Lila by Marilynne Robinson

I have been listening to audiobooks to cram in more 'reading', using them when I am working on quilts.

After reading the galley of Marilynne Robinson's new book Jack, I borrowed Lila from Overdrive.

Robinson's Gilead novels began with Gilead, an extended letter by an aging and ailing John Ames to his young son. Home, Lila, and Jack continued the stories from the viewpoints of other characters in Gilead.

It is a beautifully presented audiobook, the text flowing and the narrator Maggie Hoffman giving the characters individual voices.

The story of Lila is heartbreaking. She was a neglected child stolen from her family by a woman who shows her the only love and care she experiences before meeting John Ames, the narrator of Robinson's novel Gilead. Lila grew up a migrant, outside of society and untutored in religion. But her native intelligence brings her to struggle with the Big Questions of life.

Lila is a survivor who relies only on herself after losing her surrogate mother, Doll. On her own, she works in a St. Louis brothel, becoming the maid when the men don't want her.

She goes on the road again, stopping in Gilead, a town she despises. She wanders into church one day to escape the rain. The minister notes her and pursues her, showing her consideration and Christian love, with patience and acceptance she has never experienced before.

The 'beautiful old man,' the Rev. John Ames, wants to help her. She asks Ames to marry her.

Ames had lost his wife and child as a young man, and assumed his golden years would be as lonely and cold as they had been ever since. He loves Lila, but understands she may flit away back into her accustomed life on the road where she does not have to rely on anyone else. She struggles to trust even Ames.

Lila's struggle to understand baptism, the Bible and the mystery of life, takes up a great deal of the book.

Lila's life as a migrant worker, the utter poverty, was relieved by a spunky friend and Doll's love. Lila worries about what happened to them, and puzzles over the fate of their unbaptized souls.

When Lila becomes pregnant, Ames feels blessed at this second chance. Even in the womb, Lila talks to her child, vowing to protect it and care for it. She thinks about stealing off with her baby, still uncertain about human love's immutability.

This is a novel that offers a great deal to contemplate. I do not feel adequate to delve into its deeper meanings after only one reading.

I prefer reading books to listening, but have found audiobooks useful for getting in more reading. I am a quick reader, so spending eight hours listening to a book I could read in four means the story felt dragged out, the introspection endless. Also, I can't note places I want to return to or quote!

I was surprised to hear John Ames voice as quivering. It was not how I have heard it in my head over my three readings of Gilead.

This may not have been the best book for me to listen to. But I am glad to have finally encountered Lila.

Read a fantastic review in the New Yorker Magazine here.

Last to read, I have Home on by TBR shelf.