Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis [Paperback]

Douglas H. Gresham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 1994

Now re-releasing as a part of the Lives of Faith series, this is Douglas Gresham’s delightful memoir of the true story that inspired the critically acclaimed film Shadowlands.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gresham here recalls his 11 years at The Kilns, a ramshackle house near Oxford owned by the eminent novelist Clive Staples (Jack) Lewis. Son of American novelist W. L. Gresham ( Nightmare Alley ), seven-year-old Douglas went to England in 1952 and, with his recently divorced mother, Joy Davidman, moved in with Lewis, who married her in 1956, when she appeared to be dying of cancer. After her near-miraculous but temporary recovery, and despite Lewis's own increasingly painful osteoporosis, the two were happy together until her death four years later. Gresham writes lovingly of his relationship with them, and with Lewis's alcoholic brother Warnie. He also describes his own happy marriage and eventual settlement in Tasmania as a farmer and broadcaster.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Joy Davidman Lewis's son refers to his childhood as a "privilege," but the title of his book suggests that it resembled a penetential preparation for adulthood. His own father was alcoholic and sometimes violent; his mother was also abusive, first physically and later emotionally, abandoning her young sons to the cruelties of a mediocre public school so as to be unimpeded in her pursuit of Lewis, who later became Gresham's stepfather. Gresham's desolution at Lewis's death in 1963, his courtship and marriage, and his roustabout life in Australia provide a poignant coda to the story of his childhood. This memoir will enhance Lewis's stature while deepening the mystery of his genuine and passionate love for Joy Davidman. Barbara J. Dunlap, City Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 99 and up
  
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (June 3, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060634472
• ISBN-13: 978-0060634476
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #617,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A decade with C.S. Lewis, up close and personal., April 20, 2003

By 

Cipriano "www.bookpuddle.blogspot.com" (Planet Claire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis (Paperback)

No true die-hard student of C.S. Lewis can pass on a reading of this book, and here's why:
Lenten Lands provides a perspective of Lewis that you can get nowhere else... the perspective of a stepson.
There are many books about Lewis the academician, Lewis the lay-theologian... Lewis the prolific author/poet... but a first-hand account of Lewis the around-the-house stepdad? Trust me, you will find THAT nowhere but here!
And it's an important perspective, this day-to-day life at the Kilns in Oxford, because many misconceptions about Lewis are cleared up in the midst of Douglas Gresham's recollections.
As other reviewers have noted, this is technically a biography of Douglas Gresham rather than of C.S. Lewis. The opening chapters are of the Gresham family in Staatsburg, New York. Then, in 1953, as a child, Douglas met Lewis for the first time in Oxford. By this time, Joy Davidman (Douglas' mother) was already acquainted with Lewis. Three years later (1956) the two were married in the Registry Office, but not before Joy's illness was already fairly advanced. The following year (1957) their vows are re-instated by the Rev. Peter Bide in Wingfield-Morris Hospital. Three years later Joy dies from cancer.
Then, three years after this, on a somber November evening while eighteen-year-old Douglas is still digesting the fact that President Kennedy has just been assassinated, he receives the news that Lewis has died.
"On that day... there was a bitter stillness about the world; for the second time in my life everything I knew, everything I held dear and the one person I loved had been swept away." I found this portion of the book to be especially moving.
The following year (1964) Douglas' birth father commits suicide.
A few final chapters tell of Douglas' own marriage and settlings in Tasmania and mainland Australia.
But the bulk of Lenten Lands consists of Douglas' decade of knowing C.S. Lewis. A very well-written book, the title being borrowed from a phrase in Joy's epitaph, written by Lewis.
As I read Lenten Lands I was reminded of something C.S. Lewis said long before ever knowing the Greshams. In his "Abolition of Man" (published 1943) he said "I myself do not enjoy the society of small children... I recognize this as a defect in myself."
Again, in a private letter to his friend Arthur Greeves (December 1935) Lewis commented "I theoretically hold that one ought to like children, but I am shy with them in practice."
Yet Douglas concludes that his decade of knowing Lewis was a "privilege"... "a gift of education and experience greater than some of us gain in a lifetime."
His statement confirms my own suspicion about Lewis... that he was a man of such inner greatness, that he proved to be good even at the things he was not good at.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest account of life with C.S. Lewis, November 20, 2000

By 

"alanmac" (Macon, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis (Paperback)

First I must say that I am a bit put off with reviews suggesting that this wonderful book is, to paraphrase, too much about Doug Gresham and not enough about C.S. Lewis. If you'll read the subtitle, it clearly indicates that this is a book about Doug's childhood with his mother and step-father.

Taking this book for what it is, and what I believe it was intended to be, I feel I am able to see through the eyes of a young Doug Gresham, as well as an older Doug (who wrote this much later in life), and get a lot closer to a "true" image of Lewis. This book allows me to see a perspective of Lewis that no other author could possibly offer.

I know that when my own father died almost two years ago, the glowing eulogy given was truly wonderful, but only touched on the essence of the man I knew my father to be.

I feel that with this book, readers are offered a glimpse of Lewis that no one other than Doug could offer, and not yet another glowing eulogy offered by many other authors, nor a misguided critique offered by many writers who never even met the man.

Additionally, Doug is quite a gifted writer, and this is evident of his accounts of Lewis' life throughout the book.

And I would also add that over the past several years, Doug has become someone I consider to be a good friend as well, and I can tell you without any hesitation, he is one of the most direct and honest people I know. If I want the truth, read this book.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A charming story., September 13, 2003

By 

David Marshall (Seattle area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis (Paperback)

Unlike some reviewers, I found Lenten Lands well-written, poignant, and honest, though it dies a bit towards the end. (As auto-biographies often do -- if the author doesn't die first, like Moses.) I am not sure why some reviewers complain that Douglas chose to tell his story, even if his memories of Lewis were not as full, say, as George Sayers, and he has lived a fairly simple, even blue-color, life at times. Greshem's descriptions of growing up, the houses he lived in, taking the boat to England, London and Oxford, and the Kilns, were all interesting to me, though as a fan of Lewis I was of course anticipating scenes of his life. Greshem brings nature, his feelings, the drama of watching his mother come to love C. S. Lewis and the love returned, then her death, to life. The scene in which his dying but still fiercely defensive mother confronts a trespasser with a shotgun, C. S. Lewis standing alarmed at her side, and yells, "Get out of my line of fire, Jack!", and the scenes that follow, made me laugh for a fair chunk of an hour.

I didn't expect this book to all be about Lewis; hasn't he had enough pure biographies already? I was pleased to learn much more about Joy, whom Douglas and "Jack" both greatly loved. (Having read her Smoke on the Mountain, I agree she had talent and insight -- though Douglas' claim that she was an intellectual match for Lewis should be described as filial, I think.) Lenten Lands seemed to me an honest and thoughtful story, and I found myself reading it very quickly.