read reviews that described this book as spiritual. I would tend to say it's a bit more religious than spiritual. Or perhaps it's a demonstration of how religiosity sometimes gets in the way of spirituality. These are people who have difficulty forgiving themselves almost more than their difficulty forgiving those around them. The Pastor Robert Boughton wants to accept Jack home as the prodigal son, but he also wants to know that Jack is a "believer". Hence there is a price to that forgiveness.Jack has never felt like he belonged in the family household which resulted in a series of petty thefts, vandalism, and irresponsible paternity as a youth. As an adult he fled for twenty years of drifting and drinking. Despite his lack of faith, he demonstrates a sense of social conscience and racial justice to which his father is blind.IMO, Glory is the most spiritual and redemptive character in the novel as she works through her own feelings to extend grace to her brother, her father, and the fiance' in whom she misplaced her trust and hopes. The author's writing is strong. Her writing is true to the time and place of the novel which is the late Eisenhower administration in Iowa (late 1950's).
    • 5/5
      Just a gorgeous book. So delicately written and yet so profound. I ached for the character of Glory, one of the overlooked girls in the extensive Boughton family and thought the prodigal brother Jack was a great character. Some of the theological conversations got a little stodgy but I was totally hooked on the slow pace of life, highlighted by meals and the ailing father's naps. Never liked a major prize-winner this much. Will definitely be reading Gilead and Housekeeping now.
    • 2/5
      I loved Housekeeping so I had great hopes for this book. I had my doubts early on but plodded on, despite all the religion. I enjoyed the family dynamics but really could have done with less religion. If this was my own copy and not that of the library, I probably would have torn it in half.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant, profound, moving, thoughtful. In a very quiet way, she captures things about family, religion, time, fate--I could go on--that struck me as immensely powerful (and they struck close to home). I would say that Robinson is one of my five favorite living novelists based on the last two books. (This is a "companion" novel to Gilead, which I will now re-read, and that is a rare occurrence for me).
    • 5/5
      What a superb book. So full of emotion and deep thought. The characters were all fascinating and the theology engaging.
    • 5/5
      This book started out slow. It doesn't have much in the way of action, and at first I was a little impatient with it. However, I would encourage you to be patient with this story, because the sum of its parts is definitely worth it.

      The main characters are an adult brother and sister (two of 8) who have returned to their family home and are taking care of their dying, elderly, widowed father. It is clear from the beginning that both of the siblings feel that they have failed at their adult lives, and that they have come home to hide from the world and lick their wounds. At the beginning of the novel, they are estranged from each other, but as the novel progresses, they develop an intense, but somewhat fraught relationship. Their father, a retired Presbyterian minister, is very frail but still holds moral sway over his children, regardless of whether they have chosen to live their lives by his values. He is a gentle man, but he loves his family fiercely.

      Much of the novel consists of conversation between the siblings and their father in their family home, which is almost another character in the book. There is something very theatrical about the way the author sets up the dialogue and action -- I had the feeling that this novel could very easily be written into a script for a play.

      The author addresses some huge questions in the course of the characters' conversations, such as: can people change? How long can parents be held responsible for their children's actions? The characters each deal with their individual guilt, dashed hopes, the pain of loving and the pain and responsibility that comes with accepting love. This book stayed with me for a long time after I read it. It was so melancholy, but the insights that Marilynne Robinson makes about love and families and addiction are so acutely observed that at times it is breathtaking.
    • 4/5
      I liked this so much better than Gilead, but it has the same tone and feel. Rev. Boughton is declining and needs care and his youngest daughter, Glory who has just been jilted by her fiance, comes home to care for him. She is soon joined by brother Jack, the proverbial prodigal son. They grow to know and like each other as adults while their father continues to decline. Jack is fighting several demons as e also struggles to make peace as the black sheep of the family. Robinson not so subtly lets us know that Jack's estranged wife is black, but we don't confirmation of that fact until the final pages of the novel, when she and Jack's son arrive two days after he has left Gilead.
    • 4/5
      Short feel good book about why people want to belong with large groups of people and find their purpose from these interactions.
    • 5/5
      To experience this book fully, it is best if you've read Gilead first. It stands on its own well, but having familiarity with Gilead will add a dimension to understanding the characters, particularly Rev. Ames. I did not note as many lyrical passages in Home as I did in Gilead, but throughout the book an aching sense of love and loss resonated. I began to cry around page 225, when Jack is searching for affirmation that change is possible, even for the seemingly incorrigible. This story was sad, and gentle, and beautiful.
    • 3/5
      Much better, in my opinion, than [Gilead]. There is more movement / plot to this work. Really a thinking person's novel, however.
