|
| |||||||||||
What are readers saying about A Grief Observed (Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis)?
|
A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-18 07:39:41.
(Language: English)
 
This book is a heart wrenching and beautiful record of C S Lewis grief after the loss of his wife to cancer. Renowned for his belief in God, C S Lewis is unflinching in his self disclosure and how he lost all sense of meaning and how he regained his senses. An encouraging book for anyone who believes in God, before, during and after great loss and suffering. I have read it three times in eight years and appreciate C S Lewis for documenting his insights at a time of great loss. I highly recommend this book to both C S Lewis fans, and anyone who has lost a loved one. 
|
Yes (0) 
No (0) |
|
A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-28 08:34:07.
(Language: English)
I avoided C.S. Lewis for the longest time because his books were in the "Christian" section....I was a fool, he is brilliant.
|
|
|
Jesse posted a review at 2011-08-15 04:41:44.
(Language: English)
Honest, heart breaking and unresolved.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-04 12:37:29.
(Language: English)
No one has descried what it felt like to be so unhappy so beautifully. The first line to this book is great, sounds so beautiful, "No One ever told me that grief felt so like fear." Does that just make you feel warm all over. I just started reading it and it seems to make the most sense to me. Why didn't they hand this book to all T.B.I. patients, what C.S. Lewis goes through after his wife died, is what we are all going through after we damage our brain. It made the most sense to me, and I don't know if anyone whom doesn't have a brain injury could understand it.
|
|
Christopher posted a review at 2008-06-26 12:33:39.
(Language: English)
A good memoir on one man's inner journey to overcome the grief and despair that followed the sudden of death of his wife. One of the most shocking things about the beginning of this book is how incoherent Lewis starts off as. Having read many of Lewis's nonfiction/religious books in the past this was fact was disheartening. But what was very heartening is how quickly within the book he comes back to his faith original faith in God's love. His line of thought becomes more comprehensible and ends on a positive note. I guess that's how it is with a man of God like Lewis. The only thing that kept me back from making this five stars was the fact that I, having not experienced the same kind of loss that Lewis has experienced (thank God), I was unable to relate to his grief. Perhaps this book will have more significance later on in my life. Otherwise, and good book.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-29 04:47:47.
(Language: English)
A classic on grief written by one of the most known and loved theologian writers of all time. C.S. Lewis dared to share his intimate thoughts,questions and doubts about God in his trial of human weakness after the death of his wife.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-25 06:08:34.
(Language: English)
This book is one of amazing power. A book where the author's very openness and truthfulness about his own doubts about God and religion caused his publisher to want to "edit" or even not publish this book.You can't help but be endeared to Clive Staples Lewis even more after reading through this book. This is not a book t read half-way through, and quit. You must finish it, regardless of your thoughts, or you will have a skewed vision of Christianity, or at least the Lewis Christianity that many refer to in the "Chronicles of Narnia" series. Amazing book, helping people through the loss of a loved one, possibly before they even have lost that loved one. A must-read for any adult.
|
|
Benjamin posted a review at 2010-05-18 03:36:24.
(Language: English)
some good thoughts on marriage, and a raw view of one man's grief, but not my favorite lewis book by far.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2010-09-10 04:42:00.
(Language: English)
I am so glad I read this book. It has comforted me and helped me understand this unavoidable reality of life.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-14 05:55:14.
(Language: English)
A great book by C.S. Lewis. It shares the tremendous grief that Lewis carried in his life and how he dealt with it. Ultimately, we must turn to Christ for our deepest need of comfort in the midst of grief. Lewis is masterful in this piece to help us to understand certain hard facts about grief. Highly recommend it to anyone who suffers grief which I am sure are most people.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-14 02:22:29.
(Language: English)
I highly recommend this book to anyone grieving the loss of a partner. Even though this book chronicles Lewis's grief due to the loss of his wife, I felt 80% of his words could have come from my own mouth.
|
|
Joshua posted a review at 2009-12-08 01:43:47.
(Language: English)
I love Lewis' candid journalings and his honest thoughts brought on by the passing of his wife. If a philosophical giant such CS Lewis could admit his anger and disappointment toward God, such as David in the Psalms, then maybe we won't feel so guilty as believers in those times ourselves. Woven through the book is a glimpse of the remarkable love story between Lewis and "H" as he refers to her.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-25 10:36:36.
(Language: English)
A most personal and intimate book as the author deals with the grief of loosing his wife. At times it seems like a mad man ranting, but then again, is that not a product of grief? Lewis is excellent at how he creates fantastic word pictures to describe hard concepts that help the reader experience what he is going through. One of the easiest C.S Lewis books I have read and at 4 chapters long, a great short read for a commute or before bed! Good intro to a great writer as well.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-01 01:53:21.
