Rating: 
Summary: A moving account of one couples quest for love and mercy.
Review: This book is a celebration of life, love,
mercy, and happiness. The reader will become
engrossed in the lives of the two main
characters as their relationship develops and
as they experience a questioning of faith.
Their friendship with author C.S. Lewis will
lead to a discovering of faith which will
leave the reader feeling awe-inspired.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing love story, "a sudden glory."
Review: This book tells of a love that few of us have experienced. It's one of the best love stories ever told, along with a treasured friendship with C.S Lewis. Through the author's "grief" we might all learn the feeling of what it's like to lose our one true love (but only on this Earth)> A simply brilliant piece, I recommend it to anyone who questions whether or not God exists, or whether or not pure love can endure.
Rating:
Summary: Severe Mercy
Review: This book tells the story of the idyllic marriage of Sheldon and Jean Vanauken, their quest for truth and beauty, their friendship with C.S. Lewis, and the tragedy of untimely death and love lost. It includes 18 letters from Lewis. An adventure story of intellect, faith and ideology, and love, these lovers' story enters into the depths of human longings without ignoring realities that aren't easily faced or questions that aren't easily answered. The author is a skilled craftsman with a highly intelligent, civilized, and imaginative handle on language. His words and his story are stirring and will evoke much deep thought and emotion.
Rating:
Summary: Severe Mercy
Review: This book tells the story of the idyllic marriage of Sheldon and Jean Vanauken, their quest for truth and beauty, their friendship with C.S. Lewis, and the tragedy of untimely death and love lost. It includes 18 letters from Lewis. An adventure story of intellect, faith and ideology, and love, these lovers' story enters into the depths of human longings without ignoring realities that aren't easily faced or questions that aren't easily answered. The author is a skilled craftsman with a highly intelligent, civilized, and imaginative handle on language. His words and his story are stirring and will evoke much deep thought and emotion.
Rating:
Summary: An eloquent telling of grief
Review: This book was recommended to me as I am counseling my way through my own loss. I had this book for a month before deciding to read it. I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle it, having lost the bride-of-my-youth just one year ago, following seven years of a chronic and progressive illness. We were together only a few more years than Vanauken and his Davy, and like them, we had both come to Christ after our marriage. But once I started reading, I could not put the book down, and have just finished it today, 3 days before the first anniversary of my wife's death. Sheldon Vanauken is gifted by God with an ability to put his most heartfelt thoughts in print. Feelings that I might struggle to express, were there in black and white for me to touch and feel. I found that I was able to share with C.S. Lewis the comment that "We are much at one in our reaction to grief." As much as some of the reading can rub open wounds, I would heartily recommend this to anyone who has lost a love. 03/21/99
Rating: 
Summary: Goopy and Possibly Dangerous
Review: This could be an example of the over-wrought, hyper-dramatized love story exemplifying what Denis de Rougemont warned against in his analysis of Love in the Western World. VanAuken writes about how he and his wife insisted on reading all the same books together (out loud) and then sailing around in their sailboat, analyzing the intensity of their love. Then she becomes terminally ill and the floodgates of more lover-analysis open wider still. There is something surreal about this book, explained perhaps by vast inherited wealth on the author's side of the family. Two college students who were captivated by this book over 10 years ago faked their disappearance to run away together, and ended up slinging hash in some deli in LaJolla, California, and then had to come home again--proof of the need for a lot of cash to really live like VanAuken describes. They told the newspapers they were inspired by this book. I guess their inspiration could have been worse. So this book is a prescription for escapism, in addition to whatever else it is.
Rating:
Summary: This book should be a movie!
Review: This is the most cinematic peice of literature ever written! I see GREAT MOVIE all over it!! I'm sure Vanauken knew when he was writing this that it would someday become a cinematic masterpiece. I can't wait to see the film!!!!!!!!!!!! HIGHLY RECCOMENDED!!!!!!!!! TWO THUMBS UP!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A Severe Mercy
Review: Undoubtedly the best romantic love story I have read. I doubt there are many, if any, true stories about two lovers as profound and beautiful as this. I am a lover of books and this book is the best, most honest and beautiful novel I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: A definite read for young lovers
Review: Van and Davy fall in love and they follow the "Shining Barrier" until both become Christians. Davy dies tragically and Van grieves, but comes to understand her love for the Lord and her death actually saved him from one day hating God and Davy because of jealousy (her love for God was stronger and interfered with the Shining Barrier). This is a wonderful story and should be a must read for all young couples, married or not. We all strive for the "inloveness" that Davy and Van have; their relationship provides insight on how to go about it.
Rating:
Summary: Surprised by Grief
Review: What a beautifully engrossing book. I had known about the kind of book A Severe Mercy was for some years, and had (unconsciously) been avoiding it, for I knew it was a book about, and for, grieving. It is also a story about a sweet, adventurous, wide-awake marriage. But most of all, it is a message to the reader about the most pure and complete love of all, the love of God for his creation. One should read this book only if one is prepared (Christian or not) to be confronted with the awesome (and undeniable) truth of God's existense and his relentlessly loving pursuit of his children.
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