    • 5/5
      Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead was a well-received critical success a few years ago, and she followed it up in 2008 with Home, a novel once again set in the little town of Gilead, Iowa. This time around the story centers on the Reverend Robert Boughton, best friend to fellow preacher John Ames, the central character of the earlier book. Note, however, that Home is an independent story and it is not necessary to have read Gilead in order to get the most from this 2008 “sequel.”“Home is where the heart is” even when one does not really want to be there. Two of Robert Boughton’s adult children are learning this lesson for themselves: Glory, now 38 years old, has come home to care for her father (she tells herself) and Jack, her older brother, is there because he has no other place to go at this point in his largely failed life.Reverend Boughton fathered a large family, four boys and four girls, but as he approaches the end of his life he is the only one still living in the large family home. His wife is gone now, and his eight children have made lives of their own far away from Gilead. Boughton has had little reason to worry about seven of his eight children, but Jack has more than made up for that by being a constant worry to both his father and his seven siblings. From childhood, Jack, the rebel of the family, has seemed more like an intruder than a family member – even to himself.Glory, youngest of the Boughton children, hardly knows her brother when, for reasons he keeps entirely to himself, he unexpectedly joins her in caring for their father. Now, for the first time in their lives, Glory and Jack begin to understand each other – and why they, of the eight siblings, are the ones in Gilead with no better place to go.Marilynne Robinson has written a beautiful novel, one about human beings struggling with the meaning of life, right and wrong, failure and forgiveness, and making amends before it is all too late. Readers of literary fiction, the kind of fiction that is character, rather than action, driven are certain to love this book.
    • 5/5
      That magical blanket of words that this author nestles around her reader had me enveloped, from the first page, in the soft feel of “Home”, with all its remembered joys and sorrows. I happened to read Ms. Robinson's “Gilead” first, and was captivated by her writing, and touched by the simple stories of small town life and the two families portrayed there. This book is just as good. Her characters are so real; you feel what they are going through – the anguish of the heart over a child, the hope to help a sibling, the shame of past mistakes, the yearning for Home This story is the flip-side of “Gilead”; and concerns the aged Reverend Robert Boughton, whose youngest daughter, Glory, (unmarried, and in her late 30s) has come home to help her father in his declining months. During that time, her brother, Jack, returns home after a twenty year absence. Never easy in the skin of his home-life, Jack's relationship with his father and sister was poignantly rendered. Only glimpses of his missing years are ever divulged. (May we hope for another book?) It is the interactions between these three characters, and Rev. Boughton's friend, John Ames, which make the story. If you love writing of the simply pure and beautiful kind, you will love Home.
    • 5/5
      Very good assertion of the power of the tribe and group
    • 4/5
      Gilead was an outstanding novel of ideas that incidentally developed a number of impressive characters; Home is a character driven novel that incidentally develops a number of impressive ideas. I haven't had time to think it through yet, but I suspect the two of them together provide a defense of modern literary techniques (varying points of view; allusion; a focus on human consciousness) in the face of postmodern criticisms (the idea that point of view is a bourgeois ideology, as is consciousness itself; a rejection of much of the literary tradition, particularly when it deals with religion). All of this is more or less present in Gilead; Home is almost like a cherry on top in the shape of a very satisfying, low-key, traditional novel. Most importantly, it's funny. Robinson's 'Housekeeping' was cheesily po-faced; Gilead hinted at the possibility that people might do things in way that was neither deep nor quirky; here people actually make jokes. Jokes! Next she'll be writing the women's Portnoy.
    • 5/5
      Marilynne Robinson's writing is luminous, truthful, gorgeous, enlightening, perfect, graceful in at least two senses of the word. I loved the book Gilead and think Home is even better. For someone like me who values characterization above action, Home is wonderful to read; a book to ponder and treasure...beyond a "good read." It just seems like truth. Robinson is one of our writers who can discuss faith and theology in a believable way. This book will be too slow for many readers -- perhaps you have to have lived at a slower time and place, like Gilead, Iowa in 1956, to appreciate the pace. The main characters, the Boughton and Ames families, address each other in unfailing, exquisite courtesy, which will seem unbelievable to some modern readers. I was reminded of how surprised I was as a new bride (1962, North Carolina) by my husband's family's unfailing politeness to one other ("They treat each other like company!" ). The old, dying Presbyterian minister, Robert Boughton, who loves his eight children, the black sheep Jack most of all, is of course, like God the Father, though flawed in his way, and especially on the issue of race; oblivious, really, this kindly old man, of the realities of race in America, as so many were at that time, and not just in Iowa. One aches for Jack, as his sister Glory and entire family does, and one wants to shake him, too. Actually, the reader wants to shake almost every character that appears in this book at one time or another, just as one does the members of one's own family. The friendship between the two old ministers and friends is just priceless; and the scene of their having what will undoubtedly be their last communion together, pure beauty. Since a good bit of the book revolves around the family's anxiety about Jack's future, earthly and eternal, I thought the heart of the book was expressed in Glory's conclusions as she tossed and turned the night before Jack is to leave, "She thought, 'If I or my father or any Boughton has ever stirred the Lord's compassion, then Jack will be all right. Because perdition for him would be perdition for every one of us.'"
