The Greater Trumps was my first book by Charles Williams, an author I've been curious about for some time. Williams was one of the Inklings, that famously informal literary circle that included such names as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. I've heard that Williams actually had a strong influence on the third book of Lewis' Space Trilogy, That Hideous Strength. Since I found that book to be basically impossible to put down, I have been wanting to read the man who so strongly influenced it.

I confess I was a little disappointed. Williams is a good writer with incisive things to say about his characters, but I didn't find the plot of this novel very convincing or enthralling. It all centers around a pack of Tarot cards that have "doll" counterparts of the cards' painted characters. When the cards and images are brought together, they become an elemental force that (naturally) is beyond human control. An ordinary family, the Coningsbys, are invited to spend Christmas with the daughter Nancy's boyfriend Henry and his father Aaron. Henry and Aaron have Gypsy blood and they possess the images, while Mr. Coningsby recently inherited the fateful Tarot cards. Nancy's aunt Sybil, her stuffy, unimaginative father Lothair, and her brother Ralph are caught up in a raging battle between elemental evil and the power of divine love. "Rise to adore the mystery of love..."

It reminded me a bit of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising; it was like That Hideous Strength, but far less gripping; it lost itself in obscurity and tried to come back unsuccessfully. Characters like Joanna might have made sense to someone well versed in ancient Egyptian mythology, but she left me cold and made no sense. I found beautiful prose scattered throughout, lyrical and sweeping, but it never meshed well with the weak plot. I did like how most of the characters were written. Nancy's awakening is lovely to see, though ambiguous on some levels. I couldn't decide if I liked Sybil or not. She was infuriatingly vague and sometimes "cutesy." Lothair Coningsby was a great character study.

The idea of having hands, and how important they are to one's relationship with the divine, was fascinating. I liked how Williams involves animals in the strange elemental power of the Tarots; it was like the animals at the end of That Hideous Strength.

Part of my problem with this book could be my level of comfort with the occult. As a Christian, I'm trying to find the line, my personal demarcation of Christian liberty, with occultic practices and ideas in fiction. I don't know much about Williams, but I do believe he was a Christian and may have even had a hand in Lewis' conversion. I do know that Tolkien didn't like all the spiritually dark things Williams used in his books, and abhorred Williams' creative influence on Lewis. I think I need to read another Williams book to see if they are all like that or if I just started with the wrong one.

I can't recommend this highly. ( )