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Summary: My favorite CS Lewis book...
Review: After having read several of Lewis' books, I read "A Grief Observed" which quickly became my favorite. It is his journal - and almost too personal - where you bear witness to Lewis' progress as he sloughs his way through the deep mire of sorrow and grief.In the first pages of the book, he tells of going to God, seeking relief from the agony he feels in his heart over the fresh loss of his beloved wife, Helen Joy, only to find - the door slammed and the sound of the door being bolted and doubled bolted from the inside. He rails against God and his faith is stirred to its core. In the end, he finds his way back to God, but it is not an easy journey or a primrose path. For all of Lewis' intellectual reasonings and scholarly attainments, I find "A Grief Observed" to be his best work because it comes from the very heart of a man seeking to find the answers to life's hardest questions. It is not a philosophical insight or an intellectual wrangling, but a spirit-filled work that lays bare the heart of a man who loved his wife completely. This is an important book. Read it. You'll be changed.
Rating: 
Summary: A Realistic and Touching Look at Grief
Review: When suffering from grief who better to place your heart with than C.S. Lewis, the master at heartfelt emotions and faith.
C.S. Lewis wrote this little book during the process of grieving for his beloved wife, Joy. He brings his raw emotions forward and shares the act of grief in a very human and profound message. Showing a variety of emotions he spans the process of mourning and makes the act appear "normal" even when the slightest steps of self-care become a chore. Lewis braves the unthinkable and questions a God that allows despair and refuses to comfort the one left behind. Few would voice this common feeling but Lewis goes beyond simply voicing his doubt and eventually unravels the mystery of faith during the most horrible of times. Jesus Christ even experienced this desolate feeling crying out to God as he hung dying on the cross....so if He must go through such a bitter process why would the average human being expect any different? Realizing this places a perspective on the pain and allows us to stop questioning whether death and loss arrives in a package entirely explainable. It happens at exactly the right time for the one who passes and we must learn to accept this despite our lack of understanding. As Lewis writes so eloquently, "Fate (or whatever it is) delights to produce a great capacity and then frustrate it."
Lewis takes standard thought processes and analyzes the theories behind their meaning and by doing so he helps the grieving process immensely. Hearing how our beloveds are with God causes one to ask, were they not "with God" before they died? And all those prayers said at bedsides and funerals, some with "miracles" attached and others seemingly lost actions are examined by Lewis as a process of torment by God, at once gracious only to prepare another torture in the end. Lewis reveals his anger towards God in hopes of leading to a deeper understanding of what faith really means. Grief becomes an act of desperation according to Lewis and seeing through tears often leads to blurred vision. Grief is merely fear incarnated. Ultimately it is through the observance of the dying that we discover the definitive peace and eventually find solace in faith.
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Summary: The Lament Psalm of Lewis
Review: For starters I would highly encourage anyone who picks up "A Grief Observed" to read it alonside "The Problem of Pain". In the introduction to "The Problem of Pain" Lewis admits that he has not had to deal with the issue of "pain" very severely in his life; of course this was written prior to "A Grief Observed", which the read of the two in conjunction so interesting. In "The Problem of Pain" Lewis tackles the perennial apologetic issue of why does pain, evil, etc. exist. Lewis tackles this problem from a philosophical/theological point of view. In "A Grief Observed" you have the honest struggles of a man, who has already grappled "mentally" with this issue, and is now having to grapple with this issue in a real and personal way. Having read many of Lewis' other works it was surprising to me to read "A Grief Observed" and to see the down right honesty of a man struggling with his pain and his faith in the midst of it. At times you are shocked by what Lewis says, especially since he has been placed on a pedestal for so many years and by many people. But it is also refreshing, in a sense, to read how this "great man of faith" had to contend with one of the harshest realities of life, which is dealing with the death of a loved one and the aftershocks of pain. His personal ruminations on dealing with the death of Joy reminded me much of the lament psalms of the Old Testament. And yet despite his "dark night of the soul" you discover that he finds hope in the midst of tragedy...rooted of course in Jesus Christ. By all means don't miss out on reading this little, but powerful book. This book helps to "round-out" the character of C.S. Lewis even more so.
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Summary: No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.
Review: With that opening sentence, Lewis sets the tone for this amazing memoir. How many of us, in our sorrow-filled ramblings, could achieve this much depth and clarity of thought?
