Rating: 
Summary: Healing
Review: The other reviews here give a little of CS Lewis's history and trials so I will comment on the the comfort I got while reading how another person faced the loss of a loved one.
Loss unites us all even though our situations vary. We all face the hurt, lonliness and longing for times that will never be shared with our loved one. Knowing that there will come a time when we will meet again is my great comfort.
I have found this book and other books to be a great help.
I would also recommend, Write from Your Heart, A Healing Grief Journal. Both of these books were instrumental in helping me cope with my loss.
Rating:
Summary: Not your typical grief book
Review: This is the first book I have read of CS Lewis's (amazingly enough!) and it won't be my last. I didn't read this at a time of grief, but rather for a book club. However, I am in the process of signing up as a Hospice volunteer, so death and grieving were in my mind when I was reading "A Grief Observed." C.S. Lewis doesn't pull any punches with his grief or with God. He asks tough questions of what kind of God allows such immeasurable pain, yet seems to not be there when the pain and grieving are at their worst. By reading this, others would feel they have permission to be angry at God, to let out their pain and frustration and anger. A great book, especially for those whose faith development is at a high level.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking...
Review: In the last book he'd ever write, C. S. Lewis showed a break from his usual encouraging and light-hearted discussions about Christianity in topical essays and fantasy (See The Chronicles of Narnia). A Grief Observed is compiled in the form of a diary, in which much thought and spirit had been commited, evident in the patient development of ideas over the span of days he was grieving his wife's death.
I feel it is less an inspirational book than a self-assessment book, for Lewis highlighted a few doubtful questions he had and which he believed everyone should have asked instead of being ignorant or in staunch denial. Controversial questions on God's goodness, His realness and the reasons of [some] sufferings are raised, not to stumble [the reader] but paradoxically uplift.
Interestingly, after reading this book, I wanted to know why we have hope in God, why we rejoice in His goodness which when asked about, we can only answer mindlessly with meaningless and bland model answers. Surely a Christian life demands a deeper realm of understanding and intimacy of/with God. Lewis depicted that maturity in his writing, through his boldness to admit his disappointments, his grief - which a Christian shouldn't be deprived of just because he believes in the hope of Heaven - and his doubts.
It is not a long piece of literature, nor did it explore all kinds of suffering but only parochially death. Despite that, Lewis had produced yet one of the most honest accounts in the Christian context, about his love for his wife, his faith [which before was a card castle ever so vulnerable], and God's good intention in everything He does. Even in suffering. Even in physical pain. Listen and probably what you hear is not the slam of a door and bolting locks, but a voice that will tell you to continue trusting and be at peace.
My salute to one of the most gifted and [Christian-wise] well versed writers.
Rating:
Summary: A suggestion for C.S. Lewis Lovers
Review: I'm an enourmous fan of C.S. Lewis and have been for many years. His explorations of Christianity bring a much needed intellegence to the faith and I have always been so grateful for his writing. On more then a few occasions, I have given his books to secular friends as an introduction to Christianity and have read them myself several times. His insight and observations have always given me something new to consider. unfortunately, I've always found other Christian writers of fiction to be strongly lacking the same level of intellegence. Recently, however, a good friend loaned me a copy of We All Fall down by Brian Caldwell. I found the novel to be every bit as intellegent and enjoyable as Lewis. Caldwell writes with real energy and passion and his novel made me rethink many aspects of my faith. I would strongly recomend it for people who enjoy C.S. Lewis. It's a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Comforting
Review: We have lost many in our family to cancer. My aunt is now going through chemotherapy. I am understanding that God draws us closer to him during trials. I know the Holy Spirit is my comforter. I appreciate C. S. Lewis being so open and letting us know that our feelings of doubt are normal.
I recommend this book and must also add that I am using a grief journal that I find to be very helpful. Write from Your Heart, A Healing Grief Journal. It is a grief workbook that we are using at our church grief class.
Rating:
Summary: Faith
Review: It is important to know that we all experience a kindred feeling of loss and uncertainty. I was ashamed of myself when my Dad died. God had never let me down. I didn't understand why our prayers didn't save him. My faith was shaken. I have since grown stronger and through books like A Grief Observed and a great grief workbook, Write from Your Heart, A Healing Grief Journal, I have come to a new relationship with God and a new understanding of grief. I highly recommend both of these books to anyone who is hurting.
Rating:
Summary: The Road Back Home
Review: This is the book that helped me forgive God for doing what, at times, seems to be a lousy job. If you have ever railed at God for injustice, you have found a kindred spirit within these pages. C.S. Lewis' small book is journey from that anger to peace again. This is the book I give as a gift to grieving friends. Whether the grief is over the loss of a loved one, or a lost childhood. Buy at least two!
