seforana's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Chronic illness, and Death
taabi_03's review against another edition
I tried hard, but I just couldn't connect with it. It totally went above my head.
rosheegats's review against another edition
5.0
I lost someone dear to me two years ago and I tried reading books on grief, but they were all too sentimental and even “showbiz” like. However, CS Lewis perfectly captures grief. The fear of it. Of anger. Of losing memory. Of creating an idea of a person that doesn’t even cut the person as a whole. It’s raw, unsentimental, and full of love. You can really feel his genuine love and sorrow for H. I should have read this instead of those awful books that dealt with grief. It would have brought me a lot of comfort to know I was not alone in my thought and feelings.
ob_ledbetter's review against another edition
4.0
C.S. Lewis has me underlining every other line. Many say this is a must for every human who is enduring loss, but I think this is just a must for every human.
jbmorgan86's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not sure what draws me to these kind of books. You know the ones. Memoirs about dying or grieving: The Last Lecture, When Breath Becomes Air, Option B, Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I've Loved), etc. I've lost my grandparents, distant friends, fellow church members, former classmates, and former co-workers but I've never lost an immediate family member or close friend. Maybe I am drawn to these books because I have a very real, primal fear of death (not just my own, but of my loved ones). Maybe I'm drawn to the authenticity in the writing. Maybe I'm subconsciously associating these books with something a counselor once told me: "We associate grief with death but, really, we grieve for all kinds of life changes, good or bad." In particular, she was referring to the grief I experienced after a divorce.
So, I don't know why I'm drawn to these books, but I am.
C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed is a brief (76 page) memoir written after the death of his wife. I'm used to seeing Lewis as the towering Christian apologist of the 20th. I'm not used to seeing him as the broken down man saying things like, "Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand" and "If God's goodness is inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God: for in the only life we know He hurts us beyond our worst fears and beyond all we can imagine. If it is consistent with hurting us, then He may hurt us after death as unendurably as before it." Lewis is authentic and pouring out his heart. He is often raging against God for taking his beloved.
There are so many wise words in these 76 pages.
“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”
“For in grief nothing 'stays put.' One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral?
But if a spiral, am I going up or down it?
How often -- will it be for always? -- how often will the vast emptiness astonish me like a complete novelty and make me say, "I never realized my loss till this moment"? The same leg is cut off time after time.”
“I thought I could describe a state; make a map of sorrow. Sorrow, hoever, turns out to be not a state but a process.”
“My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself.”
“What do people mean when they say, 'I am not afraid of God because I know He is good'? Have they never even been to a dentist?”
"Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape."
So, I don't know why I'm drawn to these books, but I am.
C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed is a brief (76 page) memoir written after the death of his wife. I'm used to seeing Lewis as the towering Christian apologist of the 20th. I'm not used to seeing him as the broken down man saying things like, "Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand" and "If God's goodness is inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God: for in the only life we know He hurts us beyond our worst fears and beyond all we can imagine. If it is consistent with hurting us, then He may hurt us after death as unendurably as before it." Lewis is authentic and pouring out his heart. He is often raging against God for taking his beloved.
There are so many wise words in these 76 pages.
“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”
“For in grief nothing 'stays put.' One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral?
But if a spiral, am I going up or down it?
How often -- will it be for always? -- how often will the vast emptiness astonish me like a complete novelty and make me say, "I never realized my loss till this moment"? The same leg is cut off time after time.”
“I thought I could describe a state; make a map of sorrow. Sorrow, hoever, turns out to be not a state but a process.”
“My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself.”
“What do people mean when they say, 'I am not afraid of God because I know He is good'? Have they never even been to a dentist?”
"Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape."
sfletcher26's review against another edition
3.0
A raw and personal account of grief.
Not an easy read in part because of the rawness of emotion on show and in part because of Lewis' writing, which is typically dense.
Not an easy read in part because of the rawness of emotion on show and in part because of Lewis' writing, which is typically dense.