When We Have Faces

While cruising through Half Price Books the other day (in search of The Secret Life of Bees), at one point I found myself sitting on one of the stepstools somewhere in fiction P section. I had found my quarry, and couldn't help flipping through a page or 87, after all. In front of me was a push cart with books waiting to be shelved, and I found myself staring at the name C.S. Lewis on the spine of a book I'd never heard of before.

Interesting.

I pulled it free and found myself looking at an illustration of a woman's face. What I'd found was a retelling of the story of Cupid and Psyche, as told by her oldest sister. Do you remember that one? Aphrodite, pissy as usual, gets angry that a mortal girl is being worshipped for her beauty. Thus, she sends down her son (Cupid) with orders to make her fall in love with the basest of men available. Instead, Cupid falls in love with her himself. Cupid, most handsome of the gods. Except, she didn't know that, as he never let himself be seen and warned her not to try. His love was returned by the girl, and she espouses him.

As tends to happen in these kinds of myths, the downfall of their love came from outside sources. Psyche's 2 sisters are invited to her new palace, and they seethe over the riches she has around her. They begin to tell her she is likely married to a monster, the true reason why he won't show his face. They convince her to look that night after he falls asleep, using a candle.

Reader, that night the face she illuminated was perfection. Beautiful. Enchanting. She could not stop gazing at her husband. Then, she is betrayed by a drop of wax falling on his shoulder. He gazes at her sadly, and all around her disappears. Now more in love with him than ever, she embarks on a series of impossible tasks to reunite with him, and succeeds. The sisters perish.

This book is written by her half-sister, Maia. What she sets out to write is a formal complaint that she wishes she could take before the gods. She accuses them of lies, treachery, and robbing all that is most dear to us. She accuses them of interfering and meddling in the affairs of mortals, of speaking in riddles and then punishing us when we misinterpret the signs, and sometimes even if we read them correctly and following faithfully. She accuses them of stealing away the love of her sister, the one she loved above all else. She accuses them of changing the past and perpetuating a tale of infamy.

Interesting.

What it ends up being about is love. Love, which at its best can bring out the strength and courage to face the ugliness in life, and at its worst can lead us to cling on to those it's best to set free. It's a story of how it can lead someone to hurt the ones they love the most, but how it can redeem us in spite of ourselves. I couldn't put it down once I started. It was exactly what I needed to read just then, and I'm glad.