Till We Have Faces

Author:   C.S. Lewis

One-sentence summary: Lewis retells the story of Psyche and Cupid through the eyes of Psyche’s sister, Orual.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating:  7

Our favorite thing about it:  We loved hearing this myth told through a different perspective (Orual).

Our least favorite thing about it:  Most of us thought the book a little hard to get into at the beginning. It started off slowly.

Main Topics of Discussion: Love, Sacrifice, Humans/gods, Motives, Faith

Our favorite quote: “I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?” (p.294)

Notes:  We liked the perspective of this story because it was an original and creative way to retell the myth. It breathed new life into a story that has been told many times. We also loved the exploration of human motives, what it means to love someone, and how that influences your decisions and actions.

The layers of meaning in the story are fascinating and there were several interesting themes to explore in the book. One major theme was the play between the seen and the unseen. Orual does not see the palace, she veils her face so it is unseen, she saw a glimpse of Cupid but would not believe it. There is a fascinating play not only with words but with the idea of what seeing means to us as humans. Very often we verify things with our sight. How Orual perceived the gods had much to do with how they showed themselves to her. Or how she thought they showed themselves. Her veiling her face has to do with how ugly she was and how she wanted to hide that.

The appearance of Ungit was also important. The round orb that represented the god to the people was upgraded to a Greek statue that was much more human and much more beautiful. However, the people could not see it as their god. They continued to pray to the orb.

Another theme was changing into a different person. We see Orual change from a young princess, to a veiled queen, and finally (p. 307) to “no one” as she realizes all that her actions have meant for herself, for the gods, and for Psyche. Psyche also changes from a beautiful young princess to a beautiful immortal god.

The intersection of humans and gods was probably the main theme of the book. Although this was a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, it was obviously not about them at all. It was about Orual and how she related to the gods and how that changed as she changed throughout the book. The gods revealing or remaining hidden played a large role in how she perceived and related to them.

Along with all the things that we appreciated about the book, there were also a few things we didn’t like. The general consensus was that the book dragged a bit during the middle of the story. And the end (with all the visions) was a little bit disorienting and confusing. The two books were so different that it was almost jarring. As mentioned above, many of us thought the story was very slow to start. There were also a lot of characters and some of us found it hard to keep up with them all.

Overall, we liked the book and the way that Lewis told the story with creativity and insight.

Memorable Meeting Moments:  We made our plans for the lake house trip coming up next month! We collectively picked a book for that “meeting,” which is not something we usually do.

What We Ate:  Baked Pasta with Chicken, Broccoli, and Mozzarella; Arugula Salad with Lemon Mustard Dressing; Garlic Bread; Pretzel Bottomed Reese’s Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie with Ice Cream.