(Language: English)
More than six months after I was given this book (twice by two different people), I have now finished reading it. Lewis' grief over his wife, H., is so profound, so visceral, that he helped me cope with the death of my "brother," Bobby. For months I refused to touch the book, for months I wanted nothing to do with God, but he sought after me passionately. Only after those encounters did I open its covers, and find my own grief explained, the circular repetition of the phases suddenly making sense. The sometimes seemingly lunatic ravings of a man beset by depression and the deep longing for the most beloved person in my life--the man who was more than a brother though not of blood, these ravings suddenly became normal as I read Lewis' own contemplations. His conclusions regarding the necessity of Jesus in his darkness met my own--though I am completely healed, God has softened the void. The tears still come, the cravings for a good conversation or wrestling match still exist, but there is a hope that I find--now that I have been found-- that this all will be healed. In the end, I find a rock that does not hate me, that weeps with me, but is still there. I find comfort in the storm that is in the Passionate Lover, Wonderful Father. I find grace and mercy and ability to mourn while fully knowing that Bobby is complete, and someday, in Jesus' hands, I will be complete as well.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-14 10:58:25.
(Language: English)
One of the things I've always loved about C. S. Lewis is that there isn't the slightest hint of fakery in him. When you read his words, you read his heart. This is most true in his book, A Grief Observed. These "jottings" were made in Lewis's private journals after the death of his wife, Joy, from cancer. They weren't intended for publication when written, but Jack later decided that they might help someone else who might be going through a similar experience as he. This is Jack Lewis as Jacob, wrestling with God. It is not always a pleasant sight to behold, and yet we cannot take our eyes off it. He bites and scratches and yells at God at the top of his lungs, then falls back in a heaving mass of quivering flesh. But like Jacob of old, Lewis will not turn loose until God blesses him. And ultimately God does bless him - and us through him. There are too many profound passages to quote. And we don't really want to quote everything. It would be like uncovering a secret. Lewis honesty sometimes borders on discomfort, a discomfort we feel with him and, if we have experienced a similar loss, understand. The first sentence of the book sent sharp razors of memory through me. "No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear." After my father died, I remember that strange sensation myself. I didn't realize that grief manifested itself like fear. Lewis goes on to describe his mourning in terms so eloquent, and yet, when we read them, so real. In speaking about the memory of his wife showing up at particular times and in particular places, Lewis says no. "Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything." He speaks of how her face is becoming blurred in his memory, while her voice is still vivid. "The remembered voice - that can turn me at any moment to a whimpering child." Lewis eventually finds his way through the terrifying maze of grief and finds that the God he was wrestling with was holding him in His arms all the time. "God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't." The lesson, for me, is that our ideas of how things "ought to be" are illusions of the truth that really is. God, through the natural process of death and grieving shatters our illusions and causes us to come face to face with truth. This is often extraordinarily painful. Says Lewis, "My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence?"
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2010-10-15 08:05:19.
(Language: English)
What made me appreiate this book particularly is its difference from Lewis's other works. It isn't an argumentation or a well-thought-out efense of something. It is a processing of grief from the pages of a journal, wrestling through hard questions about God'd goodness and pain. It's not an enjoyable read, but it is a very good one.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-25 10:37:48.
(Language: English)
When I started this book I was a bit taken aback by how raw Lewis's emotions and thoughts were. He was standing in the middle of a hurricane of emotion and sorrow. Some of his thoughts seem like they even border on blasphemy the things he says about God. The book is 4 chapters long, a quick read, but I don?t know that it's meant to be read as quickly as I read it. If I was seriously experiencing grief, I might take my time with it. I would read each chapter once a day for a week, and take a month to finish it. By the end of the book he comes back around to the genius of thought and devotion to God that his other great works show him to be. All in all, a poignant compilation of thoughts on suffering right along with Lament for a Son as the best books I've read on grief.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2009-10-07 04:30:34.
(Language: English)
I'm hesitant to thump my drum for CS Lewis. He's touted by Gen X'ers and my fellow Gen Y'ers as basically the greatest Christian writer since Paul. There is a cult of celebrity at work with which I take issue (his writing is not as great as many seem to think nor was his theology perfect).However, my ground-to-a-nub axe aside, "A Grief Observed" is a profound work. For anyone who's ever suffered any kind of serious loss, CS Lewis' memoir will ring many familiar bells. When I read this a few years ago, I was in the throes of a deep grief-driven depression and more than once I would stop, close the book, and marvel, "I could've written this."--not in a self-flattering, narcissistic way, but in the sense that no matter what kind of grief you're suffering, this small, intimate diary of one man's journey through the pain will resonate; its familiarity transcends genders, generations and genres of grief (feel free to sneer at the alliteration). If you're suffering through the loss of a loved one or perhaps ANY kind of grief, CS Lewis' private struggle will show you that you are not trespassing in territory so terrible that you're alone, and that no valley is too dark to be lost in forever, nor so desolate that your spirit will starve.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2011-02-23 02:36:44.
