海角大神

'Lila' gives us the year鈥檚 sweetest literary love story

In 'Lila,' Pulitzer Prize-winner Marilynne Robinson takes us back to Iowa.

Marilynne Robinson returns to her fictional small town in Iowa to craft the year鈥檚 sweetest literary love story in Lila.

Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for 鈥淕ilead,鈥� in which a small-town preacher writes down the story of his life in a letter for the young son he won鈥檛 get to see grow up. She won the Orange Prize for 鈥淗ome,鈥� in which she took on the story of the prodigal godson. Now 鈥淟ila,鈥� the third novel, which is told from the point of view of the preacher鈥檚 wife, was named a finalist for the National Book Award on Wednesday. (In this novel, Robinson doesn't answer the question of what comes next. Instead, "Lila" ends before John Ames begins writing the missive to their son that is "Gilead.")

Taken together, the trilogy considers 海角大神ity more thoughtfully than any other modern American work.

For the wife of a minister, Lila doesn鈥檛 place much stock in theology.

She was raised as a field hand, traveling with Doll, the surrogate mother who stole her when she was an unwanted toddler, and a group of travelers proud to be beholden to no one. Doll and Lila wander the fields, living off gleanings like the biblical Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi 鈥� never staying too long in one place in case Lila鈥檚 family catches up with them.

Then the Great Depression hits and there鈥檚 nothing to pick and no one to pay them. Any echoes of the Joads are purely intentional 鈥� although Doll and Lila never could have afforded a car. Doll managed to get Lila one year of schooling, which the girl thrived on, along with pillowcases and other unheard of luxuries.

鈥淭here was a long time when Lila didn鈥檛 know that words had letters, or that there were other names for seasons than planting and haying. Walk south ahead of the weather, walk north in time for the crops. They lived in the United States of America. She brought that home from school. Doll said, 鈥榃ell, I spose they had to call it something.鈥欌��

When the grown-up Lila steps into the church in Gilead to get out of the rain, she has one possession: the knife Doll used to kill at least one man. While she鈥檚 been raised to scorn churches as entities only out for people鈥檚 money, Lila is captivated by the gentle old preacher. And the Rev. Ames, widowed for decades after the loss of his wife and infant son, is frankly stunned.

Lila dismisses the age difference between the two, although she鈥檚 very sure she鈥檚 not qualified to be a preacher鈥檚 wife.

鈥淔or a woman being old just means not being young, and all the youth had been worked out of her before it had really even set in.鈥�

Their courtship unfolds slowly: She tends his garden, plants flowers on his wife鈥檚 gravestone, and steals his gray sweater to use as a pillow. He baptizes her, gets people in the town to give her odd jobs, and offers her old-fashioned courtesy, which frankly baffles her.

鈥淭o this very day, if the Reverend happened to meet her out on the street he took off his hat to her, even in the rain. He always helped her with her chair, which amounted to pulling out from the table a little, then pushing it in again after she sat down. Who in the world could need help with a chair?鈥� Lila thinks.

Mostly, the two walk together, Lila pushing for answers to questions about the nature of salvation and the afterlife, dissatisfied with Ames鈥� explanations.

鈥淚t was about the meaning of existence, he said. All right. She knew a little bit about existence. That was pretty well the only thing she knew about, and she had learned the word from him. It was like the United States of America 鈥� they had to call it something.鈥�

Lila, however, isn鈥檛 comforted by hymns or parables, or even good works. She gravitates toward the toughest books of the Bible: Job and Ezekiel, the ones talking about 鈥渁 desolation and a reproach. She knew what those words meant without asking.鈥�

She ignores Ames鈥� suggestion that she might want to try out Matthew.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know. For a preacher you ain鈥檛 much at explaining things,鈥� she tells him.

鈥� 鈥榊ou ask such interesting questions,鈥欌�� Ames tells her on one of their walks.

鈥楢nd you don鈥檛 answer them.鈥� He nodded. It felt very good to have him walking beside her. Good like rest and quiet, like something you could live without but you needed anyway.鈥�

Lila thinks Ames鈥檚 wouldn鈥檛 want to marry her if he understood the life she鈥檚 led and she isn鈥檛 sure she can stay in one place for long anyway.

But she鈥檚 forced to concede Ames may understand her better than she thinks, especially after she spends a day down at the river and he鈥檚 convinced she鈥檚 left town.

鈥淚 want you to leave by daylight. I want you to have a train ticket in your hand that will take you right where you want to go, and I want you to take your ring and anything else I have given you 鈥� You鈥檙e my wife,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 want to take care of you, even if that means someday seeing you to the train.鈥�

There are a few plot points that strain credulity, as when the madam in the house Lila is briefly employed allows her to work off her 鈥渄ebt鈥� cleaning the stove and other backbreaking chores, instead of seeing clients.

On the other hand, while adultery was certainly the stock in trade, Lila can鈥檛 imagine the girls she worked with being damned for eternity. And she really isn鈥檛 impressed by the whole notion of baptism. If you have to be baptized to be saved, that would mean Doll was lost, and Lila would rather forgo heaven than the woman who raised her.

鈥淚f Doll was going to be lost forever, Lila wanted to be right there with her, holding to the skirt of her dress.鈥�

鈥淚t must always be true that there are the stragglers, people somebody couldn鈥檛 bear to be without, no matter what they鈥檇 been up to in this life,鈥� Lila thinks.

鈥淟ila鈥� doesn鈥檛 have quite the moral urgency of 鈥淕ilead,鈥� or any character as fiery as John Ames鈥� grandfather.

But it鈥檚 a quiet meditation on the nature of salvation, one that casts itself firmly on the side of redemption.