A Grief Observed: Amazon.ca: C.S. Lewis: Books

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C.S. Lewis joined the human race when his wife, Joy Gresham, died of cancer. Lewis, the Oxford don whose Christian apologetics make it seem like he's got an answer for everything, experienced crushing doubt for the first time after his wife's tragic death. A Grief Observed contains his epigrammatic reflections on that period: "Your bid--for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity--will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high," Lewis writes. "Nothing will shake a man--or at any rate a man like me--out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself." This is the book that inspired the film Shadowlands, but it is more wrenching, more revelatory, and more real than the movie. It is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings. --Michael Joseph Gross

Review

"A very personal, anguished, luminous little book about the meaning of death, marriage, and religion." -- Publishers Weekly

"I read Lewis for comfort and pleasure many years ago, and a glance into the books revives my old admiratation." -- John Updike --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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4.8 out of 5 stars (47 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Help in Time of Grief, Dec 6 2006

By

Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Grief Observed (Mass Market Paperback)

This is another amazing book by Lewis, and another that I have read multiple times. I have had to read it for at least three university courses over the last 18 years. This book is unlike anything else that Lewis ever wrote. It is raw, visceral and at times disturbing, unlike most of his other work that is very precise, specific, well argued and clearly laid out.

Recently I heard this story: "Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis's stepson recently released a book about Lewis called Jack's Life. It includes a DVD interview, where Gresham states that Lewis did not intend to publish A Grief Observed; it was a personal notebook. When it was published it was under the pseudonym NW Clark and by a publisher Lewis had never published with. Gresham also said that Lewis received numerous copies of the book as gifts from friends who thought it would help." That speaks to the power in Lewis's writing; even his friends thought the book would be helpful for him as he journeyed through his grief.

Lewis states in his book The Four Loves: "We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him, throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it." That view is drastically changed when he writes Grief. In A Grief Observed we have a very different approach. Lewis presents a very visceral response to the loss of his wife. An example of this is that Lewis states at the beginning of the book: "No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing." This book shows us more of Lewis's own heart and life than almost anything else he wrote.

It is a great book for those dealing with loss - either for yourself or for someone you know and love. It is often used in grief counseling, and one of the courses I read it for was on the spirituality of death and dying. This book is a gem in the cannon of Lewis literature. It will not disappoint.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your typical grief book, Mar 21 2002

By

Tanja L. Walker "Tanja L. Walker" (Norman, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Grief Observed (Paperback)

This is the first book I have read of CS Lewis's (amazingly enough!) and it won't be my last. I didn't read this at a time of grief, but rather for a book club. However, I am in the process of signing up as a Hospice volunteer, so death and grieving were in my mind when I was reading "A Grief Observed." C.S. Lewis doesn't pull any punches with his grief or with God. He asks tough questions of what kind of God allows such immeasurable pain, yet seems to not be there when the pain and grieving are at their worst. By reading this, others would feel they have permission to be angry at God, to let out their pain and frustration and anger. A great book, especially for those whose faith development is at a high level.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking..., Mar 2 2002

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iljc82 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Grief Observed (Paperback)

In the last book he'd ever write, C. S. Lewis showed a break from his usual encouraging and light-hearted discussions about Christianity in topical essays and fantasy (See The Chronicles of Narnia). A Grief Observed is compiled in the form of a diary, in which much thought and spirit had been commited, evident in the patient development of ideas over the span of days he was grieving his wife's death.

I feel it is less an inspirational book than a self-assessment book, for Lewis highlighted a few doubtful questions he had and which he believed everyone should have asked instead of being ignorant or in staunch denial. Controversial questions on God's goodness, His realness and the reasons of [some] sufferings are raised, not to stumble [the reader] but paradoxically uplift.

Interestingly, after reading this book, I wanted to know why we have hope in God, why we rejoice in His goodness which when asked about, we can only answer mindlessly with meaningless and bland model answers. Surely a Christian life demands a deeper realm of understanding and intimacy of/with God. Lewis depicted that maturity in his writing, through his boldness to admit his disappointments, his grief - which a Christian shouldn't be deprived of just because he believes in the hope of Heaven - and his doubts.

It is not a long piece of literature, nor did it explore all kinds of suffering but only parochially death. Despite that, Lewis had produced yet one of the most honest accounts in the Christian context, about his love for his wife, his faith [which before was a card castle ever so vulnerable], and God's good intention in everything He does. Even in suffering. Even in physical pain. Listen and probably what you hear is not the slam of a door and bolting locks, but a voice that will tell you to continue trusting and be at peace.

My salute to one of the most gifted and [Christian-wise] well versed writers.

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