BECOMING MRS. LEWIS is a book that I have been looking forward to reading for a long time. At the same time, I put it off because I was afraid it would not live up to my expectations. I had previously read JOY by Abigail Santamaria, an excellent non-fiction book about Joy Davidman and her life with C.S. Lewis. When I finally sat down and started to read the book, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it.
I breezed through BECOMING MRS. LEWIS. The story is captivating and the writing is superb. I bet most people have heard about C.S. Lewis, also called Jack, the author of, among other things, the NARNIA books. But, perhaps not many know about his personal life. Jack was a confirmed bachelor, an Oxford don who was living with his brother. And he was also an atheist who found God. Joy Davidman also finds religion and begins to write letters to Jack asking for spiritual advice. And the rest, as they say, is history. Reading this book will give you a deep insight into both Joy and Jack's past and present.
If I made a top ten list of books I have read this year so far, BECOMING MRS. LEWIS would be one of them. I love it when books turn out to not only be as good as I hope, but better, and still feel the effect of reading the book long after I'm done. A feeling of contentment. Before BECOMING MRS. LEWIS, I had never read any books by Patti Callahan, but I want to read everything she has written. If you love reading biographical fiction, or just want to read an awesome book, then, I recommend this one!
The love story of C. S. Lewis and his only wife, Helen
Joy Davidman Gresham, was improbable-and seemingly
impossible. Their Eros-story led to some of C. S. Lewis's
greatest works on love, grief, and faith, yet Joy is most
commonly known for how she died. Becoming Mrs. Lewis allows
us to see how this brilliant and passionate woman lived-and
why she stole Jack's heart. In a most
improbable friendship, she found love. In a world where
women were silenced, she found her voice. In a God beyond
the religion of her birth, she found faith.From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan
comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S.
Lewis called "my whole world." When poet and writer Joy
Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis-known as
Jack-she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love,
after all, wasn't holding together her crumbling marriage.
Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an
Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds
bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her
life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again,
facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and
faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the
threat of death couldn't destroy.In this masterful
exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern
times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent
mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this
respected author and inspired books that still enchant us
and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren't meant
to have a voice-and yet her love for Jack gave them both
voices they didn't know they had.At once a
fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer's
life, BECOMING MRS. LEWIS is above all a love story-a
love of literature and ideas, a love of God, and a love
between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not
impossible at all.
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