Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. What a crazy story. Okay, it’s based on the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche. But Lewis really turns the story on its head with the main character. You live in her head and read every thought that goes through her brain. She is very much fallible, yet passionate and strong.
I have to admit that, at first, I had a hard time getting into the story. A few reasons that that was true may have been that 1) I have only read the Narnia chronicles from Lewis’s works before, 2) I had just finished reading The Visitation by Frank Peretti, which takes place in modern times, and 3) I’ve been pressed for time in reading multiple books concurrently.
Once I got to the second chapter, I got in a rhythm with the book. The main character is a woman named Orual, first daughter to Trom, King of Glome. Her mentor is a Greek slave called the Fox, whom she calls “Grandfather.” Together they rear Orual’s younger half-sister Istra, whom they call “Psyche” between themselves.
Royalty, in this story, are considered to have divine blood in them, making them related to gods. In this strange and pain-filled tale, the heroine learns a great deal about life in a world entangled with mysterious and seemingly capricious gods as she ages and pens her history, what she calls her “complaint against the gods,” beginning with her mother’s death to when she herself dies.
This is definitely worth a read. Although it has a dark undercurrent throughout the whole story, Lewis weaves in bits of light and joy–just enough to brighten the story–and masterfully ties up all story elements by the end.
