Till We Have Faces

I always loved Greek mythology. One great myth is that of Cupid and Psyche. The myth tells of a beautiful woman, taken as a wife by Cupid, but commanded that she may not look at him. Her two sisters see her beautiful home and her wonderful husband and, out of jealousy, convince her to break her promise to her husband and look upon him in the night. When she does so, Psyche is exiled and her sisters pay the price with their lives. Psyche's journey continues from there as she must complete several tasks. In Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche.

Lewis' story is narrated by Orual, the eldest daughter of the King of Glome, who is terribly ugly and who helps raise her step-sister Psyche, the youngest of the three princesses of Glome. Raised by a violent king in the ancient world, Orual finds herself trying to balance between the superstitions of the people of Glome and the advice given by the Fox, a Greek slave bought to teach the young princesses. As Orual comes of age, events come about which will change her life and the way she sees her world and the gods. Orual is writing her story as a charge against the gods and explains her side of the story. She is not the most reliable of narrators but it is easy to see what she is avoiding saying. Her masks tend to be as obvious as the veil she soon wears to cover her face.

There is so much I would love to say about this book but I am afraid to give too much away. This book has some very strong symbolism in it, most of which is understandable, though I confess that I am still scratching my head over one bit. The story is beautifully told and this is probably my favorite piece of Lewis' fiction. All in all, it is a novel I would recommend to any who enjoy mythology or fiction. While Orual may lie to herself in the beginning, she comes to a degree of wisdom by the end which will provoke thought about our own assumptions and beliefs.

I saw well why the gods so not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?

Rating: 4.5

Manalive

G.K. Chesterton is one of my favorite authors for his lyrical style. Manalive is one of his remarkable pieces of fiction and it opens with one of the most wonderful descriptions of wind:

A wind sprang high in the west, like a wave of unreasonable happiness, and tore eastward across England, trailing with it the frosty scent of forests and the cold intoxication of the sea. It a million holes and corners it refreshed a man like a flagon, and astonished him like a blow. In the inmost chambers of intricate and embowered houses it woke like a domestic explosion, littering the floor with some professor's papers till they seemed as precious as fugitive, or blowing out the candle by which a boy read "Treasure Island" and wrapping him in roaring dark. But everywhere it bore drama into undramatic lives, and carried the trump of crisis across the world… Many an unnoticed girl in a dank walled garden had tossed herself into the hammock with the same intolerant gesture with which she might have tossed herself into the Thames; and that wind rent the waving wall of woods and lifted the hammock like a balloon, and showed her shapes of quaint clouds far beyond, and pictures of bright villages far below, as if she rode heaven in a fairy boat… There was in it something more inspired and authoritative even than the old wind of the proverb; for this was the good wind that blows nobody harm.

With this, the reader is introduced to the young men and women staying at a boarding house in London.

Innocent Smith is a strange young man who is blown by this wonderful wind into the boarding house's garden and he brings much more than a breath of fresh air into the lives of several people "who had long been consciously imprisoned in the commonplace." Mr. Smith is quite an original character as we see very quickly.

He talked dominantly and rushed the social situation; but he was not asserting himself, like a superman in a modern play. He was simply forgetting himself, like a little boy at a party. He had somehow made a giant stride from babyhood to manhood, and missed that crisis in youth when most of us grow old.

Soon though, many questions are raised about Mr. Smith and who he is. Is he some insane monster, murdering people, stealing, and tricking young women into a terrible fate? Or is he something entirely different?

I love this story and it is beautifully told. Events are strange but beautiful. This is a story about retaining the beauty in life - living in such a way that you are no longer "imprisoned in the commonplace." This book will make you think and maybe help you to see life in a more positive way.

Rating: 4.5

Springing - BTT

I woke up today and it took me a while to realize that it is Thursday again! Time does fly. And it being Thursday means that it is time for Booking Through Thursday:

Do your reading habits change in the Spring? Do you read gardening books? Even if you don’t have a garden? More light fiction than during the Winter? Less? Travel books? Light paperbacks you can stick in a knapsack?

Or do you pretty much read the same kinds of things in the Spring as you do the rest of the year?