Rating:
Summary: Faith in faith?
Review: After reading A Grief Observed, a man expressed how the book impacted him in this way: "For me, this little book was a cautionary tale. It illustrated how easy it is to have a faith that is not a faith, but rather a mere deception, a construct made of intellectual effort. When the forces that hold up the construct are taken away...the intellectual faith will vanish. It is only then that real faith can take root. For faith, to be real, can depend upon nothing but the faith itself: a faith in Jesus." This response completely misunderstood Lewis' thought process in this book. Rather than forcing him to discover a new type of faith based entirely on faith, the shattering of his reality ended up enriching and deepening his faith by inextricably linking his emotions with his intellect.
In the first place, the view above nonsensically misuses the term faith. By definition, at least to rational thinkers such as Lewis, faith has an object. One has faith in something. If the object of faith is faith, then the object of that faith must be determined. It quickly becomes clear that this leads to an infinite regress of constantly needing to supply an object: faith in faith in faith...ad infinitum. Identifying the object of faith as faith also makes the identity of the object irrelevant. If "faith itself" is what faith must depend on, than the final identification: "a faith in Jesus" does not follow.
The reviewer above also assumes a false dichotomy between faith and reason that Lewis would be quick to debunk. Lewis had previously outlined his definition of faith as, "the power to go on believing not in the teeth of reason but in the teeth of lust and terror and jealousy and boredom and indifference that which reason, authority, or experience, or all three, have once delivered to us for truth." Understanding this definition elucidates some of his more difficult statements. He sorrowfully stated, "If my house has collapsed at one blow, that is because it was a house of cards. The faith which 'took these things into account' was not faith but imagination." (42) The fact that he was questioning his faith in God due to emotional pain meant that he had never comprehended how deep such pain might be and how difficult it might be to hold onto the what reason and authority had given him in the face of it. He found his faith woefully unable to withstand such emotional blows. He explained, "If I had really cared, as I though I did, about the sorrows of the world, I should not have been so overwhelmed when my own sorrow came." (42) The ease with which true sorrow demolished his ability to trust in what he knew to be true based on reason, authority, and previous experience stunned him.
Towards the end of the book, as he emerges from initial astounding pain of Joy's death, he begins to rediscover his faith, but he now exercises his faith with a true understanding of the degree to which pain can be felt. He can now appreciate the depths of agony someone can endure and how difficult it is to have faith in the midst of it. As he said, "All reality is iconoclastic." (77) Reality forced him to reevaluate the role of emotion in holding a worldview. It broke apart his unhealthy and intellectually centered view of emotions and wedded them to his intellect.
The beginnings of this union can be seen in the way he reasons through his grief in the second half of the book. Many of the arguments he makes prove that his intelect is very much intact, but all of his thinking is tempered with his new understanding of pain. He never abandons reason, such a divorce not even grief could accomplish, but he discovers that it must be balanced by a proper understanding of the immensity and complexity of emotion.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant piece of work
Review: this is the second c.s. lewis book i have read, the first being "the four loves." after the four loves, this book was quite a stark contrast, but it was just as powerful and just as moving. it's short, and a very easy read. i read it in a day. but it's length doesn't matter. every page of this book is packed with profound insights. lewis didn't write this book to be read by others, he wrote it as a journal to vent his feelings over his wife's death. this book is, if nothing else, a window into the soul of a tortured man. quite possibly one of the best books i've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: A tremendously Comforting, yet honest book on grief
Review: In "A Grief Observed," C.S. Lewis allows the reader to walk with him on his journey through grief. He was a brilliant scholar and Oxford professor whom people looked to for answers and meaning when suddenly his world was turned upside down by the loss of his wife Joy, who died of cancer in her 40s. In the book, he explores honestly the depth of his anguish and his search to find comfort and hope in the midst of the despair of loss.
He describes many of the multitude of emotions that grief can bring, and also the seemingly endless barrage of unanswered questions he found himself asking. Ultimately he finds comfort and hope in his faith, but not before journey through a time of anguish and questioning God- even expressing his anger and shock at the loss. If you have lost a close loved one, or know someone who has, this book may be a great source of comfort in the midst of grief. I facilitate a grief support group, and a number of people have found it to be very helpful in coping with the loss of a family member or close friend. I have also found it to be a helpful source of comfort and hope in facing some of the losses in my life. I would highly recommend it to anyone facing grief and loss, as well as for caregivers, clergy and counselors who work with the bereaved.
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