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Hi friends!
It’s been more than a month since I shared my review of The Lifegiving Home – high time for another book review! As you know, I’ve been slooowly working my way through Paul Tripp’s book Parenting, but still haven’t finished it yet. Hoping to finish it soon and tell you all about it next month!
So anyway, for this month I thought I’d review a book that I’ve read a couple times now by the amazing author C.S. Lewis!
When I mention C.S. Lewis what comes to mind? For many it is Narnia; for others, Mere Christianity; for others, The Screwtape Letters or maybe his space trilogy. Today though I thought I’d share a little about one of his lesser known books – A Grief Observed.
A Grief Observed wasn’t originally intended to be a book. It is in essence Lewis’s private journal that he wrote after the death of his wife and as such it is full of raw emotion. He decided to publish it a good while later, thinking that maybe it would help others who were also dealing with grief.
Here’s an excerpt from the back of my copy:
Written after his wife’s tragic death as a way of surviving the “mad midnight moments,” A Grief Observed is C. S. Lewis’s honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss . . . . This 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.
I’ll be honest, this book made me cry when I read it. I cannot imagine the pain of losing your spouse. Lewis is very candid about exactly how he felt and this book contains some heartbreaking passages, particularly towards the beginning.
The death of his wife shook his faith like never before and A Grief Observed details Lewis’s journey through his doubts. Lewis said:
I thought I trusted the rope until it mattered to me whether it would bear me. Now it matters, and I find I didn’t…. You will never discover how serious [your belief in God is] until the stakes are raised horribly high, until you find that you are playing not for counters or for sixpences but for every penny you have in the world.
I’ve heard from those who have gone through that kind of grief that the book was very helpful for them. Although I personally haven’t experienced the loss of someone close, I still feel that I benefited a lot from reading about Lewis’s journey. It really made me stop and think: would my trust in who God is hold strong when put to the test like Lewis’s?
It’s a short little book that can easily be read in an evening and I definitely recommend it!
Have you read A Grief Observed? What were your thoughts?
