A Grief Observed

As per usual, I love C.S. Lewis' writing. This raw look at grief its impact it has on Lewis's faith is a beautiful example of how we all handle loss a bit differently and how grief itself evolves. I love his analogy of trying to understand loss and asking God questions with no response, to asking questions like “how many hours in a mile?”. We often get angry when we don't hear from God, and we forget to wonder if we could even comprehend the answer or if we are asking a question that has an answer to give.

This is obviously a short book, but one I think anyone could benefit from. If you've lost someone close to you, this may serve as a way to put your emotions into words. If you've been lucky enough to not experience this yet, the ideas may help to give you greater empathy for those who have and give them the space and love they need to work through their own grief.

Chilling, heart-wrenching & absolutely beautiful. It's basically all of my favorite things — intelligent and nuanced discussion of faith and religion, self-discovery + the concept of grief & despair & the ways in which it impacts our daily lives — put together in one book. Suffice to say, I completely fell head-over-heels in love with it. Pick any one quote from this book, and it is probably somewhere on the list of tattoos I'll never get. Case in point: “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

Honestly, nothing I could say / write would do this book any justice at all. BUT if you need more convincing, please know that I decided to read this for three hours, instead of studying for my über important science exam tomorrow. All I can say is, I'm definitely going to be reading this again after finals is over. (Just to let the whole thing sink in, y'know ;) also YES, that is how much I adore it. Y'all know I don't do re-reads.)

Initially I thought that it may be worth 3 stars because of how philosophical he was in talking about his own grief but the more I listened, the more disappointed I became. While his writings never appealed to me, this specific book in which he wrote, “I have always been able to pray for the dead and I still do with some confidence” was pretty bad. Personally, as an Evangelical, I can't endorse some of his beliefs such as purgatory.

Yes, this book may be interesting to read, surely not for someone who deals with loss and grief at the moment. As a person who had friends and family members passing, I can understand something of what he's writing but should I have experienced grief right this moment, this book would not be of any help to me. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be of help even later but it's an interesting read. My book club picked up this book so chose to read it. It's interesting, though not good- if you like philosophy. If you're after comfort, wisdom and good, sound Biblical insight, that you won't find here.

Short Review: I have not experienced a great loss (parent, child, spouse), so books like this feel odd to read. I have read some others on grief and loss and my lack of great loss means that I am unsure of what would be helpful for those that are experiencing loss. I do think this is a worthwhile short read on theoretically what it means to experience loss. Lewis is very real, his questions and lament I think are meaningful because I can see how that type of pain would be experienced. I also can see how this would not be helpful for many. No everyone wants to explore the meaning of life or the purpose in pain while they are experiencing loss. I am glad I have read this, I hope I do not have to experience the type of pain he is talking about any time soon.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/grief-observed-cs-lewis/