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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
I Love Iowa
And I loved this book. Normally I'm not a fan of unusual prose, or when writers take too many liberties with time manipulation. However, everything about this book was so seamless and pleasant to read. I especially loved the descriptions of countryside. And, in a very odd way, there was this unusual pagan/Christian juxtaposition that also drew me in.
I would not recommend this novel to your average reader. It takes a special reader to love this kind of story.
And I loved this book. Normally I'm not a fan of unusual prose, or when writers take too many liberties with time manipulation. However, everything about this book was so seamless and pleasant to read. I especially loved the descriptions of countryside. And, in a very odd way, there was this unusual pagan/Christian juxtaposition that also drew me in.
I would not recommend this novel to your average reader. It takes a special reader to love this kind of story.
I listened to this as a reread and loved it all over again. The writing is so beautiful, that it made me want to cry sometimes. I found myself repeating phrases to myself because I love the way they sounded.
Lila, while I enjoyed as a character, was a slow and uneventful read. I found the author revisiting the same few instances or characteristics of people too often. They lost their meaning/energy to push the book forward. By the end, I was glad to have finished it. I didn't feel I knew the characters any better than when I started.
Nobody writes from within characters like Marilynne Robinson. The writing is simple but also deeply revealing, slowly zooming in and out of Lila’s thoughts, her past and present. Absolutely lovely.
“Abbi pietà di noi, certo, ma noi siamo coraggiosi, pensò, e folli, in noi c’è più vita di quanta ne possiamo sopportare, il fuoco si inviluppa dentro di noi. Quella pace potrebbe essere anche semplice stupore.”
Il terzo libro nella serie racconta la storia di Lila, e la Robinson scrive di colpe, redenzione e esistenza in toni alquanto sorprendenti.
Il terzo libro nella serie racconta la storia di Lila, e la Robinson scrive di colpe, redenzione e esistenza in toni alquanto sorprendenti.
With a stark beauty, Robinson describes the love and care that can be present in a harsh life, the wonder and pain that may accompany the birthing of faith and hope. Lila emerges as a fully realized character, grappling always with the depths of what it means to be human, to live in a complex world. Readers of "Gilead" and "Home" will appreciate the return to this fictional setting and other characters that ring true. All might come to care for Lila and understand something of themselves and others through her reflections and experience.
The writing was good and this might have been a good book in its own. However, as part of a trilogy it didn't fit. We were first introduced to Lila in the Pulitzer-prize winning, Gilead, then she featured as a minor character in home. This book delved into Lila's back story. The Lila I read about here didn't match with the introspective, old soul, still waters run deep kind of woman that was described in Gilead. While I think John Ames would have been intrigued by and compassionate toward Lila, I don't think he ever would have fallen in love with her or married her. There were no spiritual and intellectual equals and I think that would have been too important to him. Even if he were just old and lonely, I don't think he would have married this much younger woman with an unknown past. This book just felt too far-fetched and didn't mesh with others in the series. I very much appreciated Lila's perspective and the way she understood the world. I also enjoyed how her simple questions caused John to reconsider long-standing beliefs and look at scripture in a new light.
Also, on a formatting note...this book didn't have chapters or even page breaks. That was very irritating when trying to find a place to stop reading for the night. Each paragraph ran into the next.
Also, on a formatting note...this book didn't have chapters or even page breaks. That was very irritating when trying to find a place to stop reading for the night. Each paragraph ran into the next.
Wow this very unexpectedly gripped my heart. Once you get used to the stream of consciousness style the flow begins to become comforting. In the end, this story is just about the hardship of trusting love and comfort and hope when you’ve only learned to expect the opposite.
Some of the pieces of writing in this novel were beautiful. The dialogue between Lila and the reverend in particular were rich and thought-provoking; discussing faith, religion, and contrasting the theology of an educated man of God who learned from books with the theology of a wandering, impoverished, uneducated woman who learned from experience.
It was time-consuming to get through - the format and stream of consciousness narrative was difficult to follow at times, and it wasn't easy to read quickly. It didn't hold my attention.
It was time-consuming to get through - the format and stream of consciousness narrative was difficult to follow at times, and it wasn't easy to read quickly. It didn't hold my attention.
One of the most beautiful books I've ever read. Robinson has a way of explaining difficult theological concepts not through philosophical discourse but by the examples of her characters' lives. The result is that some of the more beautiful and complex ideas of Christianity are measured and weighed in fairness--not dismissed outright as fantasy or a vestigial paradigm. Eternity, salvation, resurrection are all the subject of Lila's meditations. Of course, as must be the case in sophisticated conversations about religion, Robinson leaves room for you to disagree. If you leave the book thinking she's wrong about God, I can still suspect you'll understand why the book means so much to those who keep some sort of faith. But if you leave the book thinking it's ugly, or poorly thought out, then I don't know what to say to you. I've rarely read language arranged in such beautiful patterns.