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Summary: CS Lewis describes his intellectual journey towards "Joy"
Review: I have not read much CS Lewis (only a few books), so I will not pretend to be an expert about the man, or his writing. I figured that Surprised by Joy would be excellent since it provides a first hand account of the spiritual conversion of CS Lewis. I was not disappointed - it is an interesting read.
I particularly like the fact that Lewis not only describes the environment which influenced his perspective of the world and early decisions in life (his family, the death of his mother, his schooling, etc.). But, he also traces his intellectual journey back to God. The influencers are many - the books he read, the friends he made, the discussions he had, and the observations he made about life. Considered by many to be one of the best thinkers and writers of the last century it was fascinating to see the progression of Lewis' thinking about the world in which we live and the God who made it.
I highly recommend this book for any CS Lewis fan (I am rapidly becoming a bigger one), or any one who is having an intellectual struggle with believing that God exists. This book may help you unpack some of the baggage that the world presents about this topic. A short word of warning - if you are looking for some "light" reading this book is not a very good choice. I am not surprised that some reviewers found the book boring - it is not suitable for all tastes.
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Summary: Classic C.S. Lewis.
Review: I'm a huge C.S. Lewis fan, however like most people who reviewed this book, I did start to trail off when reading the middle chapters of this book. In the first 8-10 chapters of this book Lewis focuses on his life as a child and the pages seem to fly by. The same thing goes for the last 4-5 chapters where we finally get the details of his coming back to Christianity. However, the few chapters in the middle of the book are filled with Lewis' definitions and opinions on a lot of different topics and though they are relevant to the mindset of Lewis' thoughts, the chapters do not follow along with the story-telling element he so well utilized in the other chapters of the book. Not that that's a bad thing, but for those reader who were expecting to read a certain type of book from beginning to end (myself included), it's kind of confusing to adjust to and is probably a major reason why some people don't recommend this book. Now don't get me wrong, this book is very touching and is a very worth-while read. However, if you plan to read this book, you may also want to make sure you're ready to read two different types of writing in the same book. Check out my other reviews for great Christian CDs, Books, movies, etc.
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Summary: Only for fans
Review: If you're interested in learning more about C.S. Lewis and how he became what he was, then this is definitely the best source available, especially about his childhood years. I don't imagine this book would be too interesting to those who aren't already fans of Lewis, as his other works, especially fictional, are much better in my opinion. It is very interesting, though, to see how such a fervent atheist could go from arrogance to one of the twentieth century's greatest Christian apologists.
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Summary: An expository on Solipsism
Review: It seems sacrilegious to redact such a gifted writer whose phraseolgy make his prose almost poetic, but my patience wore thin as I listened via Books on Tape to all his self-absortive drivel awaiting the "piece de resistance" of the basis for his conversion. I was deeply disappointed in the short shift he accorded the latter. My iconoclastic opinion.
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Summary: Slow at times but well worth it in the end
Review: Lewis continues to amaze me in all of his works. This is his autobiography, but actually his account of his conversion from agnostism to Christianity. The first few chapters are a little slow, although it is interesting to find out how this genius grew up. It also neat to find out who Lewis' greatest influences were -- his teachers, Chesterton, Tolkien, Johnson, Herbert, MacDonald. The chapter "Checkmate" contains the meat of the work and if one were to read any of the book, this portion is exceptional. In fact, I read that chapter over and over and over. Yep.
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Summary: Victory Through Surrender
Review: Lewis points out in "Mere Christianity" that mankind's worst sin is pride (setting his will before God's will)because ir is the root of all other sins. In "Surprised By Joy", Lewis describes his own willfullness, arrogance and pride as he wanders through his search for Joy down all manner of intellectual and aesthetic blind alleys. At last, having exhausted all options, he reluctantly surrenders and then, at last, finds the Joy he had been so diligently seeking. While the facts differ, Lewis' story is a familiar one to many of us who simply were unable to accept what was readily available without wasting time, energy and emotion first. Lewis' story is a reminder of the nature of Grace, freely given to the willing recipient. As with everything Lewis wrote, the prose is wonderful, the references challenging and Lewis' mental workings amazing. This is not the easiest reading and not the best introduction to the author (Screwtape and Mere Christianity are better for that purpose), but the volume is extremely rewarding, especially for one who identified with the journey described.
