Book Fair!

It's day two of The Bush School's semiannual book fair. Our amazing volunteer chairman, Julie P., works with the incomparable University Book Store to provide a huge selection of great books for all ages. I'm going up in a few minutes to do a little holiday shopping, but it has gotten me to thinking about buying books.

When my children were young, I bought books all the time. I always attended the public library sales, we scoured the second hand stores, and no gift-giving opportunity was complete without beautiful new books. I love books. I love the look, the feel, the smell. I want to own them. I've been known to buy copies out of recognition and pity. "Oh! I love this book! No one will find you here and appreciate you like I can!" (Said at Goodwill or some sketchier thrift store.)

Now, however, the kids are grown and have moved out (taking some of their books with them). It's just the husband, me, and many linear feet of books that seldom get opened. I have had to re-evaluate my book buying habits. Unless it's a book I know I'll read again, I seldom buy it. I figure that's what libraries are for.

So who am I shopping for? Luckily I have many young people in my life and I continue to believe that a child just can't have too many stories in their life. Actually none of us can, although adults have more mobility and can get out to bookstores, libraries, plays, movies. But kids -- they need choices close at hand.

Hmm, let's see. Maybe Boys in the Boat for the high-school boy, and one of the Bone books for the second grader. Now, what about those toddlers?

Lila, by Marilynne Robinson

Oh my goodness, I am reading and L-O-V-I-N-G Lila, by Marilynne Robinson. Every night, I think -- oh good, it's time to read some more Lila. It's dense though, and so far, I'm only reading it before sleep, so I am forced to take it slowly, which is unusual for me and in this case, good.

Why am I so entranced? Lila, herself, is such a compelling character. A young woman, maybe in her 20s, she's been homeless nearly her whole life. At 4, she was taken away from the people she lived with by the only person who ever showed her any tenderness, a disfigured woman called Doll, and they spent the next 10-15 years "running" from those folks. Eventually Lila walks into a church and feels an immediate and deep connection to the old man up front. Meanwhile preacher John Ames, a widower in his 60s, looks up and notices this woman. She's not pretty, but there is something about her that grabs him. Kismet?

The books starts with their connection and builds out -- Lila's life with Doll, her love for John Ames, Doll's death, how she survived on her own, their marriage, her confusion around faith and existence. It asks the big questions and the small ones. It's funny and heartbreaking and always surprising. Lila is continually distracted by wondering what happened -- to Doll, to her mother, to the folks they traveled with some, to the folks they ran from. Doll would never answer. "Never you mind," was her constant refrain. Her wondering helps her (and the reader) reconstruct or at least imagine the past she was first too young to remember and then was too much a child to question.

I both look forward to seeing Lila through her search for identity and dread coming to the end of the book. When was the last time that happened? I can't think of a time.