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A Grief Observed
 
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A Grief Observed (Paperback)

by C.S. Lewis (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

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


From AudioFile

Lewis wrote this near the end of his life after a dramatic and unexpected romance that ended in the death of his new wife from cancer. The work stands in contrast to THE PROBLEM OF PAIN, which he wrote twenty years earlier. The contrasts are striking, both in style (clinical in PAIN, transparently personal in GRIEF) and listenability. Containing much that is difficult to follow audibly, Pain lends itself much more easily to being read and pondered, while Grief exhibits Lewis's ability to capture the ear, as demonstrated in his many radio broadcasts. Ralph Cosham gives a fluid and evenhanded reading to this soul-baring exposÉ of emotion itself and the man who wrote about it. S.M.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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Customer Reviews

46 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (46 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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29 of 31 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 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
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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5.0 out of 5 stars Sharing Grief, May 19 2009
By D Glover (northern canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Grief Observed (Paperback)
I read this book two years after the death of someone very close and in the reading, it gave solace to know I was not alone. Lewis recounts experiences and emotions he faced in the suffering with and death to cancer of his wife, Joy, and time and again they are things I have experienced (and I can only assume countless others have also). Questioning God's goodness, doubting the adequacy of one's love for the deceased while still alive, questioning the fervency of prayer and the strength of faith, inability to recall the person's face or remember their presence at times and events where one was with them in life, etc. As I read these intensely personal and naked honest reflections, not a few tears fell on the pages as many of my own suppressed questions and emotions resurfaced. And through Lewis's own recorded struggles, as I read and my own raw emotions bubbled back up, this grief-journal had the effect of a friend sitting and weeping with me in the ashes. Job should have had such a companion.

By the end and reflecting back you realize that faith in the goodness and mercy of God, even in the midst of the most intense suffering and grief, has been restored, or more accurately, that it never really left but only gave room to honestly question a God who is more than able to handle such questions. In the end, hope is restored far stronger than it ever was when still untried and untested. We come to realize that until and unless we believe in the sovereign goodness of God in the darkest hour, we don't really believe in it at all. And the fact that we are questioning in the midst of loss indicates not only our innate sense that there is Someone to question but also our sense that such a someone must have His reasons.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, Feb 4 2006
By A Customer
This review is from: Grief Observed (Paperback)
'A GRIEF OBSERVED' is a look through a Christian perspective at loss, grief and recovery. One of the best written books, similar to another deep and emotional book along the same line 'SONG OF CY: UNDERSTANDING GRIEF' by Katlyn Stewart. If you are dealing with grief, and need answers, these books will offer that and much more.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars So high a cost...
C.S. Lewis is perhaps best known for children's stories that also delight adults; however, during his lifetime he was best known as an inspirational speaker, not quite in the same... Read more
Published on Dec 13 2005 by FrKurt Messick

5.0 out of 5 stars Healing
The other reviews here give a little of CS Lewis's history and trials so I will comment on the the comfort I got while reading how another person faced the loss of a loved one... Read more
Published on Jun 3 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your typical grief book
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. Read more
Published on Mar 22 2002 by Tanja L. Edwards

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking...
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... Read more
Published on Mar 2 2002 by iljc82

5.0 out of 5 stars A suggestion for C.S. Lewis Lovers
I'm an enourmous fan of C.S. Lewis and have been for many years. His explorations of Christianity bring a much needed intellegence to the faith and I have always been so grateful... Read more
Published on Feb 20 2002 by Kerry Harper

5.0 out of 5 stars Comforting
We have lost many in our family to cancer. My aunt is now going through chemotherapy. I am understanding that God draws us closer to him during trials. Read more
Published on Feb 17 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Faith
It is important to know that we all experience a kindred feeling of loss and uncertainty. I was ashamed of myself when my Dad died. God had never let me down. Read more
Published on Dec 7 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars The Road Back Home
This is the book that helped me forgive God for doing what, at times, seems to be a lousy job. If you have ever railed at God for injustice, you have found a kindred spirit... Read more
Published on Nov 24 2001 by T. S. Wodoslawsky

5.0 out of 5 stars Faith in faith?
After reading A Grief Observed, a man expressed how the book impacted him in this way: "For me, this little book was a cautionary tale. Read more
Published on Nov 21 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant piece of work
this is the second c.s. lewis book i have read, the first being "the four loves." after the four loves, this book was quite a stark contrast, but it was just as... Read more
Published on Nov 18 2001 by Jacob R. Roche

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