Descent into Hell isn't lying

So reminiscing back to Descent into Hell by Charles Williams, and looking back over the other blogs on the subject, I am reminded how much I did not like this book. Part of not liking this book probably stems from the fact that I absolutely did not understand a lick of it. I remember hearing that we were going to the coffee shop to talk about the book, I was terrified. I had not understood any of the things I had read, and I had pushed myself through reading it all. Now that I am a little more removed from the painful reading of the book and have sat through two discussions on the book I think I know why I did not like it. First of all, it is so totally removed from reality that I could not connect with any of the characters, which I think is important to really enjoy a book. Secondly, there were no characters that were likable. Now there are people I feel sorry for, like the lady who stares has this awful thing following her all the time but she gets help with that from Stanhope and then she is just as crazy and bizarre as the rest of this cast of characters. The most likable character for me in the book is the nameless ghost who committed suicide before the book ever started. That is not a good sign when there are no good living people.

Hold on, just had a little thought there. Of course there would not be many good people by any measure in an actual descending into hell. It would be ludicrous to have a bunch of saints sitting around talking about how great they are and how good God is if they are all descending into hell. Now I know that is most likely not what Charles Williams was thinking as he wrote it, but it certainly makes me feel better about hating all of his characters!

Now that I have had this personal discovery of why I think I hate all of the characters, my memory is fading from a red hot hate of this book to a much more gray neutral feeling. Charles Williams, I do not hate your book anymore, now we can be Facebook friends.