    • 5/5
      At 38 years old, Glory Boughton has returned to Gilead, Iowa to care for her aging father, the Reverend Robert Boughton. Boughton is a retired Presbyterian minister, and a good friend of the Congregationalist minister, John Ames (the main character in Robinson's Pulitzer-winning book, Gilead). Glory is recovering from a failed relationship and is simultaneously resentful of and thankful for her new routine. One day, her older brother Jack comes back into her life after 20 years away from the family. Jack had a troubled youth in Gilead, and his years away not been much better. He has been in jail, he has an alcohol problem, and there is a lingering issue regarding his relationship with a woman named Della. It's not clear just why Jack decided to return to Gilead, but both Glory and his father decide to give him a chance. The story moves along at a leisurely pace, much like a lazy summer day. Jack finds much-needed stability, tending to the garden and minor repairs around the house. Glory finds companionship, love, and understanding that she didn't think possible from Jack. And yet, Jack's demons never completely leave him. His status with Della is uncertain. While he achieves a kind of reconciliation with his father, tensions do flare from time to time as Robert is unable to completely let go of past hurts. Jack's relationship with John Ames is also tenuous. Eventually, Jack takes the only reasonable action to alleviate his pain, although as the reader we know it will never really go away.This is a sad, moving, and yet also surprisingly uplifting book of family relationships, redemption, and grace. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Possibly I am an idiot……because it took me so long to realize that this was a period novel set decades ago. Home is a claustrophobic novel set in small town Iowa and peopled with devout Christians. It might as well have been set on another planet for all that I know about that world. Which doesn’t make it bad—obviously—but possibly I wasn’t the best reader of this novel. Lest you think that I’m a reader unfamiliar with or unappreciative of literary fiction, that is not the case. Robinson’s novel is the very definition of character-driven literature. The reason I described it as claustrophobic above is that the story revolves around only three characters, and for the vast majority of the novel, they are the only three people you encounter. The brief scenes that allowed in other characters were such a relief! The story is told from the point of view of 38-year-old Glory, the youngest of the eight children of Reverend Robert Boughton. Glory has recently moved home to Gilead, Iowa to care for her elderly father. Gradually we learn of the disappointments of her life. The household is shaken early in the novel by a letter from one of the middle sons, Jack. Glory was still a girl when Jack left home in disgrace 20 years ago. He has not been seen and barely heard from in all the years since, to the point that no one knew if he was alive or dead.And the family has had cause to wonder about Jack’s status and whereabouts. Growing up, he was always the rebellious one. Always in trouble at home, at school, and even with the law. When Jack returns to his father’s home in Gilead, explanations about where he’s been, why he stayed away for so long, and why he has suddenly returned are not quickly forthcoming. Jack has clearly had a hard life. He is struggling with alcoholism. He is trying to be a better person, but he is profoundly damaged. It was mostly Jack’s story, as it was gently exposed, that kept my interest in the novel. Glory was kind, steady, dependable, but a bit bland. And the father—mostly he bugged me.A big part of my annoyance with the character of Robert Boughton was the voice used by audiobook reader Maggi-Meg Reed when delivering his lines. OMG, it was like chalk scraping against a chalkboard! And a ridiculous number of his lines either began with or consisted entirely of the word, “Yes.” It was grating. I’ve noticed that readers of the book seem to have enjoyed the experience more than listeners of the audiobook. Possibly I would have enjoyed the experience more through my eyes than my ears, as that is typically how I consume books. But that still wouldn’t have saved me from a protracted theological debate on disc seven that left me wanting to throw the book across the room. But, hey, that’s me.I wished these characters spent less time walking on eggshells and more time engaged in honest conflict. But that’s not who these people were, apparently. The ending of the novel was perfect, beautifully written and moving. It made me consider adding an extra star to my review, but in the end I decided not to. There will be enough accolades for Robinson, and my honest reaction to this book was mixed. Is Home a brilliant and nuanced character study? Probably. People smarter than me seem to think so. But there were a few times that I found the dialog preposterous. The story is slow, and there’s no getting around the fact that it’s a downer. Am I glad I read it? Yeah. I’m so overdue reading a Robinson novel. Alas, this has not inspired me to grab up the copy of Gilead that’s been sitting on my shelf for four years, but maybe I’ll give Housekeeping a whirl.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written story of John "Jack" Boughton, prodigal son of a Presbyterian preacher, namesake and godson of another preacher who comes home to try to find some peace and healing. I really felt like the story was as much about his 38-yr-old sister, Glory, who has living at the family home, caring for her dying father. Having Jack around helps Glory deal with her ghosts--a broken engagement, a complicated relationship with Jack, the death of a niece. In the end, only one person seems to have found any kind of real peace. Robinson does use the events in this book so set up for another book (in the same way that this is companion to "Gilead").

