Rating: 
Summary: Haunting and Lovely
Review: The first time I read this book, it entranced me. To put it tritely, "I could not put it down." This book is amazingly enchanting, though can seem a bit obtuse. I confess, I had to re-read it before I began to understand the point. You will find yourself discovering new facets of the story each time you read it, which I have done several times. It is a piercingly beautiful story, written with Lewis' clear, sharp talent.
Rating: 
Summary: A powerful novel
Review: You may find this book slow-going at first, but stay with it. As Orual begins to "find her niche" she develops into a fascinating character and a strong protagonist. I thought this novel was extremely moving and highly enjoyable. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys C.S. Lewis, mythology, or a story featuring a strong and likable female protagonist.
Rating:
Summary: This Book is a Diamond Waiting to Be Cut
Review: When you pick up this book and begin reading, you might labor at first, trying to get through the beginning chapters, but then the story begins to grow on you and the more you read the more involved you become in what is unfolding. Lewis has a style that is patient, not premature as to move too quickly to the climax, but savoring all the details in order to develop, in the long run, a wonderfully elaborate and captivating tale. This book is a retelling of an all too famous mythological tale of love (between Cupid and Psyche). While Lewis adds his own spices, the story essentially remains the same. It is a tale of love, sadness, fascination of beauty, betrayal, regret, shame, depravity, and finally triumph. The story centers around two sisters, the older very ugly, and the younger, half-sister, very beautiful. Their father, a king, demonstrates his impatience at not having an heir (a son) and he (the father) torments his daughters for being just what they are, daughters. However, the eldest daughter, Orual, is very ugly in appearance, while the youngest daughter, Psyche, is the most beautiful in the whole region, and the story mainly centers around these two characters and what evolves into a tragedy and at the same time a triumph of decisions, emotions, thoughts, and actions (I don't want to give too much of the story away). Even though this is a story that has already been told, Lewis adds his own dimensions to it and gives it a refreshing type of life and vigor. If you are a fan of Lewis' writings then you will certainly enjoy this work. However, even if you have never read Lewis, you will still enjoy this masterful piece. Unfortunately, this piece from Lewis, has not received the attention and status as a great piece of literature that it deserves. This is an intense and very eloquent novel which is, I believe, one of the greatest of this century.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible...
Review: This was one of those all nighter's for me. It's an incredible myth woven beautifully. Lewis nevers ceases to amaze me. Using the old tale of Cupid and Psyche he has written a haunting novel. Written as a testament against the gods, it's the story of Queen Orual, she gives a careful account of her life and of her greivances with the gods. It's a little slow going at first, but trust me, it's well worth the wait.
Rating:
Summary: A chameleon (in the best possible sense)
Review: If you've read the reviews, wondered why everyone raves about TILL WE HAVE FACES, stick with the book till Chapter Ten. It's a little sluggish till you reach Chapter Ten, but make no plans once you turn that page. You won't put it down after that point. I am amused, I think, by the rigid assertions of some reviewers, as to what Lewis was trying to say with this tale. If you are put off by any of those assertions, ignore them. Plain and simple, don't listen to what a single person on here says the book means. Because the first time you read it, you'll understand it one way. The next time, after you yourself have grown, changed, aged, oh sigh, yes even matured, you will understand it another way. You will identify with one character more than another depending on who you are and are becoming, you will read the philosophy/theology differently depending on what you believe at that moment. But -- once read, it's likely you will read it again.