Honestly, the books don't really change for me based on the season. The only change that comes over me is the location of the reading. There is a river not far from my house and I can take a short bike ride to a nice little pavilion that looks out on to the water. During the spring and summer, that becomes a very common place for me to read. If I don't want to go all the way out to the river, my back porch is great with the garden in the backyard to look upon. It makes me love the spring even more!

Challenge the Third

I found another challenge today that is just so wonderful and hard to resist that I decided to jump in and join. The challenge is Once Upon A Time II hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings. The rules are simply to read a number of stories that would fall under the genre headings of Fantasy, Folklore, Fairy Tales, or Mythology between March 21 and June 20. I will be going for Quest the Third, so I will try to read five books that will fall under any of those headings and then add A Midsummer Night's Dream. Thus, here is my list for this challenge:

Fantasy
Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop
Fairy Tale
Phantastes by George MacDonald
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Mythology
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
And Finally
A Midsummer's Night Dream by William Shakespeare

The Enchanted Castle

The Enchanted Castle is a fairy tale for children that tells the story of Jerry, Cathy, and Jimmy, who are spending their vacation at Cathy's school. One day, when they are exploring the village around the school, they meet Mabel, the niece of the housekeeper. She puts on a ring and the magic starts.

This is a fun story that is enjoyable for children of all ages. The children have a go at being invisible, see statues come to life, and try to be kind and helpful to the French governess taking care of them. It is an easy story and it is full of imagination.

I have a silly habit of making a mental list of the books that I will share with any children I may have in the future: The Secret Garden and a book of princess tales for the girls, stories about knights and adventures for the boys, etc. This is one that I hope I can read to either.

Rating: 4.0

Vocabulary - BTT

I missed last week's Booking Through Thursday but now I'm back from studying and can answer this week's question:

I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?

Typically, I tend to use context clues and just guess the meaning (aka "just continue reading and forget about the word"). It usually works though I do tend to get strange ideas about the exact definition - I found that out in a strong way when I was studying vocabulary for the GRE exam. Then again, there are times when I will jot the word down and later look it up. That tends to be the choice when I am reading a more complex text and I am looking up several words at once.

What do you guys do?

In Lucia's Eyes

Giacomo Casanova is well known as a man who loved many women but seldom is the story of one of the women told. In Lucia's Eyes is the story of the first woman who was ever loved by Casanova, a young girl who met him when they were both very young.

Lucia tells the story of her life and how she came to fall in love with the young Giacomo and how they planned to marry. Unfortunately, Lucia is struck with a case of small pox and her face is disfigured while Giacomo is away. Before he can return, she runs off and makes her way through Europe in a variety of roles. Now, Lucia is living in Amsterdam as a courtesan and life brings her something which causes her "to see everything in a new light" and Giacomo has become the famous Casanova.

One of the interesting themes of this tale is reason and emotion: by which or both should a person live? Should a person, once educated, live solely by that reason they have presumably gained or should emotion rule a person's actions? Or is there a third course where reason and emotion, education and intuition guide the choices and actions of a person? Japin's ideas are very relevant to the world and I would be interested in seeing more thoughtful work like this.

As the story goes, Lucia grows and learns more about herself, the results of her actions, and love. While this is a very short story, it was very well written and there was a great story to it. It was easy to read but it also brought about some interesting thoughts.

Rating: 4.5

Mila 18

When I first began the A-Z challenge, I came to the 'U' in the author list and I thought about a book I had read years ago by Leon Uris, Trinity, which was about the uprising in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century. I knew he had written other books so I thought I would read one of his. When looking at what he has written, I came across Mila 18, described as a "blazing novel... set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists." That sounded interesting enough but the book exceeded all my expectations. The novel is based on the real Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943 and after reading this, I am very interested in reading historical accounts on which Uris based his book.

