{"id":36335,"date":"2014-11-06T09:42:54","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T13:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=36335"},"modified":"2014-11-06T11:13:10","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T15:13:10","slug":"lila-by-marilynne-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/lila-by-marilynne-robinson\/","title":{"rendered":"Lila by Marilynne Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lila\"<\/a>In 2004,\u00a0Gilead<\/em><\/a> gave voice to the aging Reverend John Ames, who recognizes he will not live to see his 7-year-old son grow up and so creates an epistolary record of all that he will never be able to share with his\u00a0boy. Four years later,\u00a0Home<\/em><\/a> featured the tattered family of Ames’ longtime friend and sometime theological adversary, Reverend Robert Boughton, whose\u00a0two\u00a0recently returned, heartache-suffering adult\u00a0children face the approaching loss of their elderly father. The two titles deservedly received major award recognition, including\u00a0the 2005 Pulitzer Prize<\/a> and 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award<\/a> for Gilead<\/em>, and the\u00a02009 Orange Prize<\/a> and a 2008 National Book Award finalist nod<\/a> for Home<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As the latest of three (thus far) parallel titles about life in the tiny town of Gilead, Iowa, Lila<\/em>\u00a0debuted just last month and is already poised for its own accolades, considered the most likely\u00a0to win the 2014 National Book Award<\/a>\u00a0(stay tuned: the announcement happens November 19).\u00a0Lila<\/em>, I cannot tell a lie, is also my favorite.<\/p>\n

For those just learning about Robinson’s remarkable trio, might I suggest that you begin backwards with Lila<\/em>, even if reading out of publishing order disrupts Robinson’s storytelling intentions. To learn what we can of Lila’s past\u00a0\u2013 including\u00a0the gaps that will remain forever unknowable even to Lila \u2013 adds richer, surprising layers to both Gilead<\/i> and\u00a0Home<\/em>; as wondrous as those novels both are, the ‘aha!’ factor will be exponentially greater if you start with\u00a0Lila<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For a woman who knows so little\u00a0\u2013 about her family, her\u00a0upbringing, her geography, her future\u00a0\u2013 Lila is unexpectedly wise, albeit thoroughly blunt, beyond her years. Rescued as a sickly toddler from a house of decay and neglect by Doll, Lila grows up\u00a0surviving\u00a0hand-to-mouth, constantly in flight. Doll\u00a0pauses in one place just long enough for Lila to learn to read and do basic math.\u00a0Her only stability is knowing\u00a0that Doll is never far. Until she\u00a0isn’t …<\/p>\n

Lila is left alone to endure betrayal, violence, prostitution, and servitude, and eventually finds herself living in a shack on the outskirts of Gilead. Picking up the odd jobs in town from pious women eager to help the less fortunate, she catches the eye of the Reverend John Ames. He’s a tragic figure, still wrestling decades later with the demons who stole\u00a0his wife and daughter\u00a0in childbirth. He’s old, lonely, kind, and inexplicably drawn to\u00a0Lila. She, in turn, recognizes a truly gentle man who she fears might be too good to be true, ready and willing to give her a life beyond her most yearning dreams. And yet even after marriage, during\u00a0pregnancy, neither feels\u00a0secure\u00a0that the other will stay. As they settle into their shared existence, Lila continues to ask her\u00a0good Reverend all the difficult questions which, decades of contemplative life later, he still can’t answer. And\u00a0so\u00a0their lives\u00a0quietly move\u00a0on …<\/p>\n

If you choose to go aural, Maggie Hoffman offers a resonating, plain-spoken narration, exquisitely imbued\u00a0with nervous doubt and wide-eyed wonder. Her Lila is exactly as Robinson intended: a woman of integrity and candor, awkward in her naivet\u00e9, hesitant about her welcome, skeptical of her own intelligence, devoted in her attachments. Trust me: after almost 300 pages or nearly nine hours of keeping such fierce, intense company, you, too, will be\u00a0loathe\u00a0to let Lila\u00a0go … more reason perhaps to return to\u00a0Gilead<\/em>\u00a0and Home<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2004,\u00a0Gilead gave voice to the aging Reverend John Ames, who recognizes he will not live to see his 7-year-old son grow up and so creates an epistolary record of all that he will never be able to share with his\u00a0boy. 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