Hey, everybody! Welcome back to Tumnus’s Bookshelf, where we review any and all books dealing with CS Lewis and the Land of Narnia. Today we will be reviewing Douglas Gresham’s Lenten Lands.
Title: Lenten Lands
Author: Douglas Gresham
Publisher: HarperOne
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060634472
ISBN-13: 978-0060634476
Summary:
Life for Douglas Gresham was anything but typical .While the early days of his childhood were happy, they soon turned sour. His mother, Joy’s conversion to Christianity after reading the works of one CS Lewis, and his father converting to Dianetics, along with his fathers’ drinking and verbal and physical abuse of Joy, and Douglas led the family to drifting apart .While visiting Lewis in England William Gresham had an affair with Joy’s cousin. This was the lass raw and the marriage soon dissolved.
Joy took Douglas and his brother David to England where he got to meet CS Lewis, the man who ‘discovered’ the land of Narnia. Their passport soon expired and in order to keep them in England, Jack entered into a civil marriage with Joy. The two eventually fell in love.
However a dark cloud loomed over that love as Joy was diagnosed with cancer. During this time, Jack and Joy were officially married, and Jack became Douglas and David’s step-father. To Douglas he was the warmest and most loving step-father he could have. The cancer soon took Joy’s life and the two were forced to mourn her.
Douglas grew up and went to college. Then one day, on the evening that President JF K was shot, Douglas received word that Jack had died as well. He mourned for the loss of his step-father and for his old life.
Later Douglas married and had a family. They briefly settled down in Australia.
Review:
Much has been written about the marriage of CS Lewis and Joy Davidman ranging from the thoughtful and depicting is as one of the greatest real-life romances ever, to some being downright insulting and denouncing them both.
With out a doubt, when it comes to books about Jack and Joy, Douglas, perhaps because of his first hand knowledge as he saw what went on behind the doors of the kilns and with Joy’s first marriage, gives readers not only the best and most thorough, but the most beautiful, haunting and vivid portrayals of that romance. This book is a very excellent account not only of Douglas’ childhood but the best depiction of Jack and Joy’s marriage
He does not shy away from the details of what led to the divorce between Joy and her first husband and it was clearly painful ordeal for her and the children. He also denounces all, what he calls “churchians” who judged Jack and Joy false and gives us much to think about considering them. It becomes clear in reading this book that Jack’s marriage to the divorcee is not as sinful as some would like to believe. There were legitimate, Biblically sound reasons for the divorce, and Jack was not a home-wreaker who tried to drive the Gresham’s apart.
We also see one of the most intimate paintings of Jack as a person. From his first meeting with him to the day of Jack’s death, Douglas lovingly shows just the kind of man CS Lewis was that so many biographers miss. We learn that Lewis was wise, gentle, humble and very compassionate. He is clearly a man who Douglas admired and still misses to this day, and one the world could use more of.
There are some hard moments in the book and not just aspects dealing with the divorce or Joy’s death. We get to learn about the deplorable way that he Miller family ( CS Lewis’ cook) would treat Jack and Warnie in those final days and how they would work to further his pain and took advantage of him.
The story of course doesn’t end with jack’s death. That is only the climax. Douglas tells readers bout his life after Jack’s death from Douglas’ courtship and marriage to his wife Meredith, or “Merrie” to the birth of his children to his life in Tasmania and Australia. Since the book was published in 2003 we don’t get to read about Douglas’ work with the Narnia films, but that’s fine. The book would be much too long if it contained all of that and could probably serve as a sequel, if Mr. Gresham so chose.
It is not surprise to say that this book is superbly written. Considering that Douglas’s father, mother, Step-father, step-uncle and his step-fathers’ close circle of friends were all writers, it only stands to reason at Douglas would more then learn from those who came before him. Douglas Gresham is just as good a writer as CS Lewis was, and I am sure he would be proud of the work he has done on this book.
This book feels at times like it is almost a real-life fairy tale in it’s telling. It is not just the marriage that seems like a fairy-tale, but Douglas being raised by CS Lewis. No other love story deserves such a telling then that of Jack and Joy. Their romance had every trimming and trapping of one. And what could be more like a fairy tale to a young boy then by getting to be raised by his hero, and later carrying on his legacy? This is without a doubt, one of the best books on that story and is worth owning, not just renting.
5 out of 5 shields.