A review by markhoh
The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis
3.0
“Hell is a state of mind - Ye never said a truer word. And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind - is, in the end, Hell. Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is heavenly”.
C.S.Lewis is certainly a master of allegory and The Great Divorce is no exception. This short novel seems to exist somewhere between Heaven and Hell and as the title suggests highlights the opposing natures of each. Through a series of observations of a number of characters and conversations overheard by the narrator, Lewis makes some astute and unsettlingly confronting statements.
Some of these observations made me sit up and reflect...
“Did Ye never know a lover of books that with all his first editions and signed copies had lost the power to read them?”....
“But the time comes on when, though the pleasure becomes less and less and the craving fiercer and fiercer, and though he knows that joy can never come that way, yet he prefers to joy the mere fondling of unappeasable lust and would not have it taken from him.”...
“But what we called love down there was mostly the craving to be loved. In the main I loved you for my own sake: because I needed you.”
Unsettling because they hit a nerve that begs to be understood more.
I can’t say that this novel maintained my interest all the way and in some ways I’m pleased it is only 146 pages long. It is the sort of book to be revisited and perhaps I will. I hope at least I will revisit those thoughts and pages that made me sit up and think.
C.S.Lewis is certainly a master of allegory and The Great Divorce is no exception. This short novel seems to exist somewhere between Heaven and Hell and as the title suggests highlights the opposing natures of each. Through a series of observations of a number of characters and conversations overheard by the narrator, Lewis makes some astute and unsettlingly confronting statements.
Some of these observations made me sit up and reflect...
“Did Ye never know a lover of books that with all his first editions and signed copies had lost the power to read them?”....
“But the time comes on when, though the pleasure becomes less and less and the craving fiercer and fiercer, and though he knows that joy can never come that way, yet he prefers to joy the mere fondling of unappeasable lust and would not have it taken from him.”...
“But what we called love down there was mostly the craving to be loved. In the main I loved you for my own sake: because I needed you.”
Unsettling because they hit a nerve that begs to be understood more.
I can’t say that this novel maintained my interest all the way and in some ways I’m pleased it is only 146 pages long. It is the sort of book to be revisited and perhaps I will. I hope at least I will revisit those thoughts and pages that made me sit up and think.