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Summary: Introspective and Informative
Review: Lewis says the two families from which he sprang were extremely different in both temperament and origin. On his dad's side there was the Welsh lineage. He describes them as being sentimental, passionate, and rhetorical. While the Hamiltons, on his mother's side were less passionate, more critical and ironic. On both sides, his parents were "bookish" people. He says his brother was a blessing to him, although the two of them were different also. I love the description of the house full of books in which he grew up. He writes: "My father bought all the books he read and never got rid of any of them. There were books in the study, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern attic, books of all kinds reflecting every transient stage of my parents' interest..." He talks about staking out his claim in the attic and making it his study. Early on he became a reader and writer. It was a love affair with communication. He discovered his gift and pursued it from then on. This book traces the stages of his spiritual journey as well. He is very straightforward in describing what was going on in his mind at various stages. In reading about his unique experiences one acquires insight that can be beneficial in reflection on one's own life.
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Summary: Surprised by Disappointment
Review: Like one other reviewer, I too had trouble believing that Lewis was atheist or agnostic prior to his "conversion," which was more like an awakening to the relevance of it all in daily life. I was surprisingly disappointed not only in what I learned about Lewis, but in his writing style here. Over half of the book was bland, unengaging; the psychology of his journey seemed insincere, transparent. The last few chapters were most interesting, suddenly articulate, and thought provoking. But I don't regret the read. Although somewhat disappointing, this is still good information for the C.S. Lewis fan. The more one knows about an author, the more clearly one can understand and appreciate his work.
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Summary: The most important book ever written on C S Lewis
Review: Many people have written much about C S Lewis, and due to his wide appeal we have books on him from virtually every segment of the Christian world. Which leaves the aspiring Lewis devotee with a problem: Who to believe? For, as A N Wilson has rightly pointed out: 'Two totally different Lewises are being revered by the faithful.' Lewis himself has solved the problem many years before his death by writing this autobiography. It is a work of art in every sense of the word, and even though essentially an autobiography, filled with so much truth and clear Lewisian thinking that authors quote it as though it were a scholarly work. Lewis traces his path from his early years in Belfast all the way to his conversion in England 31 years later. The book tells little of the relationships in his life, and one who has read widely on Lewis cannot help but wonder about other obvious omissions and evasions. However, we are given the Lewis as Lewis wanted to give him, and that is what makes this book unique. Whilst reading it, I was reminded of Lewis' own advice in his Preface to St Athanasius's 'The Incarnation of the Word of God', later published as a chapter ('On the Reading of Old Books') in 'First and Second Things' (ed. Walter Hooper), 1984. It remains to me the final and authoritative words on why Surprised by Joy is the most important book on Lewis' life, straight from the horse's mouth: "... I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator." Makes you think, doesn't it?
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Summary: A book Lewis could have done without
Review: My first exposure to C S Lewis was through The Screwtape Letters, which I found to be both absolutely engrossing and filled with insight of the highest order into society and human nature. I was also strongly captivated by the author's Narnia series of children's books, and I was ready to count myself a Lewis fan. But Lewis's non-fiction, although written with flair and clarity, proved disappointing. His penchant for allegory and metaphor makes his fiction great, but it undermines the logic of books like Mere Christianity and Miracles. And although Surprised by Joy is, like all of his books, very enjoyably written, it destroyed my former conception of Lewis by revealing how dependent his religious beliefs were on his own personality and emotional struggles. We must commend Lewis for not tidying up his image, but the effect of the book, for me, was to cast a veil of doubt over everything else he published.
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