"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
As usual, Paul is onto something. We should all spend more time thinking about things that are true and honorable and lovely and gracious and excellent and praiseworthy. I'm sure you all know by now that Marilynne Robinson's new novel Lila comes out tomorrow. The New York Times ran a Sunday magazine piece on Robinson yesterday, and the paper did a review of the novel in the Book Review section. The New York Review of Books has its review in the latest issue. There was also a piece in the Atlantic. Commonweal will soon be running a review by Paul Elie, as well as an essay about Robinson and her work by Anthony Domestico.
Lila is Robinson's third novel set in Gilead, Iowa in the middle of the 20th Century. The title character is the wife of the Rev. John Ames, a Congregationalist pastor, whom we met as the protagonist in Robinson's Gilead. Robinson's Home focuses on Glory Boughton, the daughter of the Rev. Robert Boughton, a Presbyterian pastor, who is John Ames's best friend. Gilead and Home have quickly and rightly become American classics. (I would argue Gilead, along with Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian is one of the two best American novels in the last 25 years or so.) Even though I haven't read --and don't plan on reading -- reviews of Lila until after I read it (Tony's piece will be an exception), I have no doubt Lila will be just as good as the previous two.
The official publication date is tomorrow, and although I'm not sure I'll be able to get to a bookstore tomorrow, I plan on reading the novel soon. (For my own dotCommonweal posts on Robinson, see here and here.) And I'm wondering if the dotCom community would like to join me in reading all three novels.
I've just started a position as an assistant professor of religion and literature at DePaul University's Department of Catholic Studies. (Hence the lack of blogging.) In one of my classes this term, "Literature and the Sacred," my students and I will be reading Robinson's Gilead. And because I'll be reading that and reading Lila, I figured I would reread Home, which I once taught in my former position at Villanova University.
A year and a half ago, I joined dotCom readers in a journey through Dante's Commedia. I enjoyed it immensely and learned a lot. So I'd like to do it again, with a trilogy set in the American Midwest, which is also true and honorable and lovely and gracious and excellent and praiseworthy. Please let me know if you're interested. With the help of the Dominic Preziosi, I'm sure we'll be able to set up a page for our reflections, just as we did for Dante. Depending on feedback, we can start in a few weeks (the end of October or the beginning of November, perhaps?) and take about two weeks with each of the three novels.
Interested? Please let me know in the comments. Thanks.
