51723

3 copies

A fascinating self portrait of one of the most influential men in recent history.

Lewis paints such pleasing pictures of even the worst scenes, that you find yourself smiling perpetually through the whole book. ( )

This is essentially Lewis' autobiography only up to the point of a small time after his conversion to Christ. I really wish he would have talked about his Narnia series at least a little bit and more than just a small paragraph on his friendship with Tolkien. As far as Lewis' story goes I can't really fault him on telling his life story, who can? The events that happened, happened. It seems though that Lewis attempts to be building up in certain areas of a general life lesson he wants to pass on but he doesn't quite seem to get there. Even when dealing with his conversion to Christ, it really only takes up the last three chapters and the book seems to abruptly end; something that I've seen Lewis do in other works. Overall, it's an ok biography but really for only someone who absolutely wants to know about Lewis' life before Christ. Pretty boring and slow paced for me. Overall grade - D ( )

C.S. Lewis's Surprised by Joy is interesting from two perspectives: first, that it is the closest Lewis came to writing a conventional autobiography; second, that it recounts the process that led to Lewis becoming a Christian, and so is an invaluable aid to his philosophical and theological writings. Sometimes these two perspectives seem to be jostling for position: the earlier portion of the book deals with Lewis's childhood in great detail (including a painful account of his schooldays), while the more formal autobiography peters out in the book's second half. The spiritual theme is always present, but less so in the book's first part (for example, we learn less than might be expected about Lewis's teenage shift to atheism). Perhaps the reason for this is the connecting thread: Lewis's concept of 'joy'. 'Joy' is an Augustinian longing that manifests itself first in creative fantasy, then in the Nordic myths before finally finding its true aim. Perhaps for this reason, the book comes to an abrupt halt once the pursuit of 'joy' brings Lewis back to the Christian faith. While Surprised by Joy may be somewhat unusual in form, it is no less valuable for anyone interested in C.S. Lewis. ( )