This stunning novel is set in Warsaw and begins with August 1939, weeks prior to the Nazi invasion of Poland. The reader is swiftly introduced to several sets of characters who are all important to the story. One of the most interesting characters is Andrei Androfski, a Captain in the Polish Army and a Jew, who is dating Gabriella Rak, a Polish Catholic woman who works at the American Embassy. Also important is Alexander Brandel, who we first meet through his journals chronicling the war and the life in Warsaw for the Jews. The reader sees the experiences of many people, from Horst von Epp, a German in charge of propaganda, to Paul Bronski, an academic who is set up as a puppet in the Jewish Civil Authority; from Wolf Brandel, the son of Alexander and a young man at the beginning of a terrible chapter in history, to Gunther Sauer, an officer in the Gestapo in charge of getting information from people.

While it may be difficult to balance this many characters on a normal basis, I found it very easy to keep track of who everyone was and how they were connected with one another. The story was very well told and, even though I knew in general terms how it had to end, I still had to keep reading to see what happened to the wonderful people in this terrible situation. This was a tragedy but not in the same way that so many recently published books have been. The tragedy seems almost incidental, somehow, while the main thrust of the book is about fighting against tyranny in many ways, even at the cost of your own life, and about finding nobility in the hardest situations one could ever face.

One note of comment is how Horst von Epp's character had very interesting comments and insights into the Nazi party and about how the world would react to the crimes of Nazi Germany. While some of them were mistaken, all of them are interesting to read in light of some knowledge of the past sixty some-odd years.

I loved this book and will have to pick up more of Uris' stories in the future.

Rating: 5.0

A Bride Most Begrudging

So I have a very bad habit of getting sucked into books at bad times. Like last night. I had just received a box of books that I ordered from Barnes and Noble and was putting them in my room to sort and figure out which I would read when I was done with Mila 18, which I am currently reading. Anyway, I picked up A Bride Most Begrudging and looked at the back. Then, I wanted to see how it started. Keep in mind that this is happening around 10 PM. So I started the book and then I wanted to see what would happen. I knew the basic idea of what would happen but I wanted to see how Deeanne Gist had decided to pull it off. Finally, I managed to look up from the book long enough to check the time and realized it was 5:30 in the morning. After that, I figured I should at least try to sleep for a while and when I woke up, I quickly finished off what remained of this rather light and enjoyable book.

A Bride Most Begrudging is about Lady Constance Morrow, who is brought to the colonies against her will and sold for three hundred pounds of tobacco as a tobacco bride. Drew O'Connor, who wins Constance in a card game from the man who had purchased her that morning, has no need or desire for a wife and doesn't like to make emotional attachments, knowing that many people don't survive long in the colonial wilderness. All Constance wants is to get back to her family in England but, first, she needs someone to believe her. Drew needs someone to help cook and clean but he has already bought an indentured servant for that. Finally, when the town council sees that Drew has two women living in his house, he is forced to marry Constance.

One of the best things about this book is how Gist incorporated the difficulties of early colonial life into the story. The practice of kidnapping women to use as tabacco brides, the difficulties between the indians and the colonists, the constant threat of disease: in short, many real elements of the time that people faced were brought into the story in ways that made it seem a little more real. It made a good book even better.

This is a good, light Christian romance that was very easy to enjoy. The Christian ideas which sometimes stifle in this genre were barely noticeable, at least in comparison to Lori Wick and her long conversion scenes and stories that inevitably end up in the story. All in all, it wasn't bad and I may have found a new author for fluffy, rainy-day stories.

Rating: 4.0

Queen of Babble

I am sure all of you have seen some movie where one of the protagonist does something very stupid and something that should/will cause a great deal of shame for that particular character and those around him or her. I tend to get so embarassed by the actions of characters in a film that I turn the show off for a time. I bring this up because I felt the same way when I was reading Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot.

Lizzie Nichols has just graduated from college, except for that pesky 50 page thesis paper that she just found out about and has to complete before she can recieve her diploma. She is also traveling to England to meet her boyfriend, who she last saw three months ago. When things don't go well, partially due to Lizzie's tendancy to saw the Atlantic to meet - she had known him for a whopping 24 hours before he went back to London.

I didn't really like Lizzie to much but I was interested in seeing how the story ended. Then again, maybe I am just incapable of setting a book down for any reason other than mind-numbing boredom. Either way, this seems to be an example of a book I can read but not one that I would want to read. Apparently, my tastes in chick lit are fairly specific and Meg Cabot (young adult or chick lit) just doesn't do it for me.

