Spence and Lila

by Bobbie Ann Mason

Book Overview

Since the night they eloped as teenagers over forty years ago, Spence and Lila have spent a lifetime together. Now Lila has been diagnosed with breast cancer and faces surgery. Spence visits her in the hospital, but the notion of losing his wife is sometimes more than he can bear. He retreats to his fields, to his dog, and to the garden Lila has tended so lovingly through the years. While the children rally to their mother and the neighbors stock...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0880015942
• ISBN13: 9780880015943
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Deep Love Expressed Without Words

This novel has a lyrical quality which is a rarity in this minimalist style of writing. The story consists of reminiscences of a married couple of their lives together -- happy and fulfilling -- as Lila goes to the hospital for a mastectomy. Spence is unable to speak words of love but the empathic quality between them makes all understood. Theirs is a love of depth and substance. Mason makes too much though of the 'aw shucks' country folk quality. Otherwise, this is a fine book.

Emotional story

This book is very sad and emotional. The story of this couple is amazing. It makes you feel sorry for them, but at the same time happy because they share so much love.

A Wonderful Short Novel

This is a very short novel about a rural couple who have been married for more than forty years and the confusion and stress they face as the wife is hospitalized. It is a refreshing alternative to more popular and yet more sentimental stories that deal with spousal, parental, and sibling relationships and the conflicts associated with aging and mortality. Mason is a fine writer.

True love DOES exist

This was one of the most endearing love stories i've ever read. Spence and Lila are old and worn, but the love they have for each other is still pure and fresh, forty plus years after their marriage. That a love like this might exist, and the characters are so real that it is likely, gives me new hopes in life