In the process of trying to understand his pain, Lewis demonstrates that he is, indeed, one of the greatest minds the world has ever known. And through this, we find comfort in the fact that even brilliant men succumb to their emotions. Lewis understands what he is feeling, but he cannot control it. He cannot change it.
He is, he writes, on a circle. Just when he feels that the pain is subsiding, it comes back in full force. Perhaps, he theorizes, it is not a circle at all, but a spiral. "But if a spiral, am I going up or down?"
Infinitely more affecting, in many ways, than the film based loosely upon it (Richard Attenborough's 'Shadowlands'), 'A Grief Observed' is one of Lewis' greatest triumphs.
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Summary: A masterful look at the world of self and speculation.
Review: As the other reviewers stated, this has more in the way of home truths and comfort than most books I have come across.
I already knew Lewis, from reading the 'CHRONICLES OF NARNIA' as a small boy.
It exudes the same, glowing kind of warmth you get when you sit down at an open fire, after trekking in from some cold and far away, emotional place.
I recommened this to anyone who needs reminding who they are and why they're here.
Rating:
Summary: work of genius
Review: I bought this book out of curiousity and I was pleasantly surprised. C.S. Lewis is now one of my favorite authors and has a captivating writing style that accurately displays his wisdom. He proposes some questions that people have when they are grieving and then describes the transition he makes to recover from lamenting. The book is a little philosophical at times and can be vague, but this book is definitely the work of genius.
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Summary: A Moving Refolection on Grief and Loss
Review: C.S. Lewis is now being credited for being Christianity's greatest defender in the 20th century, and the writer who gave faith credibility at a time when faith seemed a childish delusion. The reason so many of Lewis' writings have been a strong defense of faith probably has less to do with his actual beliefs, as much as his skill as an orator and writer. His detractors will readily admit that, knowing that if you may not agree with his conclusions, it is difficult to fault his arguments. Yet for people of faith, logic is nice, but it is often too dry. The lived experience of faith is far more significant than rhetoric. For people of faith who love and admire Lewis, A GRIEF OBSERVED is indispensable. This work, which deals with the grief an loss he experienced when his beloved wife Joy suffers from cancer and eventually dies, demonstrates Lewis' own struggles with belief, and demonstrates that for Lewis, his faith is not a philosophical point of view, but the motivation of his life.
Since its publication, readers have turned to this work for a number of reasons. Most have either lost someone they love or are trying to assist someone with loss. Readers soon discover that the book challenges the reader, then consoles the reader, and immediately challenges once again. Readers feel a whirlwind of emotions, giving a glimpse of the emotions we feel in a time of grief. In Lewis we find a person who truly mourns, but one who gives us an example on faith that is shaken and tested, but is ultimately solid. Countless readers have discovered that Lewis' experiences resonate with their own, and have made this work a spiritual classic.
When I first read A GRIEF OBSERVED, I had not yet lost anyone significant in my life or at least anyone who was significant who was not aged and had lived a full life. I still had an appreciation for what Lewis had to say, but it was a bookish knowledge. Since that time I have lost loved ones and have seen loved ones suffer, especially my own father, who died young and battled cancer in the form of a brain tumor for nearly twenty years. It was while sitting at his bedside a week before he died that Lewis' words seemed so real to me, and I realized I was not alone in how I felt. I have no idea of whether I recalled Lewis' words as I sat by my father's bedside, but I know my faith was tested at that time, but my faith sustained me as well. I also know that Lewis' struggles in A GRIEF OBSERVED were somewhere in my unconscious mind, helping me though and giving me hope.
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Summary: Suffering, Loss, and Faith to Overcome
Review: This book shares the burden of grieving for a spouse, who has suffered an early and painful death. The author manages to convey the complexity and utter hardship of grief, never sounding trite or overly analytical. Like the author, I cared for my spouse, suffering with cancer, only to lose him in the end. I also struggle with the question of God's presence or absence in this experience. But in this book, I discovered true empathy.
Rating:
Summary: honest
Review: Like Tolstoy(and like so many others), Lewis was still shocked by the concept of death late in life. Both these men were internationally famous for their brilliant writing about life'
s questions, but they still found their answers lacking. Both come back to God in the end, one way or another.
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