Rating: 3.0

Change of Heart

In Jodi Picoult's most recently published book, Change of Heart, Shay Bourne has been convicted of murdering Elizabeth Nealon, a seven year old girl, and her step-father who is also a police officer. Because of the heinous nature of the crimes for which he is convicted, he is sentenced to death and will be the first man in New Hampshire to face the death penalty in about 60 years. June Nealon wants nothing to do with him, but now her daughter (who was born a few months after the deaths of Elizabeth and Kurt Nealon) is in need of a heart and Shay Bourne is offering his. This book, which had some very Green Mile type elements, revolves around the relationship between Shay and the Nealon's and religious beliefs.

I have to say that I regularly felt completely fed up with Father Michael's character. Father Micheal seemed to be a man who had chosen to take Holy Orders for no other reason than a feeling of guilt related to his service on the jury that sentenced Shay Bourne to death. A man who is supposed to be leading the faith ends up with his faith completely shaken within such a short amount of time and having no strength in his faith. Quite frankly, I found myself despising the silly little man and wanting to set down the book every time the chapter was narrated by him.

June Nealon's character found a little more sympathy in my heart: at least she had the excuse of having lost a husband (not so long after losing her first one) and a daughter all in one terrible day. Now, faced with the possible death of her only remaining family, it would be easy to be as bitter and cynical as June Nealon is. Still, I didn't enjoy reading her narrative until the latter parts of the story.

To be honest, the only narrative I actually enjoyed was that of the ACLU lawyer helping Shay, and that was because I understand the body and family issues and found her budding relationship to be sweet and humorous. I wasn't expecting to like her but she was quickly my favorite character and, quite possibly, the only reason I continued to read this book.

There were several instances of false information regarding the Catholic Church which tended to annoy me. None of them were huge, except one regarding the Seal of the Confessional, but it showed a lack of research which concerns me when I am reading a novel that revolved so strongly around religious beliefs.

As I am coming to find out about Picoult's writing, there were a few twists, but nothing I didn't expect from the beginning. While some of the story may have been very good, my disgust with the priest's lack of strength in his faith (which was due to why he chose the priesthood) made it very difficult for me to enjoy this novel and that was compounded by my frustration at the instances of poor research done regarding some elements of the Catholic Church, which played into the story. I suppose I can see a final point to all of it but not enough to make me really enjoy this book.

Rating: 2.5

Lit-Ra-Chur - BTT

Is it time for Booking Through Thursday already? Time goes by way to fast. Anyway, here is the question of the week:

When somebody mentions “literature,” what’s the first thing you think of? (Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?)
Do you read “literature” (however you define it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must?

I guess "literature" tends to be synonymous with the classics in my mind. Books that have aged enough to be considered timeless and truly worth reading (whatever that happens to mean.) As for whether I read "literature," that comes with a resounding YES. Some of my favorite books are classics, from Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen to the Sherlock Holmes mysteries by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; from Wuthering Heights to Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. I have often chosen to read "literature," not because I had to, but because it is enjoyable reading.

The Time Traveler's Wife

I am sure that many people have heard of The Time Traveler's Wife, a novel about a man, Henry DeTamble, who has some sort of genetic disease that causes him to time-travel to various locations and times at odd moments in his life. Each time he time-travels, he arrives naked and must steal clothes and money to survive until he is pulled back into the present. The Time Traveler's Wife is also about Clare DeTamble, his wife, who first met Henry when he landed naked in her backyard, when she was six years old.

While I wasn't glued to this book, I did enjoy it. I didn't like some of the scenes and some of the language but it was a good story. At times, it was hard to follow the time changes, but Niffenegger helps by including a reference to the date and the ages of Henry and Clare before each section.

This book is sad, due to events and the fact that Clare is often left waiting for Henry. First, she waits for the days when he will show up near her house, and then, she is waiting for him to come back. Still, I liked the book and found Niffenegger's idea of a disease that makes you travel through time to be very different.

One bothersome factor is that I didn't see the explaination for some of the scenes that I though should have been there. It was like Niffenegger had an idea for a scene but only wrote half of it. I might have missed it but it was something that took away from the book for me.

Rating: 3.5