Today I have two pairs of novels for you, on the theory that sometimes you need something challenging, heavy, dark, and the novel equivalent of a serious examination of conscience.
Sounds cheery, right? I'm here to serve.
Oh, and also because if you have someone on your Christmas list who likes this sort of thing, why then this is the sort of thing you can get him! As always, I hold the highest standards for the writing, but in the case of these four books, the standard gets a boost. I will be sparing with superlatives; take them as given.
I put them in pairs because the one reminds me of the other, and that's the best way to build some sort of list.
The first pair:
Title: Viper's Tangle
Author: Francois Mauriac
Title: Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
Author: C. S. Lewis
Age Group: Mature young person (one who has already read some Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy) to mature old person.
File Under: Novel, Unreliable Narrator
I remembered about Viper's Tangle (or Nest of Vipers) when someone posted about it on Facebook. The title is almost fatally off-putting, isn't it? What could it be about? And will you enjoy reading it?
It's about the human heart, and yes.
I tagged it with “Unreliable Narrator” in case you and your young adult would like a good example of this device. One reviewer on Amazon said, about the main character, “You're stuck with the guy.” Yes, yes you are. Just as you are stuck with yourself and all the miserable excuses you make up for yourself… for not loving… and just as I'm stuck with myself.
This is the human condition, and if you regard arriving at this knowledge as half the battle, then you will enjoy this book. In any case, the writing wrenches your gut with its knife-like accuracy. Why undergo this sort of surgery? It's a matter of survival — survival, in this case, of the immortal soul. Mauriac's art is to reveal that truth that anyone, even the bitterest patient, can be saved, who accepts the cure.
Viper's Tangle is the French Till We Have Faces, not that they have much other than the theme in common. In the same narrative vein, Lewis allows understanding to dawn on the reader slowly. His main character is puzzlingly, unaccountably lacking in self-knowledge. What is grace? You can't know until you overcome yourself, the blinding element.
(I do not recommend the audio version of the Mauriac. That reader drives me crazy.)
The second pair:
Title: The Diary of a Country Priest: A Novel
Author: Georges Bernanos
Title: Gilead: A Novel
Author: Marilynne Robinson
Age Group: Mature young person who is fine with reading about a dying person's thoughts, and up.
File Under: Novel, epistolary
Beautifully written, this account has the opposite sort of narrator from M. Louis. He thinks nothing of himself, but he is a saint. The Diary of a Country priest cautions us to look beyond circumstance, to learn to see grace everywhere and in everything… “all is grace.” We need this book so that we don't become trapped by appearances.
Robinson gives us a deeply American, Protestant “priest of Ambricourt.” In letters to his son, the dying Reverend John Ames conveys the humble soul's vision of life. Perhaps you must be a certain age to appreciate this book – an age where death is no longer a state that pertains in no way to your existence. The precise and startling nature of Robinson's prose uncovers each layer of the man's being, letter by letter. If you love a character who can just start openly speaking about, say, baptism, Ames is your man; if you love an author who can put the discussion over you without disrupting your “preaching radar,” Robinson is your author.
Any one of these books would make a great book-club selection. The Viper's Tangle edition has questions for discussion at the end, if that helps.
What is the Like Mother, Like Daughter Library Project?
Emily D. says
Read all these except Diary. Love them all, ESPECIALLY the C.S. Lewis, because so many people forget about it! I’ve always thought it would make a great movie.
theycallmemommy says
I’m currently reading Gilead and it IS beautiful!!!
Susan says
One of my favorite books is Kristin Lavransdatter but I know a lot of people don’t like it because they don’t like Kristin. I always say that if we could see every sin and every thought of the people around us we wouldn’t like anyone. The point is not really to have “likable” characters (well, maybe sometimes that is the point, but not in a Great Novel).
Epistolary novels always seem terribly contrived to me but perhaps I’ve never read a truly good one.
Tracy says
I completely agree about Kristin. 🙂
Rosemary says
Have read all of these but the Vipers! Til We Have Faces is one of my favorite books, ever. And Gilead … oh! I just reread it so that I could read the third, recently published book with these characters. It is one of those books that moves you more deeply each time you read it. And I was grateful that I picked it up in the fall, as it seemed a very fitting book to read in that season.
Lauren says
Would you recommend Viper’s Tangle to a 14 year old very well read young lady?
Leila says
Lauren, I think you should read it and see what you think. It’s dark. I had in mind a senior in high school who is studying point of view and narrative voice…
If you don’t see that *he* doesn’t know the truth of the matter, you would think the book is tedious — just him carping about this and that. It’s the development of his understanding that is fascinating…
But you will know when you read it.
