| Lila | |
| Author: | Marilynne Robinson |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Novel |
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus & Giroux |
| Release Date: | October 7, 2014 |
| Media Type: | hardcover, paperback, e-book, audiobook |
| Pages: | 272 pp |
| Isbn: | 0374187614 |
| Preceded By: | Gilead, Home |
| Followed By: | Jack |
Lila is a novel written by Marilynne Robinson that was published in 2014. Her fourth novel, it is the third installment of the Gilead series, after Gilead and Home. The novel focuses on the courtship and marriage of Lila and John Ames, as well as the story of Lila's transient past and her complex attachments. It won the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award.
Lila has received widespread acclaim. According to Book Marks, the book received "positive" reviews based on fifteen critic reviews with ten being "rave" and four being "positive" and one being "pan".[1] Culture Critic gave it an aggregated critic score of 77 percent based on British and American press reviews.[2] On Bookmarks January/February 2015 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (4.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with the critical summary saying, "This may be the most tentative, formal and charming romance you'll ever encounter" concludes the Washington Post critic".[3]
In a review for The Atlantic Leslie Jamison praised the novel as "brilliant and deeply affecting."[4] In another review, Sarah Churchwell wrote, "Lila... offers Robinson's characteristic delights: glorious prose, subtle wisdom and a darkly numinous atmosphere, lit at moments by a visionary wonder shading into exaltation."[5]
In Books and Culture, Linda Moore offers "a dissenting view", critiquing the Christianity that Robinson writes about as "gospel thin, exiguous, a story slight and wanting, and Flannery isn't here to say so."[6]