There are some things that are better with age- with experience and maturity. It's why my parents wouldn't let me see some movies until I was older. It's why you don't do algebra until your freshman year of high school. And it's why you don't read some novels until you're older. It's not always a problem of mature content; in some cases, it's that you just don't have the capacity to understand the themes fully, for whatever reason.
I started to read C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces when I was in 5th or 6th grade. My dad told me it was his favorite book, so I put forth my very best effort... but I just couldn't get into it. So I abandoned it for more interesting books.
After seeing the Chronicles of Narnia recently, I was stunned at C.S. Lewis's brilliance in spiritual themes, and wanted to read more of his work. So, I picked up Till We Have Faces. And this time, I was hooked.
It's not that Till We Have Faces has a message that's told graphically, or intensely, or with frightening images. It's not that it's inappropriate for a young mind to be thinking of. It's just that when I read it in 5th or 6th grade, I didn't have the mental maturity to process what was going on in the book and apply it to my life. I didn't have the experiences which made this book relevant to me. I didn't have the same search for theological themes that I do now. There are many other books that I read this way: starting them when I was younger and tossing them aside, then loving them when I'm older. It's proof that we are constantly growing in our experiences and the depth of our thought process, and a milestone to look forward to as we grow. I've come to realize that our own personal experiences can help us to understand or can shape our understanding of a book, a song, a speech, a poem. But these experiences are different for everyone, which makes some of our "takeaways" different. That's why we read book reviews: because someone else who read the same book was touched in a different way, or their own experience brought to light a different aspect of the book.
All that to say, that's probably a digression from the book review, but certainly one I found important and interesting as I read this book.
So. Till We Have Faces. It's the re-telling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, which I had never heard before. Two princesses, ugly Orual and beautiful Psyche, live in the kingdom of Glome under a tyrannical father-king. Near Greece, the princesses have a Greek slave for a tutor, called the Fox. Though the Fox scorns the idea of the gods, Glome is a devout kingdom that worships the god Ungit. In order to please Ungit, it is ordered that Psyche, the beautiful one, be sacrificed. This begins Orual's resentment against the gods, which continues to build destructively throughout Orual's life, chronicled in her diary as a testimony against the gods and their cruelty.
Orual is the central character, and everything is told narrowly through her eyes. She loves those around her fiercely and selfishly, she doesn't love herself, but hides her hideous face behind a veil. When she becomes Queen, she brings prosperity to the land, with the Fox and Bardia, a loyal captain of the guard, at her side. She lives a long life, always hating the gods. Everyone around her is fiercely loyal to her and loves her, and she uses this to her advantage, all the while excusing it as their love for her, unable to face the truth. She is convinced she's doing what is right for them.
It never ceases to amaze me how well C.S. Lewis understood humanity. He portrays Orual in a sympathetic light, and her justification of her actions towards others ring so true of humanity. I have absolutely dealt with a friend as Orual does with Psyche, giving them advice "for their own good", but really selfishly having my own reasons for doing it. Orual's character is defined by selfishness and self-pity for her ugliness, which is ultimately a metaphor for her inner self. What's particularly brilliant about C.S. Lewis's writing is how natural Orual's excuses seem, and later, how clear it is how selfish she is. Honestly, when I was younger and the only thing I had read by C.S. Lewis was Narnia, I thought he wasn't the best writer. Sure, he was a good storyteller, but he was very much a minimalist writer. It wasn't until I read Till We Have Facesthat I changed my mind. His writing style in this is beautiful, completely different from Narnia. In Narnia, he is telling a children's story in the simplest terms, but in this, he's constructing a complex psychological story, and he does it very well. Gone are the minimalist phrases, and in their places are beautiful, precise sentences. I know exactly what C.S. Lewis wanted to say with this book.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
I have to discuss the ending of the book because it's what makes the book brilliant. The majority of the book is Orual's tale of her life. But the final section of the book is a changed Orual writing of how her eyes have been opened. She realizes that she destroyed everyone she loved: her love for Psyche is more a hatred and jealousy of possession than a love; Bardia, the man she was in love with, was overworked, tired, only cranky with his wife, and the Fox never returned to his homeland, Greece, though he longed for it, out of deference to Orual's wishes. She is taken through a complex set of visions, and realizes, Who is she to question the gods, when she has so little knowledge of the bigger picture? How can we really speak face to face with the gods till we have faces?
What a beautiful reminder of how small we humans are, and how big we think we are. Orual puts the gods in a box; she criticizes them and whines about them, denounces their schemes as being only for the destruction of her happiness, when she is part of a plan so much bigger than she is. Understanding that our lives are not the center of God's plan, but rather a thread in the tapestry, gives us a peace and forces us to trust that God is using us in ways we may not imagine.
Even after all of this, I still feel like I'll read this in ten years and get even more out of it. But this reading taught me so much that right now I can hardly imagine what I'll discover next time. What a spectacular book. It only proved to me more the sheer genius that C.S.Lewis was.
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