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A review by clairealex
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
4.0
This novel, while taking up the life of the young second wife of the Rev John Ames, does not follow the same chronology as the first two. Rather we get Lila's life before marrying him. Now the earlier novels had indicated she had a history largely unknown and that she was different from villagers, but it hadn't prepared me for how very different.
The novel weaves through time. it took a few pages to get used to its transitions among past, more distant past, and present. Perhaps it was more than getting used to shifts, more as information piled up it was easier to spot by detail which time frame we were in. Information from the past is dribbled out carefully after hints have made the reader curious to know.
Lila think s deep thoughts about life, religion, and existence, though she doesn't have the theological vocabulary to express them. john appreciates her questions, and though he tries not to give pat answers, his language sometimes obscures his thought and it comes across as pat. An early report of the teacher from the one year of school Lila attended telling Doll of Lila's "remarkable intelligence" makes her deep thoughts believable. I appreciated Lila's ponderings through most of the book, but felt the last several pages was too much, even for her.
Lila is an intriguing character worth getting to know.
The novel weaves through time. it took a few pages to get used to its transitions among past, more distant past, and present. Perhaps it was more than getting used to shifts, more as information piled up it was easier to spot by detail which time frame we were in. Information from the past is dribbled out carefully after hints have made the reader curious to know.
Lila think s deep thoughts about life, religion, and existence, though she doesn't have the theological vocabulary to express them. john appreciates her questions, and though he tries not to give pat answers, his language sometimes obscures his thought and it comes across as pat. An early report of the teacher from the one year of school Lila attended telling Doll of Lila's "remarkable intelligence" makes her deep thoughts believable. I appreciated Lila's ponderings through most of the book, but felt the last several pages was too much, even for her.
Lila is an intriguing character worth getting to know.