Grief Observed

A great comfort in grief

C.S. Lewis put into the writing the very things I felt, but could not express, in my own grief. I felt less alone - less hopeless after getting a glimpse into another Christian's pain and suffering. It is a short book - a collection of random thoughts he jotted down after his wife died of cancer. Easy for someone grieving to read, as concentrating is often difficult at such times. I underlined half the book, I found it so relevant to my own situation.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

C.S. Lewis tells it like it is

I found my husband and son murdered, most books on grief I tried to read were useless and trite. This is the only one that even came close to describing the pain I felt and how totally lost I was.

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

Wonderful

C.S. Lewis captures the process of grieving in such an amazing way. The culmination of his experience where he learns he must move his loss of his wife from his head to his heart is certain to provoke others on a similar journey to make this life altering change.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Classy and Heartbreaking

C. S. Lewis was a great thinker, but in this book, he is entirely human. Unafraid to face the baffling questions we face when dealing with grief, Lewis goes on a heartfelt search for a faith that can withstand the deepest travails. A very fast read, but a life affirming one. I have found it difficult to find books that really speak to the journey of grieving, but this one is up to the task.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

An honest look at how Grief challenges our beliefs

Prior to reading this short book, I read the Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis, which addressed the intellectual, philosophical aspects. But as he notes in the introduction to that book, "[W]hen pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all." In Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis writes with brutal honesty the subjective experience of pain that he feels at the loss of his wife. And by the end, I got the sense that he really understood, really experienced what it meant to love God through our pain. I believe that this book will be helpful to those who may be experiencing suffering in their lives. It may also help those who are trying to help those who are suffering.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Beautiful

A Grief Observed was originally written under a pseudonym (N.W. Clerk) and is a chronicle in journal form of the emotions experienced by Lewis after the death of his wife from bone cancer. It is haunting and beautiful and heartbreaking all at once. If you've lost a loved one, there is something in this book that you can identify with.

It's a fairly quick read, if you read it straight through. I think I spent a total of about 45 minutes on the entirety. However, this isn't a book that you read once, straight through and put away. I will be keeping this one on my shelf and pulling it out for days (and years) to come. I can already tell it's going to be like his others - books that I enjoy over and over again and gain something from every time I pick them up.

I particularly appreciated (enjoyed isn't a word you'd want to use to describe this type of book, although it is so beautiful it's hard to say I didn't enjoy it) the way we see Lewis progress through his doubt. If you weren't aware, Lewis was a Christian and this book chronicles how he reconciles a loving God with the suffering and death of his dear wife. The book is divided into four parts, and Lewis progresses through anger at God, questioning of his faith, and the hurt from well-meaning friends quoting cliches in an effort to comfort him.

The foreward by Madeleine L'Engle perfectly describes the book. She writes about how your experience with grief may not be the same as Lewis's, but you can identify with what he writes no matter how your experience differs. A Grief Observed is intensely personal, and makes no effort to document the human experience of grief or make any broad statements about the state of grief. Rather, it details one person's experience with the loss of his beloved. It is beautiful and touching and I promise you will not be sorry you read it.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Comfort In Grief

I read this a month after my own wife's death. I found Lewis's sharing of his grief to be comforting.I found his honesty to be refreshing. You do not needto be a Christian or religious to benefit from this book. I also enjoyed the afterword by Walsh. It helped to put Lewis's book into the context of his life.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

In the last year, I've experienced a spate of close family death

In the last year, I've experienced a spate of close family deaths, but Lewis’ A GRIEF OBSERVED is a personal diary I could relate to only fleetingly. Perhaps his sincere grief, and its intensity, is different to my grief because, thankfully, I haven’t yet lost my own much-loved spouse.

While Madeleine L’Engle’s introduction was an erudite and emotional expression of her grief after losing her husband of 40 years, Lewis’s first two chapters were too angrily self-absorbed and incoherent for me to gain any comfort or connection with his writing. To his credit, he appears fully aware of this, and expresses his own doubts about his painful intellectual ramblings about what is, in truth, a purely emotional experience.

“Do I hope,” he says on Page 32, “that if feeling disguises itself as thought I shall feel less?” And later, on Page 36, he says, “Feelings, and feelings, and feelings. Let me try thinking instead.” I was left with the impression that, in his obvious shock at losing his beloved H, despite all their prayers, he turned to his outstanding intellect for succour, and found none.

