After a very hard life, Lila is homeless when she steps into a small town church for shelter from the rain, and begins a relationship with the elderly minister. It's a novel about the inner life of a woman trying to make sense of her experiences and what she learns about God. It is a tender love story that explores deep themes of loneliness, existence, privilege, kindness, loss, love, and hope.

I enjoyed this book a lot more after finishing it and letting it settle than I enjoyed the actual act of reading it. I'm curious to read the Gilead series now, but not entirely sure it is for me. This was a really slow boil, but I found it to be a beautiful book after it was all over. Especially the idea of examining one's different paths in life and the people who shape one's identity along the way.

Absolutely beautiful writing and storytelling.

Meh...The Biblical references and passages with the "old man" pontificating got a bit tedious. As did Lila's thought process.

While the beginning is somewhat slow, when Lila arrives at the town of Gilead, the story becomes very engaging as this feral woman finds herself in love, suddenly, with the older preacher. The tenuousness of their late-life love, for both of them, when they both had become so solitary, is beautifully explored and described. I enjoyed the book so much that I read the preceding book in the trilogy, Gilead, because it is a letter written by the preacher as he approaches death. It occurs later chronologically and I found I could not yet take my leave of these characters. --Suzanne R.

I have a strange relationship with Robinson's novels; although I revere her writing and her sense of using words to create a fabric much like embroidery, weaved painstakingly with utter care and a delicate breath of intricacy, I'm also conscious that she is deeply religious and spiritual. The religious aspects of her prose leaves me a bit exasperated as many of her characters, although lovable, cannot seem to go forward in life without religion and the Bible's messages to guide them. The religious aspects of these three novels have a place for defining these very human and somewhat complex characters, yet I can't help but wonder whether without their religious convictions, they would otherwise be complete.
I first began my literary relationship with Robinson with her first novel, Housekeeping which personally speaking, is my favorite of all her novels for its simplicity and complexities in defining real human relationships. Robinson does a great job of presenting her characters as genuinely complex humans and her prose is so utterly gorgeous in how she defines their lives. But I think I'm done with reading this kind of religiously infused literature. Truth be known that with Lila, I became quite bored upon reading yet again how the Reverend Ames prayed every day and sought to define his life through prayer and biblical messages. Sigh. Although I'm completely aware that American society during the Great Depression was steeped in religious doctrine, I'm also aware that many were not and yet lived their quiet lives without seeking redemption at every turn. Did that make their lives any less important or meaningful? Much like how she created and defined Lila, herself. The first few chapters were very interesting in defining Lila and Doll, but then halfway through the novel, I became uninterested and yes, bored.
I'm glad to be finished this trilogy and I'm not sure that I want to continue reading anymore of Robinson's novels if she continues to define her characters with such deeply religious convictions.

Like all of Robinson's books, Lila is slow and rich and filled with gorgeous prose and open spaces. Those who have read other books in this series (I refuse to say "trilogy" since that forecloses the possibility of another book) know a bit about Lila. She is featured in the first book, Gilead. This book is told completely from Lila's perspective, and she is not an easy woman with whom to spend 260 pages. Lila is difficult, she is defensive and mean, uncultured and sometimes uncivil. But there are reasons for all of those qualities, and she is also smart and engaged, honest and loyal. Most of all she is interesting. She asks questions, good ones, that no one I know ever asks. She does nothing because that is the way things are done, she is never reflexive but rather always reflective. Her sense of honor may differ from ours, but it is so immutable it is hard not to admire her. It is also hard not to celebrate when she finds comfort, finds perhaps the only person in the universe who understands her and never tries to take things she is unable or unwilling to give. Prepare to spend hours on internal dialogue on the nature of grace, both personal and divine. I read The Goldfinch just before this book (which I loved, this is not an insult to that wonderful book) but this 260 page book took me longer to read than that 760 page book. That is not because I was bored or disengaged, but because there is so much to think about, I found I would read a couple pages and then spend half an hour thinking about something I found within that text. This novel is like a bit of Christian Talmud, a commentary that illuminates the source material for faith. I have never spent so much time examining my faith and my relationship to others in the world, and I am the better for it.

I greatly admire and enjoy Robinson's writing. Her characters grow into focus in front of us, through their actions and circumstances. Wise and humane.