Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
By: C.S. Lewis / Narrated By: Wanda McCaddon
Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
Beautifully written, exquisitely narrated!
I’m soooooo glad Till We Have Faces tied for My Next Listen otherwise I’ve no idea when I woulda gotten around to listening to it. At first it was so exasperating, but it’s truly well-written, and hey! Wanda Freaking McCaddon narrates! (Otherwise known as Nadia May as SUCH a brilliant and prolific narrator needs two names?!?)
This reminded me of a certain family member who became an atheist because she was really ticked off with God. The story is a retelling of Cupid and Psyche, and it’s all explained at the end of the audiobook, but trust me: I still didn’t get it, so I’ll just tell you how this retelling plays itself, shall I?
Orual is the ugly middle sister in a mythical land of Glome—somewhere nearabouts Greece waaaaaay ancient yeeeeears ago. Her father is a despicable king, her elder sister is a beautiful but shallow git, and she’s nobody to love except for The Fox, a Greek man now a slave. That is, nobody to love until her youngest sister, the glorious Psyche is born. Then her love knows no bounds.
Plagues, famines, wars descend upon Glome, and the priests and populace look to a way to soothe the gods. It is determined that Psyche must be sacrificed for the good of the kingdom, and this devastates Orual.
And so Psyche is sacrificed, but Orual’s grief is only compounded when she goes to gather her youngest sister’s bones—Psyche still lives, but she’s now bright with joy, alight with love, all with a god who will not show his face. Orual tries to get Psyche to come back, but Psyche will not see reason, not through this vast new love and peace she’s found. Soon Orual tells her she herself shall slay them both, and she runs a knife through her own arm, if Psyche will not at least do this one thing: Wait, stay silent, wait for the god to come to her, Psyche, then shine a light so that she might see what a depraved reality this god is.
Weeping, Psyche bitterly gives in, and from the other bank of the river, Orual hears her tears, sees a light being shone… and then all hell breaks loose. Bolts of lightning! Churning and seething river! Psyche wailing hysterically! And soon? The very face of a bright and shining god who casts Psyche off to wander for eternity, casts Orual out.
Through this, we see thought and reason from The Fox. We see superstition and religion from the priests. We see anger and a turning away, a jealous love, from Orual. Orual becomes a great queen, but she is bitter, oh so bitter at what the gods have taken away from her, as they took Psyche’s love from her, then took Psyche away from her forever.
It winds up being a beautiful book if you can get through Orual’s bitter seethings. And this is totally where narrator McCaddon shows her vocal talent chops. At no point does she make Orual insufferably odious—rather, we see this is a woman who is suffering, whose view of the world is so tainted and skewed that happiness for her is an impossibility. McCaddon voices EVERYone in the audiobook so very well, from the pained and loving Fox, to the enraged and haunted king, to Psyche overcome with joy and love. Brava, Ms. McCaddon! I can’t WAIT to start listening to Parnassus on Wheels!
Nope, I’ve had this in my Library for eeeeeons, but it’s taken till just now to get to it.
So thanks so very much to y’all—For we can’t be face to face with God, till we have faces of our own…
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