    • 4/5
      I guess anything I said about "Gilead" is applicable to its sister book, "Home". They're very similar styles and tell the same story, although from a slightly different perspective. Having now read both of them I've warmed further to Marilynne Robinson, but I'm not sure why. "Home" seems to be less about theology and more about relationships, compared with "Gilead". I'm not very perceptive, and I initially saw this book as being about the father-son relationship, estrangement, forgiveness, and self-esteem. But that's my narrow self-obsession. As the title "suggests" (!), it's also about the daughter, the family as a whole, and the concept of home. I'd like to have dinner with Marilynne Robinson and have her explain the two stories to me over a bottle of red. (She'd be drinking, to loosen her up. I'd need to stay 100% sober to maximise my concentration). At the end of the evening I think I'd appreciate the depth of these novels, that by myself I'm not smart enough to understand. Nonetheless, even without understanding all the subtlety, I can see great value in this pair of books.
    • 5/5
      Home reunites us with characters from Robinson's Pulitzer-prize winning Gilead. This time the focus is on Reverand Robert Boughton (friend of John Ames, the narrator of Gilead). Boughton's daughter, Glory, has come home to care for him in the last weeks of his life. Unexpectedly, Boughton's son, Jack, also comes home after a twenty year absence. Together, Jack and Glory attempt to come to terms with the past and care for their father in his last days. Robinson has many strengths as an author. Her writing is beautiful, never hurried. She excels at conveying a sense of place and character. But in this book, it is the space between the characters that is described with the most precision. The events of the past and present come together to create multi-layered relationships between the characters. Glory, formerly Jack's kid sister who looked up to him, now takes on a role of support and guidance. Reverand Boughton (or as Jack refers to him, the Old Gent) remains the center of his household, but comes to rely on Glory and even Jack for basic needs. This is not a book in which a lot happens. The plot is not the main point. But Robinson put us inside the heads and hearts of Glory, Jack, and Reverand Boughton, helping us understand each of them through their relationships with each other.
    • 4/5
      A companion to her Pulitzer-winning novel Gilead, Home is similar but different. Like Gilead, it is a thoughtful novel with lovely prose and complex characters actively seeking spiritual growth. If you’re interested in questions of faith and redemption, and if you liked Gilead, as I did in 2005 and 2007, you’ll probably like Home too. But vice versa. It is a slow, perhaps sometimes ponderous, read, often painful in its brutally honest characterizations of fallible, sad and aging people.I was hurt, and moved, and buoyed as I read. Low on plot and action, this is not a book for everyone. But its still waters run deep, and it will linger long for those inclined to listen.
    • 5/5
      Glory Boughton, age thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother Jack-the prodigal son of the family, gone twenty years-comes home, too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with trouble and pain. Jack is one of the great characters in recent literature. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, he is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his tradionalist father, though he remains Boughton's most beloved child.
    • 4/5
      We cannot help but be connected to our home, and our family, but those ties can bring pain as well as comfort. How do we live with those connections, and the burden that comes with them?

      Beautiful. Robinson writes stunningly, and her books have characters with more depth than other authors can dream of achieving. The ideas and themes explored are fascinating, I will be mulling over this book for a long time to come. This book and Gilead are heavily interconnected, I wish I had read them back-to-back. Having not done so I'm sure I missed some things. Not all the threads of the story are resolved and the sadness the book engenders is wearisome, but these are minor complaints. Housekeeping is still my favorite of Robinson, but Home is a strong runner-up.
    • 1/5
      sister and brother return home as dad is weakening and dying..preacher dad, son a loser who hasn't been in touch or home for years...jack and glory. I guess it was a good book of characters but the story semed to go nowhere for me and I really was sorry I bothered reading it.
    • 2/5
      A letdown after Gilead. Very slow going.