Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Gilead and Home are two of my favorite novels, so I could not have been more excited when Lila arrived at my doorstep. The character of Lila (Reverend Ames' wife) remained somewhat of a mystery in both the earlier novels. She was the much younger, loving wife of the wonderful Reverend Ames, but she was a woman with a private past that even her much older husband knew little about. This book fills in the character of Lila and begins with her as a 5 year-old girl crying outside a house with no one there to help her. She gets saved by Doll, and they develop a sweet maternal relationship that shapes the rest of her life. Ultimately, Robinson might be my favorite writer. I do not have a religious bone in my body, but I find myself returning to Gilead again and again just to read Reverend Ames' thoughts on the world. And Robinson is also such an understanding, empathetic writer. In Home, Jack Boughton's struggles with religion and predestination shape the novel, but she refuses to condemn him for his atheism. Lila is a third piece to that puzzle about a woman uneasy with religion but read to engage with the questions it raises. So yeah...these three novels have deeply affected me. The prose in Lila is as beautiful as her three earlier novels, and at points, possibly even more beautiful. Lila's torment gives Robinson the chance to do things with languages few people in the history of writing have been able to do. I recommend it highly.