Name: Grief Observed
Rating: 4.185483870967742 (62 reviews)
ISBN: 9780571310876

Hilary Mantel

C. S. Lewis

Jenna Bailey

Maureen Freely

Jessica Martin

Readers' Edition with Contributions from Hilary Mantel, Jessica Martin, Jenna Bailey, Rowan Williams, Kate Saunders, Francis Spufford and Maureen Freely

Grief Observed

Written after his wife's tragic death as a way of surviving the "mad midnight moment," A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis's honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: "Nothing will shake a man -- or at any rate a man like me -- out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself." This is a beautiful and unflinchingly homest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings.

Sarah Sammis

Until I read A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis was only an author who I knew through his Narnia series. As it's not one of my favorite series by far Lewis hasn't been on my radar when I'm looking for books to read. He did though have a long scholarly career and I think as time permits I would like to read more of his nonfiction.

Lewis wrote A Grief Observed as an emotional response to his wife's death. He and (Helen) Joy Davidman had a short and at the time unconventional relationship due to her status as a divorcee. It was clearly a loving and healthy relationship from the way he writes about her. The emotion are raw: anger, grief, depression, and despair.

In the final chapter Lewis describes how he wrote the book as a series of hand written notebooks, each one filled with his thoughts. Although by the close of the final notebook he feels the need to write more, he says that he has promised his family to set them aside and get on with his own life. What the four chapters don't say (how could they?) is that Lewis later died in 1963 after a lengthy illness.

C.S. Lewis

A Grief Observed comprises the reflections of the great scholar and Christian on the death of his wife after only a few short years of marriage. Painfully honest in its dissection of his thoughts and feelings, this is a book that details his paralysing grief, bewilderment and sense of loss in simple and moving prose. Invaluable as an insight into the grieving process just as much as it is as an exploration of religious doubt, A Grief Observed will continue to offer its consoling insights to a huge range of readers, as it has for over fifty years. 'A classic of the genre, a literary answer to the pain of loss.' Robert McCrum

A Grief Observed

Notes on grief, very interesting concepts, emotional and philosophical, a great exercise for the mind and Soul. Loved it. 

Nina Alexandra Bacrau

A grief observed

Kirsten Simkiss

I think this book is a wonderful resource for those struggling with their religion in the face of loss. Naturally, this is a very Christian book, as C. S. Lewis was very Christian and a firm believer in God, even as he questioned God's motives in creating grief and loss in the world. But in the book, I feel anyone who has ever experienced a deep loss can relate to it's words. The words in this short discussion about grief are very quotable and relatable. While my own personal experience with these sort of things may not relate at all, I feel that reading Lewis's journey could bring comfort to others that feel alone in their grief.

Allison

Celeste Richardson

If I had to describe this book in one word, that word would be raw. You can truly feel Lewis’s pain and anguish on every page. It’s not a book I would recommend to everyone, as it could be theologically difficult for some, but know where Lewis’s faith went after his time of mourning makes it far easier to sympathize with his struggles as he dealt with loss. And the fourth and final section of this short work is packed with brilliant, insightful, encouraging views of God and death and what comes next.

Trever

C.S. Lewis's account of his wife's death is short but potent. It is, of course, heavy on the Christianity, but nonetheless very human. He wasn't afraid to write his thoughts, which makes it an interesting read from any perspective.

Marisa Ringgold

Paige Wanner

A Grief Observed is a collection of C. S. Lewis's reflections on the experience of bereavement following the death of his wife, Joy Davidman, in 1960. The book was first published in 1961 under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk, as Lewis wished to avoid identification as the author. Though republished in 1963, after his death, under his own name, the text still refers to his wife as "H" (her first name, which she rarely used, was Helen).[1]The book is compiled from the four notebooks used by Lewis to vent and explore his grief. He illustrates the everyday trials of his life without Joy and explores fundamental questions of faith and theodicy. Lewis' stepson (Joy's son) Douglas Gresham points out in his 1994 introduction that the indefinite article 'a' in the title makes it clear that Lewis' grief is not the quintessential grief experience at the loss of a loved one but rather one individual's perspective, among countless others

Grief Observed Readers' Edition with Contributions from Hilary Mantel, Jessica Martin, Jenna Bailey, Rowan Williams, Kate Saunders, Francis Spufford and Maureen Freely

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