Reflecting the social era in which he wrote it (1960), and his own genius (he was an Oxford Fellow), there are also hints of social and intellectual elitism in this book. Lewis’s disparaging dismissal of a labouring man’s grief for his Mum (Page 21 and 51) did expose certain personal attitudes to people he considered intellectually and socially beneath him.

But then, like grief itself, this is a very individual book. Lewis’s grief cannot be mine, and vice versa. I’m left with a mild sense of distaste that such a personal diary was ever published and wonder why Lewis agreed to publish such an intimate and, at times, hostile reflection of his private experience of loss.

However, the last two chapters, when Lewis has clearly begun to find his emotional balance again, did provide some interesting and challenging thoughts on death, the process of grieving and God. Observations such as the small gem “Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state but a process,” made the book worth finishing.

Poignant and real.

A courageous effort by a spiritual man dealing with incredible loss. Even for non-believers, Mr. Lewis speaks to the heart of the human condition.

Honest and healing

An honest look at grief and shows that he is "real". Really helped me deal and take a look at how I really feel about my grief and to be honest about it. A book for those grieving and ready to work on it

Grieving widow

Would not recomend very little that is comforting or helpful

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great for Grieving Individuals & Fans of Lewis

Through the use of journals, A Grief Observed invites the reader into the mind of a grieving C.S. Lewis as he struggles in dealing with the tragic death of his wife. The four separate entries all portray the various stages of anguish that Lewis endures; as well as his constantly changing mindset as he draws certain beliefs into question. At the beginning of the book, the reader is met with a harsh criticism of religion and faith as Lewis criticizes God himself. He accuses God of being cruel and abandoning people when they need him the most. However, as the journals progress, the effects that grief has on Lewis's mind become more evident. Lewis slowly becomes a, "saner man" as his sorrow begins to fade. His thoughts become more reasonable throughout the story, and he even regrets making some of the harsh accusations he made previously in the journal. Ultimately, by the end of the book, the reader is able to sympathize with Lewis in his difficult struggle in dealing with his wife's tragic death from cancer.
A Grief Observed isn't written like a traditional piece of nonfiction literature. As a matter of fact, the basic and simplified manner in which it is written actually adds to the experience of the reader. It gives the audience a clearer and more realistic view of some of the different emotions that Lewis was feeling during his grieving process. Personally, I read the book in one sitting and found it to be an easy read. As a fan of C.S. Lewis's fiction material, such as The Chronicles of Narnia, it was very interesting to see the author deal with a real-life situation, and read his mixed thoughts and feelings regarding the tragedy. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the reading the book. However, while most of the text was relatively easy to read, I did find that a few passages proved to be repetitive at times. For instance, in certain passages, Lewis repeats many of his same thoughts and tends to ramble on, but it is hard to criticize him for writing his honest feelings. Ultimately, I would recommend this book to anyone who has recently suffered from the loss of a loved one as I found this book to be comforting to read.

Honest!

C. S. Lewis dares to rant, rave, question and complain. I loved it!

great classic

great must read to beconsidered literatre

A Moving Reflection

CS Lewis' reflections and thoughts are beautifully and insightfully drawn. This work is more than a starting point for the hardship of gripping with what comes after death. Insightful.

Answers for those who want to listen.

The works of C.S. Lewis are remarkable in their volume as much as their depth. Lewis is not afraid to explore the difficult and reason within his faith for solutions. His discussions and prepositions are remarkably candid, taking so much in to introspect while not shrinking from faith or foundations. The read is more than helpful for life, whether one is dealing with grief or not. The truths are universal and applicable to life and death. His writing is as timeless as it is provocative. Few times in his in works is his heart more exposed.

A Heart Wrenching Recant of Internal Predicament Externalized

Emotionally draining, but it resonates with a reader familiar with loss. A deep exploration of affliction and agonizing abandonment.

In times of grief

Just what my husband needed when his mother passed away. What else can I say?

Great for people who may feel no one understands their grief

This book details Lewis's feelings after losing his wife. As a recent widow, I felt like he had somehow gotten into my head. He wrestles with every idea that he holds dear, but comes out in the end even more confident that when he started.

Great Little Book

This is by far my favorite book by C.S Lewis! I have read it 5 times and i keep on highlighting new things. It's a great work to read if one is experiencing grief and suffering. I could relate to muc of what was said in the book and it helped me understand myself. Totally recommend!