Haunting particularities

In a conversation recorded in Iowa late last year, President Obama asked his favorite novelist, Mari­lynne Robinson, why she decided to write her newest book of essays.

“Well,” she said, “the essays are actually lectures. I give lectures at a fair rate, and then when I’ve given enough of them to make a book, I make a book.”

“So you just kind of mash them all together?” the president asked.