Well, after two trips between Kentucky and Tennessee I finally finished C.S. Lewis’s book, Till We Have Faces, on tape! I enthusiastically recommend it. There is nothing like having someone read a book to you in a British accent! I got hooked on books-on-tape with the Harry Potter series. Jim Dale, the narrarator has an awesome accent, and chances are if you get a book-on-tape by a British author, you will get a British person reading it. Sarah and I have thought about going to England and spending a year at Oxford just so Morgan could spend her formative time around English people so she could have a cool accent and read books to us!
OK, back to the book… This was a hard book to get into and figure out. The only other Lewis fiction that I have read (heard) is the Narnia series. So all throughout this book I was looking for the parallels to the Gospel. There are some connections, however it was definately not an allegory. This hindered me from really enjoying the story until the end where everything was tied together. The ending is definately worth the slower parts of the book and sheds light on our human condition. Basically the book is a retelling of the Greek myth of the struggle between Psyche and Cupid. Lewis uses this story only as a source and not as an inspiration however. The two differ in some significant ways and Lewis does not miss a chance to include a profound story of redemption.
The story is comprised of a book written by a queen, who happened to be quite ugly and who was the sister of Psyche. This book was written as a case against the gods for stealing away the love her sister had for her. The first eighty percent of the story is filled with the queen’s bitter charges against the gods. What had happened was her sister, Psyche, was sent as a sacrifice to the gods because she was a very beautiful women who was actually worshipped as a goddess. Psyche survived the sacrifice and was betrothed to a god (Cupid) who would not allow his face to be seen. Upto this point the story is true to the myth except for historical setting. The queen then finds her sister and grows angry at the gods for toying around with humanity. The story progresses until the queen is fairly old and brings her charge against the gods. The gods’ reply to the queen was to have her read her true feelings, instead of the book she had written against them. And as we all know, our true feelings are always dirtier and darker than we let people know. Thus in seeing her true self the queen is humbled by her selfishness. I will not ruin it by going into too much detail.
The hard part to get through is trying to refrain from making the gods comparable to the one true God. Lewis is not so much worried with that however, and is willing to let us squirm a little in order for us to see the deeper lesson.
Overall I would give this book a 7. I am glad I listened to it!

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