What’s Ronna Bloom Reading?

I am listening to Lila by Marylinne Robinson via the Toronto Public Library audio app. Many years ago, I read her book Gilead which is told in the voice of a very old preacher, John Ames. He knows he’s dying and the book is an epistolary novel telling his 7-year-old son about his life. I remember opening that book in a book store and falling into the kindness and softness of that voice like an embrace.

Lila is the third in Robinson’s trilogy. It focuses on the wife of the preacher who we don’t learn much about in that first book, Gilead.

Sometime in the last few months I read somewhere (where?) that the titular character, Lila, grows up in almost total neglect during the depression, save for the care of a woman who finds her on a stoop, and eventually the old preacher’s love. Lila’s history makes it nearly impossible for her to trust anyone or to believe anything good can be true. The protectiveness that comes from such trauma resonates deeply and Robinson is exquisitely faithful to Lila’s wish to shield herself from wanting anything. But then she does allow herself and receives the unexpected blessings that come for her.

 It makes me see that it is possible to let go of one’s suffering and live a different life — even if it surprises the hell out of you — especially in the presence of kindness.