Customer Reviews

C. S. Lewis: A Biography,Revised Edition

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4 star:		(3)
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Although I think George Sayer's JACK the best of the C.S. Lewis biographies available, Green and Hooper's book is also good, with the added advantage that both men knew their subject personally. Their book complements Sayer's and is worth obtaining for Lewis fans. It is certainly better than Wilson's biography of Lewis, though without quite the achievement of Sayer's book.

Book lovers are introduced to the subject in an enticing way as Lewis' boyhood environment is described in the opening section:
"The house was full of books--I had always the same certainty of finding a book that was new to me as a man who walks into a field has of finding a new blade of grass--through all of these were the works of novelists, historians, essayists and biographers."

On researching their subject, the authors confess in the preface: "This colossal monument of paper contains many hundreds of letters from C. S. Lewis to his father, his brother, his close friend Arthur Greeves, and a few other family connections; it also includes dairies, sometimes kept with great minuteness, covering many years." So the challenge of condensing this data into book form was formidable. What adds to it is Lewis' quest for knowledge. He read widely and wrote prolifically. The result of this aim at telling the story of a masterful mind is successful, however. We know the essence of the man after having read this inspiring look at his life.

I found this book to be a very, and perhaps TOO, in-depth look at C.S. Lewis. Though he is probably my favorite author of all time, the book itself seemed to concentrate on little details that were unimportant in the scheme of things and it was at times hard to keep an interest in the book. I chose it for a report, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone below high school because of its difficulty level. If you are interested in taking a very detailed look at the life of a fascinating person, however, and you have the time, this book is probably worth your trouble.

This is a very good biography on C. S. Lewis by two men who knew him personally. They present an even-handed coverage of Lewis's life, weaving in discussion of Lewis's many writings. The biography is entertaining, even funny at times (how could a biography on Lewis not be humorous?!), but I'm afraid some of the humor is so British, that it will be lost on most American readers. A better biography, in my opinion, is Jack by George Sayer (who also knew Lewis). But this was probably the first important biography of Lewis to be written, and is very good in its own right. I'd recommend it for Lewis fans who want to read multiple biographies. But if you just want to read one, get George Sayer's.

I do not lie when I say that this should be the only biography read on Lewis. The others are good, too; though perhaps "appropriate" might be a better word to describe them. This on the other hand is thorough, accurate, reliable. There is nothing better out there, I promise you.