Title: A Grief Observed

By C.S. Lewis

Publishing Info: Reissued edition (March 1, 1983) Bantam Books; ISBN: 0553274864 ;

Genre: Autobiography

Sub-genre: - Devotional // Essay

Nationality: - British

Time Period: 20th Century

First and Last Read: Spring 1996 // Spring 1999

Rated: - A+

Use: Intro to Literature

Location: - Dr. Rearick's Office

Scripture that comes to mind:

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.."

1 Peter 1:6 (English NIV)

Comments: On one hand the above quote is misleading. Lewis' account of his personal agony because of the death of his wife Helen Joy (Helen Joy Gresham) Lewis is devastatingly honest. In fact Wikipedia's article on Lewis notes: "Lewis’s book A Grief Observed describes his experience of bereavement in such a raw and personal fashion that Lewis originally released it under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk to keep readers from associating the book with him (ultimately too many friends recommended the book to Lewis as a method for dealing with his own grief, and he made his authorship public)." (Wikipedia on Lewis)

He describes a long and difficult recuperation even though at the time of her death he was a devout Christian and was in fact the apologist for Christianity. Especially in his first chapters to have the above quote given to him as a response to his pain would have seemed pat "clichés-ness." He examines and destroys several quick response commonly quoted by Christian when faced to death (much as he does when his friend and minister Harry tries to comfort him in Shadowlands). One of the major truths found in A Grief Observed is that there is no easy rout over the mountain of human grief. It must be climbed over, and telling one's self that the road is not difficult or not a burden and that no blame should be put on the master road builder who placed it there is cant and false.

And yet, at the end this is a story of the return of joy and the affirmation of hope.