In 2003, Guardian Unlimited named Housekeeping one of the 100 greatest novels of all time,[1] describing the book as "Haunting, poetic story, drowned in water and light, about three generations of women."

[2] Ruthie narrates the story of how she and her younger sister Lucille are raised by a succession of relatives in the fictional town of Fingerbone, Idaho (some details are similar to Robinson's hometown, Sandpoint, Idaho, particularly the presence of a major rail bridge and direct rail links to Spokane and Montana).

At first the three are a close-knit group, but as Lucille grows up she comes to dislike their eccentric life-style and moves out.

The novel treats the subject of housekeeping, not only in the domestic sense of cleaning, but in the larger sense of keeping a spiritual home for one's self and family in the face of loss, for the girls experience a series of abandonments as they come of age.

This narration style was used by the transcendentalist authors who influenced Robinson, including Ralph Waldo Emerson.