Till We Have Faces
A book you should read this Christmas
After I completed Out of the Silent Planet and That Hideous Strength (I skipped Perelandra) by C. S. Lewis, I was on a roll. My husband told me about Till We Have Faces, and said C. S. Lewis himself thought it was his best novel. It is. And I am here to tell you that you need to read it soon.
Read it. Listen to it. Whatever you need to do to ingest this book. Something in it will pull you into the vortex of the ancient us. The ur-me, the ur-you. You will meet the person you know and avoid, there, inside you. You will wonder how someone else, a stranger, knows you so well. Knows us humans so well. And you will meet the person you think you are, sometimes, there, inside too. I am, on purpose, enigmatic here — because it is best if you go on this reading adventure with as little information as possible. You need to just go, and trust me that this journey will be worth it. I promise.
And then, you will, little by little, understand more about what it means to be human. And this will make your life richer. It made my life richer and filled with wonder of how so many human beings see more of what it means to be here. To be human.
Read it this Christmas and then let me know what you think. If you’ve already read the book, please also share what you gleaned from it.
In other Christmas news: Please read my movie recommendation. I think you will find some gems in there!
I don’t think I can tell you what I love about this book without spoiling it for someone else, so I’ll just express my agreement with what you said. Lewis shows a great deal of empathy, but lets no one off the hook.
Read this book nearly 30 years ago. It’s a powerful story that touches on quite a lot of the human condition. Even royalty was not immune to certain pains of the soul.