A Life Observed: A Spiritual Biography of C. S. Lewis

Short Review: This is an excellent companion to McGrath's new bio of Lewis. They do supplements one another well without treading over the same ground. McGrath is heavy on the details of Lewis' life and is more interested in digging into the details. Brown however wants to let Lewis speak for himself. So there is very little psychoanalyzing of Lewis. Instead there is a quote or reference from one of Lewis' letters or books on almost every page. That would seem to be off putting to me, but it is done so well that it feels like we are getting an inside look at Lewis' writing, like one the very best types of Literature classes where you actually understand much better than before the class.

Brown structures the first half of the book roughly around Lewis' Surprised by Joy (Lewis' own memoir of coming to faith) and the last third around A Grief Observed (his raw journals after his wife's death).

My only real complaint is that like seemingly all other biographies of Lewis, there is not much about his spiritual life between conversion and his marriage to Joy. There are hints (a chapter on the Inklings, local church involvement, a mere mention of a long term spiritual director) but what I would like is much more on how Lewis grew spiritually between conversion and his rise to Christian superstar.

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

I was looking forward to reading A Life Observed by Devin Brown, primarily because I had the pleasure of meeting Devin at Taylor University's Colloquium on C.S. Lewis & Friends in 2012. (One of the many wonderful things about this event is the opportunity to dialogue with other Lewis enthusiasts, scholars, and authors!)

However, having just re-read Surprised by Joy, Lewis's autobiography of sorts, I found the first half of Brown's book to be a bit of a repetitive experience for me as he seems to be summarizing and quoting from it predominantly until chapter five. Yet, Devin does a fine job of illuminating areas Lewis did not write about in his book.

He does this primarily through various letters written by Lewis over the course of his life, along with correspondence about him by friends and family, such as J.R.R. Tolkien and his brother, Warnie. The Pilgrim's Regress and A Grief Observed are two additional autobiographical works which Devin explores. He also points out examples in Letters to Malcolm and The Screwtape Letters that would seem to give us even further insights into Lewis's own spiritual journey. Because of these added sources, I enjoyed the second half of the book far more than the first half.

I also appreciate that unlike some biographies on Lewis that may seem to lack heart, leaving them stale and dry, A Life Observed is truly engaging and full of the life of Jack. Or as Douglas Gresham wrote in the forward, of the numerous biographies that have been written, “some of them are very good books about Jack, but – here's the rub – Jack is not in them.” Then, about Devin's book, Gresham writes, “I grew up with Jack as my guide. This real Jack whom I knew walks the pages of this book.” I can't think of much higher praise than that!

Overall, it was well written, enjoyable to read, and I will most likely read it again in the future.

You can read more of my book reviews on my blog: www.neyhart.blogspot.com