Katie says
Gilead! Like theycallmemommy above, I also happen to be reading it for the first time right now. (And by “right now,” I mean I was engrossed before the whirlwind of Thanksgiving weekend, and I look forward to returning tonight before bed). I just discovered Marilynne Robinson this year, having chosen Housekeeping for our book club on another’s recommendation. Dark and beautiful, indeed. I kept sharing paragraphs out loud with my husband, because I couldn’t bear to let such pitch-perfect writing go by unremarked.
Till We Have Faces I love, and re-read faithfully. Thank you for highlighting the other two.
Julie says
Thank you for these suggestions. I haven’t read any of them. I think we may even have Lewis’ piece, as he is a favorite around here. Guess I had better get reading!
Erin says
O, Auntie Leila, you’re so wonderful! I love love love Viper’s Tangle and Till We Have Faces, we actually read them one after the other in my Christian Literature class at the (Jesuit) college I attended. I read Till We Have Faces the same week as the Pickwick Papers for another class, try that! It was a fun semester. From that same theology class I would like to suggest Ron Hansen as a modern Catholic author. I enjoyed his novelized biography of Gerard Manley Hopkins, called Exiles, and another novel called Atticus.
Virginia says
Novel about Gerard Manley Hopkins? That sounds great!
Virginia says
I’ve been meaning to read Viper’s Tangle for a while! Now I have no excuse : )
Jenny says
I couldn’t love a book more than I love Gilead… and the other two… and everything Robinson has written is close behind….
But I can’t love a writer much more than Lewis and besides Narnia, Till we have faces is at the very top of my all times list..
So I guess Ill have to read the other two! thank you.
Leila, I do want to recommend Robinson’s book of Essays, The Death of Adam, as a pairing with The Abolition of Man. I think you would find a dear friend there.
Jenny
Wendy says
Planning a homeschool year 12 and noticing that The Great Gatsby is recommended across the board everywhere I turn, but it seems so full of fruitless, no answers, darkness. Would Vipers’ Tangle be something that could be a read this not that? Or, as I fear, am I missing something about Gatsby that my student needs to be exposed to. What are your thoughts on Vipers’ Tangle in relation to Gatsby – is there any relation. I haven’t read Vipers’ Tangle so your advice on this matter would be helpful. Thank you.
I am so grateful for this blog as resource, encouragement, and delight. Thanks for what you do.
Leila says
Wendy, The Great Gatsby is one of those books that should be read at some point, just because it forms part of the cultural landscape of American literature. A 16 or 17 year old who has had a strong curriculum of excellent reading will not be harmed by it (subject to your approval of course, and this is the challenge of overseeing the high school study program — all the reading!). There are objectionable themes but they are not overt and can thus be handled (as opposed to books with explicit scenes). I wouldn’t give it to anyone younger — they wouldn’t understand it, nor would they have any context for it.
That said, it can also just be summer reading before college. It’s not such a deep book.
Vipers’ Tangle isn’t like it, but it is a book that should be read! Epistolary in genre, it can be studied for its form but also for its moral content, which is truly sublime. But of course, it is dark as well. Just in a good way!
God bless!
Christina A says
This post is so wonderful! I look forward to reading the Viper’s Tangle and Diary of a Country Priest since I have enjoyed the other two books so much. I just finished my third reading of Till We Have Faces, which I read alongside a fabulous commentary by Peter Schakel called Reason and Imagination in C.S. Lewis. The first half of Schakel’s book is just about TWHF, but the second traces the tension between reason and imagination through each decade of Lewis’s writings. It helped me love TWHF even more. It also made me realize how few of his works I had actually read (the man was prolific!), and how I thought of him as this amazing Christian in stasis instead of growing throughout his life. Here is a video of a Joe Rigney lecture that draws heavily on Schakel’s book, serving as an extended book trailer: https://youtu.be/ZPuwR6jlfK0
Leila says
Thanks for this link! Lewis was a deep thinker and his gift of being able to express his ideas in relatively simple terms as well as in artistic ways sometimes leads people to think that he wasn’t deep!
Leila says
Also, is this lecture (#4) a stand alone? One doesn’t have to watch the previous ones?
Christina A says
Yes, you can definitely watch this on its own; I only listened to this one, but I’d like to listen to his others sometime. The video starts with a piano performance, the lecture is 6:12-51:45, and it ends with q&a, some of which references his earlier talks.