Rating:
Summary: C.S. Lewis' best work of fiction
Review: C.S. Lewis used fiction to lay bare the soul in ways his more apologetic work could not. The cast of characters in The Great Divorce, for example, or in the "Space Trilogy" invariably remind us of people we know - and give us insights into what makes them tick. Nowhere in Lewis' works is the soul explored better than in Till We Have Faces, Lewis' masterwork of fiction and a stunning psychological and spiritual odyssey. TWHF retells and enriches the myth of Cupid and Psyche, although a lack of familiarity with the myth in no way diminishes from the enjoyment of the book. In Lewis' hands, the story sorts through issues of family, jealousy, gender, faith, and ultimate meaning, culminating with a frightening and yet wonderful 'face to face' scene that gives rise to, and explains, the book's title. Readers who are looking for the kind of in-your-face Christian symbolism that characterized the Chronicles of Narnia will be disappointed with TWHF. Although I appreciate and am nourished by Lewis' Christian parables and apologetics, the theology in TWHF is pagan, at least on its surface. Underneath the surface, however, Lewis does a masterful job of intertwining the traditional beliefs of the main characters - including a stand-in for Greek rationalism - with rumors of a much more intimate and beautiful way of knowing the gods. The climactic scene itself plays off the biblical phrase, "Now we see in a glass dimly, but then face to face" - a phrase that comes, in fact, from I Corinthians 13, the famous chapter on Love in the New Testament. So Lewis does indeed lead the reader toward the One who is love, but he uses the carrot of intrigue and spiritual longing rather than the steamroller (if you will pardon the mixed metaphor) of too-obvious symbolism. This is my favorite of Lewis' works of fiction and was, reportedly, Lewis' favorite as well. Few books can nourish the soul the way Till We Have Faces can. Just one caveat: you really will need to read it twice ... and you will understand why once you have read it through the first time.
Rating:
Summary: A review of Til l We have Faces
Review: I bought Till We Have Faces based only on a familiarity with the Narnia chronicals that I read as a kid. Knowing nothing of the "classic myth of Cupid and Psyche", I let this book sit on my bookshelf for months before I opened it one rainy day. What a mistake! I was drawn in by Lewis' elegant, simple story of two sisters and how their relationship colors their lives. The plot and characterization are accessible to the casual reader, but the allegorical relationship to the ancient myth gives it deeper meaning. This is one of the rare novels which nourishes your soul while providing pure enjoyment.
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Summary: A BRILLIANT book by a BRILLIANT man.
Review: In order to understand what a truly amazing book this is you have to realize three things: (1) The author was an INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT man, (2) he was an INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT scholar of medieval and ancient literature and (3) he is one of the most brilliant fiction writers of all time. How Brilliant is Lewis? So Brilliant that I can't imagine him writing this story at all and let alone so beautifully. After all what does a staid, middle age typically British male have in common with a young girl from a far less repressed culture? Lewis is known as a scholar and lecturer on Christian theology, but I can just about bet that future generations are not going to remember him for that. What they will remember is the powerful ability that Lewis had to tell a tale. Besides, if there is anything of Christian Dogma in this work it is the aspects of it that are universal to all societies and religions. The story is described as the retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth, but it is in actuallity a story about a young woman who grows up to discover that not only is beauty in the eye of the beholder, but the elements of ones personality are what make a person "beautiful". In the end, individuals are respected for their character and the actions that they display. What kept me involved in this story (I too read it in one sitting)was Lewis' masterful prose. While Lewis wanted us to believe in the vibrancy and color of the sights and sounds of Narnia, here he wants us to believe in the workings of the main characters mind. Lewis' use of language also draws the reader in and keeps one riveted to each page. One other highlight here is all the research that Lewis did on Hellenic (Ancient Greek style) cultures to bring authentisity to the story. My recommendation is to read this book more than once. There is so much there to experience.
Rating:
Summary: A fairy-tale of a myth!
Review: You'd think this was just another myth. But not if it's written by CS Lewis! Somewhat of a cross between the story of Cupid and Psyche and a science fiction novel, you travel through the mind and heart of a woman who begins as the ugliest woman in the world, and becomes one of the most beautiful. Often dark and sad, the allegory surprises you into understanding of the human and the divine.
Rating:
Summary: Myth as a light on human nature
Review: A Lewisian telling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche from the viewpoint of one of Psyche's sisters, drawn as a very sympathetic character. As always, Lewis writes well, with insight into the depths and heights of human psychology, and with subtle allegory and a taste for grand and weighty endings. It's a good book, not ponderous but sometimes deep, easily worth the time. Also as always, I have the feeling that Lewis has introduced some quiet saboteur memes into my brain, and that some day they'll all join together and I'll wake up and find myself a Christian. It hasn't happened yet, though! Perhaps, having been brought up on the Narnia books, I've developed some immunity...
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