I have fallen in and out of love with this idiosyncratic exploration of faith and grace so often! However, having cited it here http://nicktomjoe.brookesblogs.net/2018/04/02/till-we-have-faces/ as a response to an earlier blog post http://nicktomjoe.brookesblogs.net/2018/03/30/lost-like-my-name/ I thought at least a quick re-read and a review were needed.
Orual’s struggles with her misdirected affections and wrong choices inform her troubled relationships with the gods of Glome, her native land...
Lewis’s evocative description of a violent culture with frightening gods and a powerful kingly and priestly court is close to George R R Martin; Orual’s duel is a brilliant account of hand to hand combat, and Lewis is (for once) able to depict a woman (with some reservations) with power and sensitivity. Her relationships- with her father, her sisters, her slave-tutor, a Greek philosopher - allow Lewis to explore the complexities of fear and religion and rational thinking in an utterly engaging narrative which reimagines the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Compelling and challenging, Lewis allows the far-from-omniscient narrator to rail at the gods, to make life-wrecking mistakes -and to come to a conclusion that is pure Lewis.