Famous author C. S. Lewis wrote this touching and devastating account of his grief after his wife Joy died from cancer. Short, sharp, meditative and questioning, he struggles with his rage, his sorrow and his faith.
First published in 1960, a year after his wife’s death (and only two years before his own), I read the more recent Readers’ Edition (Faber and Faber 2015) with the addition of musings on his writing by other writers, including author Hilary Mantel, priest Jessica Martin, social historian Jenna Bailey, philosopher and theologian Rowan Williams, journalist and author Kate Saunders, C.S. Lewis admirer and author Francis Spufford, and author and translator Maureen Freely. Each of these admirable writers give their own insights and perceptions of A Grief Observed and how and why it remains so popular and has affected so many readers over time.
Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia and many other works, was a confirmed bachelor when he married Joy Davidman, an American poet with two small children. She (and her children) brought attention to the part of his life that had been missing and they spent four very happy years together before she died. Afterwards, alone and inconsolable, but with the added responsibility of the children, Lewis wrote A Grief Observed as if shouting his pain into the void, trying to untangle his grief, his temporary almost-madness, his curiosity, his struggle with his faith and his God, his fear and his sorrow, attempting to make sense of the impossible and come to grips with acceptance.
The novella begins: ‘No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear’ and explores the terrible separation and finality of death, the inevitability and yet the shock and distress it still evokes. The writings are a journal of his thoughts over the days and weeks after his wife’s death, as he thinks of her constantly, misses her and allows his mind to wander. He writes: ‘Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape … sometimes … you are presented with exactly the same sort of country you thought you had left behind miles ago … you wonder if the valley isn’t a circular trench … (with) partial recurrences, but the sequence doesn’t repeat.’
This is a beautiful eulogy, an elegy on grief and joy, gratitude and sorrow. This Readers’ Edition is the perfect gift for anyone who has suffered a loss. My deep thanks to the friend who sent me this book at the time I most needed it.