As the story opens, Lila, the young protagonist, is the personification of abandonment and anguish. Even much later when she "wanders" into a small town church in Iowa, she has a difficult time accepting kindness from others, especially the Reverend John Ames. She is offered "plenty" compared to the despair and poverty which she has known. Eventually Lila becomes the wife of the widower, Rev. Ames---"Old Man" as she calls him.
Haunted by the trauma and impoverishment of her earlier years, Lila doesn't know what to do with this new-found plenty---so she often distrusts it. She even distrusts herself.
It's a book of redemption and hope and the human condition, with the reality of depravity shown throughout the narrative.
“The river was like the old life, just itself. Nothing more to it. She thought, It has washed the baptism off me," thought Lila. And "Old Man" once again in his patient ways had to reassure her about God's grace. Lila might have struggled with words, but she found her way to the scriptures, as she looked for a reason for her own existence.
Pulitzer Prize winning books don't always appeal to me but----Robinson's simple, yet somewhat unorthodox, style of writing grabbed me, though the occurring events were not told in chronological order. Though confusing at first, this "switching" added intrigue for me.
I started with book #3 in the "Gilead series," which is not recommended by some reviewers, so I've decided to learn more about the intriguing Lila and have "checked out" Gilead and Home the other 2 books, in which Lila is introduced. Plus, I checked out another Robinson book as well because I thought the title descriptive of me---When I was a Child I Read Books. I do my part to keep up the "circulation stats" of our Memphis libraries---- closing any public library would be a travesty.
