"Life on earth is difficult and grave, and marvelous." So says the Reverend John Ames at one point in this amazingly well written novel told from his troubled young wife, Lila's, perspective. When I read [b:Gilead|68210|Gilead|Marilynne Robinson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327936326s/68210.jpg|2481792] years ago, I fully expected to be bored out of my mind, but Robinson's writing just carried me along as smoothly as a raft down a placid river, and as swiftly too. "Lila" is, thankfully, more of that same river but with a few rapids thrown in.

Taken as a whole, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead (Ames/Boughton) trilogy is the finest American literary work in more than a generation. Gilead alone is a masterpiece; Home back-weaves onto the existing pattern a drop-shadow to underscore its beauty and pain.

Then Lila came along, doing to the story the same thing its title character did to John Ames, upending settled realities and causing reflection on and reinterpretation of past events.

The story is undeniably beautiful, this time told in a stream-of-consciousness style that manages kinship with the two previous books while striking a tone all its own. Lila's "cornered-animal" psyche (and her slow growth into trust and hope) that is only hinted at in Gilead and Home is fleshed out more fully, explaining her without squelching her mystery and strangeness.

What makes this trilogy stand out is Robinson's unabashed metaphysics, framing the characters and the story in Scripture, theological reflection, and spiritual realities. Because of nature of this story, the problem of her throwaway universalist statements in the last three pages of Lila snatches that humble, worshipful significance from the whole collection.

As insightful and polished a thinker as Robinson is (read her essays to get a flavor for that), she has the weakness so common to American Christian thinkers of believing her particular theology more than she believes the Bible. Lila is a story of unsought, unmerited grace (with John Ames playing the part of redeemer) flowing from the fount of Calvin and others. By the end, though, that grace becomes so sloppily irresistible (pouring down even on those who completely reject it and the God who gives it) as to be utterly meaningless.

If Robinson's conception of the Day of Lord were true, the hard-fought faithfulness of Ames, Boughton, and their loved ones is reduced to pitiful farce.

I have a friend who reads [b:The Brothers Karamazov|4934|The Brothers Karamazov|Fyodor Dostoyevsky|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327882764s/4934.jpg|3393910] cover-to-cover every year. It's his favorite book. I've always thought that was a bit odd; there are so many books to read, and so many books I've loved already, I could never understand the desire to re-read a book over and over (and over!) again, until now. I want to go back to the beginning of [a:Marilynne Robinson|7491|Marilynne Robinson|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1256021025p2/7491.jpg]'s Gilead series and read through them, again.

Robinson's writing is beyond superb. She is my favorite author - fiction or non-fiction. I love her style, I love her topics, I love the way she weaves in her own religious beliefs in her fiction writing without proselytizing. Her writing, for me, is the complete package.

Dear Santa, This Christmas I want a set of the Gilead trilogy books for my very own.

Great as always but not my favorite of her books so far! Looking forward to the last one in the series.

❤

While I prefer "Gilead"---the first novel in this trilogy---"Lila" added to the power of "Gilead": they go together beautifully. I'll be rereading "Gilead" someday, and then I'd be able to better review "Lila". I'm not sure how "Lila" will succeed with those who haven't read "Gilead" though: it's beautifully written, and Lila is a vivid character in some ways, but it's a very, very quiet story.