Brian 's Reviews > A Grief Observed

2.25.22: I wanted to find out if T.S. Eliot had a friendship with Lewis, and in my search discovered Eliot had helped publish this work for Lewis under a pseudonym. I wanted to update and share because I at first thought he had been upfront about what he had believed. Perhaps, in that mental condition, he preferred to wait.
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4.9.18

I plan to follow-up with a longer review when I can increase my phone data Friday and set a hot spot for my laptop. For now, I'll say, I love Lewis more than ever now. Herein lies a picture of a man who reached great heights among critical, intellectual, and Christian circles worldwide, and in this, one of his last books before a soon-coming death, describes the crashing of his entire world in the death of his wife, a falling of his house of cards, as he calls it. I deeply love and respect this man.

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I had an interesting perspective reading this along with “Mere Christianity,” two works at polar places of age (at least the first few books in “Mere Christianity” were early talks). The earlier work will soon appear on my review list, and I found the talk I’ve heard about it didn’t disappoint me. He says profound things, in profound wisdom, with substance, and it impacts your mind. Then “Grief Observed,” at the closing of his life, after he had been established with several other books that brought people the same profundity. In this work, the great Lewis is just a broken, hurting, struggling man, reminding us he came from where we also came, dust (taking a Christian biblical perspective here).

I read Lewis believed in a form of purgatory, where Christians come to the end of life, and Jesus will let them in because they had faith, but they could have done better, so He allows them to be purged if they so choose. I wonder if he prayed in his life that God would purge him in this life, so he would not have to do purgatory. This grief describes a purging. All the darkness in him surfaces, all the weakness, and the frailty and potential of human nature to fail. He calls his life, with all his accomplishments, and the enduring reputation he still holds, a “house of cards.” I must keep in mind that this reveals his view in his state of mind, but doesn’t necessitate objective reality.

This could be encouraging to people who know this kind of grief. I have never experienced the depths to this level. Some Christians may doubt their lives and despair, but if C.S. Lewis struggled this way, they could see even those elevated and known as God’s voice to the world struggle too. We are all human in the end. Only One can claim perfection. It took my whole life up to this point to learn that, and it’s easier than it was as a young arrogant kid, but I’m sure I have much to learn. Reading more Lewis will aid in that I’m sure.

The book forms a flowing image of a broken man. He doubts everything. His old atheist thought patterns emerge. His logic turns against God instead of the usual. Through it all inclinations to find something to get him through emerge, a search for renewed faith and strength. The majority unfolds brutal honesty. He accuses God of torture. He calls Him a Divine Imbecile.

I’ve learned writing becomes more powerful with honesty. Can someone be more honest than this? To publish a book contradicting all he has taught and believed. He could have kept it all a secret. But he published it. He gave us a true picture of himself. He said “I’m not a super-Christian. I’m just a flesh and blood instrument, just like you. My gifts don’t make me more special or stronger. God gets all the glory in the end.” How humble is that? I don’t know if I could do that.

He writes with gorgeous, poetic style, and uses great literary techniques. He wrote from the heart, not having strength to focus on how he wrote it. A true writer from the heart.