Housekeeping (novel) - Characters

Characters

Ruth the narrator of the story. Ruth narrates from the perspective of the Transparent eyeball. This narration style was used by the trancendentalist authors that influenced Marilynne Robinson, including Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Lucille Ruth's younger sister.

Helen the mother of Ruth and Lucille who in the novel commits suicide.

Sylvie Helen's younger sister who comes to Fingerbone to take care of Ruth and Lucille.

Molly Helen's older sister. Molly left Fingerbone to do missionary work as a bookkeeper in the Honan Province of China.

Sylvia Foster Ruth's Grandmother. Sylvia lived her entire life in Fingerbone, accepted the basic religious dogma of an afterlife, and lived her life accordingly.

Edmund Foster Ruth's Grandfather and Sylvia's husband. He was raised in a house, dug out of the ground, in the Middle West. He is consumed with wanderlust and a desire to paint mountains. This desire leads to his job on a train and the related events form the foundation of the novel. Working on the train, he is killed in its crash into the lake of Fingerbone.

Lily Foster Sylvia Foster's sister-in-law, one of two who came from Spokane to care for Ruth.

Nona Foster Sylvia Foster's other sister-in-law.

Bernice is a friend of Helen's who lived below Ruth and her mom, Helen, when they lived in a tall grey building. Bernice urged Helen to visit her estranged mother and lent Helen her car so she could travel to see her. (the same car Helen used to drive herself off the bridge)

Ettie is a friend of Ruth's Grandmother, Sylvia Foster. A tiny old lady, whose skin was the color of toadstools.