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Lila

Lila 1

by Marilynne Robinson
Paperback
Publication Date: 14/10/2014
4/5 Rating 1 Review

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Lila, homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, steps inside a small-town Iowa church-the only available shelter from the rain-and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life.

She becomes the wife of a minister and widower, John Ames, and begins a new existence while trying to make sense of the days of suffering that preceded her newfound security. Neglected as a toddler, Lila was rescued by Doll, a canny young drifter, and brought up by her in a hardscrabble childhood of itinerant work.

Together they crafted a life on the run, living hand-to-mouth with nothing but their sisterly bond and a lucky knife to protect them. But despite bouts of petty violence and moments of desperation, their shared life is laced with moments of joy and love. When Lila arrives in Gilead, she struggles to harmonize the life of her makeshift family and their days of hardship with the gentle worldview of her husband which paradoxically judges those she loves.

Revisiting the beloved characters and setting of Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead and Orange Prize-winning Home, Lila is a moving expression of the mysteries of existence.

Longlisted in the 2015 Man Booker Prize
Shortlisted for the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award

ISBN:
9781844088812
9781844088812
Category:
Contemporary fiction
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
14-10-2014
Publisher:
Little, Brown Book Group
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Pages:
272
Dimensions (mm):
137x216x20mm
Weight:
0.37kg
Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson was born in 1947.

Her first novel, Housekeeping (1981) received the PEN/Hemingway award for best first novel as well as being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Gilead won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and Home won the Orange Prize. She lives in Iowa.

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1 Review

ā€œShe saw him standing in the parlor with his beautiful old head bowed down on his beautiful old chestā€¦ā€¦ā€¦.Praying looks just like grief. Like shame. Like regretā€
Lila is the fourth novel by prize-winning American author, Marilynne Robinson, and the third book in the Gilead series. Readers of the first book will recall that seventy-six year old Reverend John Ames was married to Lila, a woman thirty-five years his junior who had borne him a son seven years before. Just how that somewhat intriguing situation came to be: how an old man came to marry a much younger woman, a woman with a very different background to that of his first wife; is what Robinson relates in this third book.
As her life with John Ames and her pregnancy progresses, Lila, a seemingly prickly character, thinks back on her life, the events of which are gradually revealed. It has been a life filled with hardship, loneliness and loss (ā€œDonā€™t want what you donā€™t need and youā€™ll be fine. Donā€™t want what you canā€™t haveā€) and Lila finds it difficult to trust her new-found security with John Ames, constantly reassuring herself that she can leave at any time and go back to what she had before, although she is loathe to hurt him (ā€œMaybe I can teach him a new kind of sadness. Maybe he really does care whether I stay or goā€). It seems an unlikely match but as Lila reads the Bible and challenges John with all sorts of difficult questions about life, it becomes apparent that both parties benefit from the union. She muses ā€œWhat would I pray for, if I thought there was any point to it? Well, I guess the first thing would have to be that there was some kind of point to itā€ and eventually finds that his care ā€œwas nothing she had known to hope for and something she had wanted too much all the same. So too much happiness came with it, and happiness was strange to her.ā€
This is a novel with some beautiful descriptive prose (ā€œShe had never really thought about the way the dead would gather at the edge of town, all their names spelled out so youā€™d know whose they were for as long as that family lived in that placeā€ and ā€œā€¦.the fields looking so green in the evening lightā€¦Every farmhouse in its cloud of trees. There is a way trees stir before rain, as if they already felt the heavinessā€), as well as many words of wisdom (ā€œAny good thing is less good the more any human lays claim to itā€ and ā€œThinking about hell doesnā€™t help me life the way I shouldā€).
This moving and thought-provoking novel, National Book Award Nominee for Fiction 2014, is a heart-warming read.
With thanks to TheReadingRoom and the publisher for this copy to read and review.

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