(Language: English)
After the death of my wife this book was recommended by several friends. The emotions on display are raw, honest and painful. Just the way I felt too. It was nice to know I wasn't alone, that I wasn't going mad. It was and is nice to know others have walked this path ahead of me. While faith is my cornerstone, my rock, and my anchor the death of my Lynn has challenged everything I believe. And my faith has stood the test. There CS Lewis and I can also agree.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2009-12-23 04:10:58.
(Language: English)
When the overwhelming tide of grief subsides, but still lingers, pick up this book. You will feel like C.S. Lewis wrote it for you. It also gives you some relief...if you are angry with God or wonder if he cares, C.S. Lewis, a pretty clear cut man of God, was there too asking the same big questions. As he wrestles with them, so can you, and slowly but surely get your faith back on the right track as well as help heal yourself and your feelings towards God.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-29 01:54:02.
(Language: English)
A really good book on grief and the grief process. Highly recommended for those going through grief or trying to understand someone who is going through grief. Great insight into the anger, confusion, pain, questions, sadness, overwhelming collection of a mix bag of emotions, alienation and more. It was a painful and poignant read, of a man who loved, loved late, love passionately, both God and his wife. His anger at God and questions whether a God exists - especially in the face of grief and loss. It's also a good read for those who try to comfort the bereaved - badly - by saying they have gone to a better place or the worst - one shouldn't grieve because they have gone to God. Grief is painful, it's a process , it's exhuasting, it's draining, it's anger and confusion and more
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-10 04:53:51.
(Language: English)
I just finished reading this little book by dear Lewis. I have recently had a real brush with grief, and was inclined to pick this book up. It essentially outlined Lewis' own journey through grief at the loss of his dear wife. His journal of his own utter lostness, then anger, followed by depression, finally followed by acceptance, growth and a sorrowing joy were so helpful to me in working through my grief, and it reaching others who are mourning. I recommend taking an hour from your life to consider this little ,but powerful work.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-05 07:00:34.
(Language: English)
"You can't see anything properly while your eyes are blurred with tears" (45). I think this statement from C.S. Lewis summarizes his thoughts on grief. I appreciated his raw honesty, heartache, and questions as a great man of faith who is indeed very human. It was only when "I mourned H. [his wife] least, [that] I remembered her best" (44) and "the less I mourn her the nearer I seem to her" (56). I remember first hearing about C.S. Lewis' life and the death of his wife while I was standing in a book store nearly ten years ago. Though I do not remember who was telling me about C.S. Lewis, I do remember that person describing him as someone who had to lose his wife to deepen his faith. That always stayed with me as one of my only knowledgeable details of his life... and I remember both being shocked and humbled by it. So as I read A Grief Observed, I realized that this was that story of C.S. Lewis, and I read more indepth about this aspect of his life and faith. Throughout Lewis' journal, he uses beautiful figurative language to describe the death of one's mate: it is like a valley, it is like an amputation, a map of sorrow. One of the most profound descriptions is when he says: "We were one flesh. Now that it has been cut in two, we don't want to pretend that it is whole and complete." We will be still married, still in love. Therefore we shall still ache" (54). Oh, what a beautiful blessing of marriage... and the truth indeed that we enter into the covenant knowing that more than likely, someone is going to grieve the other. And I can relate to Lewis' realization that his order went him, his wife, and then God. "In that order. The order and the proportions exactly what they ought not to have been" (62). That was truth to me! "Praise in true order; of Him as the giver, of her as the gift" (62)... what great perspective and shift! I liked what his stepson said in the foreward, that "it almost seems cruel that her death was delayed long enough for him to grow to love her so completely that she filled his world as the greatest gift that God had ever given him, and then she died and left him alone in a place that her presence in his life had created for him" (xxx). His story will forever remind me of the quote: is it better to have loved and lost, or never to have loved at all? I think his journal answers that question both beautifully and painfully. So I take refuge in his words and his situation, one that I can not relate to, but know is inevitable in love and life. I too think "it is all right to wallow in one's journal... what we work out in our journals we don't take out on family and friends" (xiv). I thank him for writing, for sharing, and for loving.
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2011-09-12 01:32:29.
(Language: English)
A collection of what appeared to be ramblings from a man who just lost his wife. Not good, not bad, I'm just sayin'... The one line that really caught my attention was "Does grief finally subside into boredom tinged by faint nausea ?" I've been there and wondered that very thing myself !
|
|
|
A Reader posted a review at 2009-10-06 10:42:41.
(Language: English)
Probably one of my favorite books because it exposes genuine humanness with an uncensored blatant honesty. It's not a theological road map but a genuine human account of suffering with its deepest disappointments and longings. After the death of his wife, Lewis' faith is shook to a devastating low. Lewis finds himself on a journey strewn with raw and heartbreaking pain, but one that ultimately leads him back to a faith-affirming relationship with God. A powerful, deeply healing classic not to be missed.
|
Share your views!
Similar books
