Jack's Life

I love C.S. Lewis. (Actually, I am fairly confident everyone I have ever spoken with regarding Mr. Lewis respects him & holds him in high esteem). So I was excited to pick up his stepson's (Douglas Gresham) biography about him. It is a good read. Mr. Gresham weaves it together like a story. However, it seems more like a story for children. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but some of the language was quite elementary. There were bits of Lewis' life I really hoped would be brought to greater clarity. Mr. Gresham glossed over Lewis' conversion, briefly touched on the relationship with his (Mr. Gresham's) mother & flew by his books.

I have read other biography's of Lewis (A.N. WIlson's most notably) & was hopeful to get at the heart of the real Lewis, but was taken on a fly-by of his life from 30,000 feet. (A good fly-by, but a fly-by none-the-less).

Gresham is a gifted writer, as his mother & stepfather were & hopefully other works (including a more detailed biography) are forthcoming. This is an excellent book for someone wanting to get the life of Lewis in a nutshell & use it perhaps as a launching pad for further study.

On a somewhat seperate vein, I was very disappointed with the publisher. The editing was atrocious. It seemed like they did not even bother to look at a proofed copy. I would be embarrassed if I were Mr. Gresham & had that poor of a job done to my publication. Good book...HORRIBLE editing.


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