Description: In a most improbable friendship, she found love. In a world where women were silenced, she found her voice.
From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world.” When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis—known as Jack—she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.
In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren’t meant to have a voice—and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn’t know they had.
At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story—a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.
My Thoughts: As with any work written about a historical figure, the lines can be blurred as to whether critique should be given to the individuals actions or else to the author's writing and portrayal of those events. Having been a fan of C.S. Lewis, I of course want to offer the benefit of the doubt to him and the woman he loved, but then run the risk of being unfair to Callahan and my opinion of her work.
There were numerous reasons I chose to rate this book as I did, none the least of which was the means of story telling and writing itself. The text seemed to often jump around, as though following Joy's thought progression within a scene rather than more comprehensible format. Instead, the thoughts would tend to scatter, starting in one moment, traveling to earlier in that day, then memories from her past, all interspersed with snippets of letters which addressed the theme of the scenes far too well for me to believe that they were actual correspondence traded between Joy and Jack (C.S. Lewis). This, I know is a preference on my part, as there are those who enjoy this exploratory means of story telling. However, I found that it more often than not it pulled me from the story.
Then there were the actual events of the story, which did give me pause. While by no means an expert on the Lewis', there were things which I already knew (such as Mrs. Lewis having been married before, divorced, and the mother of children through that marriage). Knowing these things, I was not totally surprised to learn that the Lewis' met before Joy's divorce, nor that he encouraged her through those events. And his support of her is something which I applaud, knowing that she would have needed a lot of courage and wisdom to make the decision that she did. However, it is the portrayal of this support, and the nature of their correspondence, which I took issue with.
In the author's note, Callahan says that she took Joy's internal musings from Joy's writings. Having never read anything Joy Lewis wrote, I cannot say how much of Callahan's story does indeed come from Joy's work, how much is made up, and how much may have been misinterpreted. I do know, that with this book, Joy Lewis engages in an emotional affair while still claiming to want her marriage to work. Rather than devote her time and thoughts to her husband, she instead describes herself as spending every moment filtering her day through the question of how she would write about it to Jack. And while I in no way believe that Bill was deserving of her time and her attention, I do believe that her devotion to her marriage and to God was.
After Joy's divorce, there are also numerous instances where Joy behaved in a manner which lead me to agree with Tolken on his assessment of her character. No matter how much Jack wished to live a life which he believed was upright (never mind whether or not his perception of upright was indeed correct), Joy insists to him that he give up his ideals and instead act on his feelings. There is no discussion of God nor of what the Bible says of their circumstances. Even later on, once they are getting married and Joy asks the bishop why he was willing to preform the ceremony, his response is that he asked himself what Christ would do... not that he asked scripture what Christ would do or even prayed on the decision.
As for the book's treatment of scripture, there is very little of it within the story. To my memory, there was only one verse quoted, though the language of scripture was used throughout. However, this language used grace to describe their having fallen in love with each other rather than God's love for them. And the one verse quoted "Death, where is your sting?", which is about no longer fearing death because the grace of God redeems us and rescues us from the uncertainty of life after death, was used instead to describe how strong the love between Joy and Jack is. Within this story, there is the sense that Jack is Joy's god, her savior, and that the real God is only an afterthought meant to confirm whatever Jack has already spoken over her.
With detailing the Lewis' growing relationship, there are chapter after chapter of information that I believe could have been cut. At least two chapters in a row are only of Jack giving Joy a tour of Oxford and the surrounding area, with the majority of conversations in these chapters being about their thoughts on the majesty of Oxford. There are chapters where Joy discussed her feelings for Jack with friends who never reappear in the narrative, and a single chapter where the story shows Joy's relationship with her parents, a relationship which the reader already knows is a strained and toxic one and which is not mentioned again.
I know that the majority of readers found this book to be a wonderful story of a love despite the odds. Yet I was left mainly with disappointment, either in the author or the Lewis' themselves. I will say that this book has left me with the determination to read more of Lewis' work than I already have, as well as to pick up some of Joy's. And should I meet someone in person who has already read the book, I would love to discuss it. Joy and Jack Lewis have been a highly influential couple, their popularity only growing in the past year with an increasing interest in their beliefs on equality. And these are perhaps the first authors whom I have felt any real desire to dissect their work in such manner.
I have provided an honest review after having received a copy of the book through The Fiction Guild.
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