Customer Reviews

Shadowlands: Novelization Tie-In

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book very much, and I was unable to put it down, even though I knew that it would make me cry. Beautifully written, it is an ideal companion to the 5-star film. Brava!

I have watched the movie six times as I taught a class based on western movies. It was, therefore, a delight to find this book in a used bookstore here in China. It is everything the movie is and a little bit more. It closely follows the plot of the movie and adds a few more details from the life of Lewis to flush out our understanding of the characters. I am not sure if these are details from the life of Lewis or from the stage play script, but they are helpful in knowing them better.

The downside to the book is that it goes no further than the movie in exploring Lewis or examining the events of his marriage to Joy. It provides just enough detail to make you want to read a true biography of this period of his life.

Overall, the book fulfills its role as a move-tie-in but fails to deliver as a biography or as a serious look at Lewis' life and love.

I had the impression that this would be a dull book, about the romance between a crusty old bachelor who loves God and a slightly crazy divorcee. However, 10 pages into the book, I changed my mind. The love between Joy and Jack as described by the author was strong and true. Tearjerking, this makes for a remarkably refreshing and enriching story. A bittersweet and poignant story.

i'm sorry to say this book was... not as good as i would have liked it to be. i got it with the hopes of reading a poignant novel about cs lewis's love affair, but instead i got a book that read much like a teenage sweet valley high.

the style of writing was childish, like it was a book written for middle school kids. i didn't get to see any depth in the characters, barely any character development, and felt hadly any emotion as i read through it. everyone talked and acted like... children! the only reason i finished this book was because the events described were based on truth... and it was because of that alone that i was able to finish.

also, the thing that bugged me a lot was right in the middle of some loving, reflective passages, the author would go off on a tangent on how redeeming christianity is and how bad communism is. i mean, opinions aside, these comments are just plain RANDOM. religion and government played a big part of Joy Gresham's life, but she wouldn't be thinking about communism in the middle of a loving vacation with cs lewis! so that was pointless writing right there.

if you are expecting a grand and exciting read, pick something else. or, watch the movie. i haven't seen the movie, so i don't know how good it is. i just hope it isn't as lackadaisical and dissapointing as this book.

overall, i gave this 2 stars because it is a short read and you can manage to plow through it if you are patient, and also because it is based on cs lewis's life, which was interesting. more interesting than this book, anyway.