Till We Have Faces in Christian Themes in Literature

Mar 05, 2009 Mia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a hard book to review. Surely it wasn't what I expected when I bought it. I always been fond in this love story, so when I heard that my favorite writer wrote about it, I was beyond excited. Still, I didn't get what I wanted. But as the song says, I got what I needed.
First of all the mayor character is so human that you can't easily decide if you like or not. Too human, too close to all of our inner doubts to like her unconditionally. Human characters are usually unlucky ones, they are o This is a hard book to review. Surely it wasn't what I expected when I bought it. I always been fond in this love story, so when I heard that my favorite writer wrote about it, I was beyond excited. Still, I didn't get what I wanted. But as the song says, I got what I needed.
First of all the mayor character is so human that you can't easily decide if you like or not. Too human, too close to all of our inner doubts to like her unconditionally. Human characters are usually unlucky ones, they are often disliked. Telling the story through her eyes surely was a brave choice, she's no Psyche, she's not beautiful, she's not "totally" good.
She's Orual, the ugly sister of the beautiful and magical Psyche. She doesn't make always the right choices and so I have to repeat myself, I'm sorry: she's human.
You follow her life, her loss, her inner scream and you step by step feel every single emotion she feels. In the end she is that kind of character that ends up raising in you so many emotion you can hardly tell what you think about her. That is one of the best point of the book, she's totally real. Like a person you really know she makes you feel annoyed, happy, sympathetic, angry. This isn't a really simple thing to do. At all. Of course if you want to deal only with fictional characters who are always cool, always bad or always too good to be true, this isn't the kind of book you should read.
Anyway, her story is a complicated one. Such a contradictory one: she go through the years building walls and walls (she end up hiding her face behind a veil very soon) between herself and the world, the people, even the ones she loves. But as any human being does, she deeply wants to be loved. Wants to be loved from someone who could show her that she can be loved even if she's got such a unlucky ugly face. The man she loves - more or less, it's not really a romantic relationship - doesn't see her like a woman, but yet is a really close character to her for all of his life.
Another amazing thing about this book, I don't want to spoil honestly, so I 'll keep being vague about the actual storyline, is that the ending changes everything. Few pages changes all the others, making you thinking back about them with new eyes. New eyes is exactly what you get in the end.
That is pretty brilliant to me. Once again so realistic! Truth is not an easy thing, it never was and will never be. Lewis was surely aware of this. Life can surprise you. Always. ...more

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Jul 01, 2008 Julie N rated it it was amazing

Best.Book. Ever. I am a huge CS Lewis fan, so this is my very favorite Lewis book and my overall favorite book. Lewis re-examines the myth of Cupid and Psyche in an amazing way. I read this book one summer before I took a CS Lewis course in college. That fall, during the course, I read it again and learned that Lewis intended it as an allegory for a person who becomes a Christian (Psyche), while their family and friends (Orual) do not believe. It meant more to me as a Christian, but is an amazin ...more

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Jul 16, 2020 Steffanie Kamper Culp rated it it was amazing

This is probably the fourth time I have read this book. Each reading brings out new things. I also have been listening to the discussion of this on the " Pints With Jack " podcast and that has been another way to get more out of this round of rereading. ...more

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Jan 29, 2011 Philip rated it it was amazing

Shelves: by-the-inklings, re-reads

The first two times I read this book, I didn't really care for it all that much. After giving it a few years, I've come back to it, and I loved it this time. I'm not sure I still exactly understand everything Lewis is trying to do here, but it's a great story. ...more

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