Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
by C.S. Lewis
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Book Summary Information
Author: C.S. LewisEdition: Paperback
Published: 1966-03-23
ISBN: 0156870118
Number of pages: 252
Publisher: Harvest Books
Book Reviews of Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
Book Review: For C.S. Lewis Devotees Only!
Summary: 2 Stars
I love most of what C.S. Lewis writes. I can read the Narnia series over and over, and I adore Till We Have Faces. I find him an incredible philosopher and a brilliant mind and a fantastic writer all 'round.
This book is possibly the dullest thing I have ever forced myself to read.
I wanted to like it; heaven knows it had interesting parts, fascinating things I had never thought of before. I found it valuable for understanding what themes that Lewis meant to convey in all of my favorite books and his conversion was particularly interesting.
Oh, but I could have gone without that long and utterly boring chapter about going to boys' school, being hazed, and interactions with the Bloods; I could barely keep myself in the thing even in the most interesting parts about his childhood. Even his conversion came with little emotional interest. For a second I wanted to say that I was missing something, that I had the problem, but I'm not sure that this is so. It's just... boring. For the person on the brink of accepting Christianity, I'm not sure it's even applicable, for intellectually, Lewis is on another plane entirely. What if the reader has never felt this stab of "joy," or at least, experienced it the way Lewis experienced it? I tried to remember such a feeling and, although I remember it, I do not recall it being such a life-changing event.
In the end, this book is fascinating, but far more valuable for the insight it delivers into Lewis's works of fiction than for the path he took to conversion.
Summary of Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
In this book Lewis tells of his search for joy, a spiritual journey that led him from the Christianity of his early youth into atheism and then back to Christianity.
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