Restless

   I finished reading William Boyd's Restless yesterday, and I'll give it 4 stars.  It's a novel that bounces back and forth between a young woman's adventures as a spy for the British during the early days of WWII and her daughter's discovery of this previously unknown side of her mother's identity.  It's a shock to the daughter, who discovers that her mother's somewhat uneventful early life was a false front for tales of spycraft that crossed continents and played a part in Britain's war efforts.  The daughter, who now has a child of her own, is trying to reconcile this new information with what she knows about her mother.

  We never really know another person, do we?  We know as much as they choose to reveal, and we take it on faith that what is revealed is true.  There are some people who have prove themselves to be unreliable, and so we discount everything they say.  Others we grow to know on more intimate levels, and we share details about ourselves, revealing layers of our stories and personalities that build trust over the years.  The people closest to us know the most layers, the greatest hopes and the deepest fears, and in turn, we know their stories as well.  With this knowledge comes responsibility, for the better you know someone, the deeper you can cut them when you choose to do so.  Also, the greater you can love them, because you're uncovering more about who they are and can love more of the person, because you know more of the person.  It's a wonderful feeling to be loved as we are by the people who know our deepest faults and fears -- it's liberating, as we move from fear of rejection into awe at the experience of being loved.

  Social media in the modern world is interesting because it allows people to build narratives about their lives.  Some of these are more true than others, and some reveal deeper layers than others do.  However, as a society we accept them as fact, and often feel betrayed when a person reveals an aspect of their personality that doesn't match whatever image they are curating through social media.  It reminds us that we don't always know people, and that people are complicated.  Someone can honestly reveal the sides of their personalities they want others to see while hiding the darker parts they'd prefer to keep in the shadows.  We all do this to a certain extent.

  This makes God's love all the more amazing.  God knows you completely, and God accepts you in love.  God knows your weaknesses, and so there is no need to build a pretense -- we can be honest about confessing our faults and our fears, because God knows them, and God has offered grace in spite of those failures.  We are known, and we are loved.  It's a wonderfully freeing concept when you grasp it -- you can realize how exhausting it is to hold up false fronts that make it look like you're holding everything together perfectly.

  William Boyd spins a great story in Restless, and it's worth your time.  His novel tackles questions of trust and what it means to be looking over your shoulder for an unseen enemy.  Do those who are always looking hold an advantage over those who are blissfully unaware of an enemy?  And who are our true enemies?