User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Pulled me in, kept me up, left me joyful. Need I say more?
In case you aren't yet persuaded to snatch up this beautiful book for your reading stack, let me add that Patti Callahan's writing is at times so breathtaking, as a writer, I paused to reread a turn of phrase. As magical as the writing is, though, the novel's true magic is the revelation of the man behind the stories we all know and the woman, the outsider, who captured his heart. Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis were an unlikely match, separated by an ocean, an age difference, ghosts of the past, and the general complications of life, and yet love has the power to conquer all. The telling of their story is long overdue.
Read this book. It will remind you that we are, each of us, so much more than the masks we wear.
Rating: really liked it
This is some kind of special! 5 stars! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Patti Callahan (Henry) is one of my favorite authors. How do I know this? I own all of her books and a few are “saved” unread for the book apocalypse. You know, I’m well-prepared for that. When I read that she was writing historical fiction for the first time, and that it also involved C.S. Lewis, I was all in.
Joy Davidman is the main character. The book begins with her life as a wife and mother, and I could sense right away that something is not right in her marriage. Her husband is moody and drinks too much, and while there is palpable love between them, there is also a distance, a disconnect.
Joy and her husband are both writers, and after a terrifying experience involving her husband, Joy begins to explore and test her faith. In doing so, she begins writing about faith on behalf of she and her husband in letters of correspondence to C.S. Lewis (Jack). The two begin writing back and forth, exploring and deeply connecting through their words to each other and over their spiritual beliefs.
In a leap of faith, Joy travels to England from America and into the arms of her Jack. I’m in awe of the inspiring love that developed between the two, so remarkable in fact, that Joy is somewhat of a muse for Jack, sparking works that delight us to this day.
While it would be easy to judge Joy for some of her decisions regarding her first marriage, instead I am stirred by her fierce independence and willingness to risk it all for love.
Becoming Mrs. Lewis is not only the love story of Joy and Jack. It’s also their ode to literature. Fans of C.S. Lewis, the historical fiction genre, strong female characters, compelling love stories, and books about books are sure to revel in Becoming Mrs. Lewis.
Not only did Callahan author her first work of historical fiction, she owned it. She was meant to write this genre all along!
Thank you to Thomas Nelson for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. All opinions are my own.
My reviews can also be found on my blog with pictures 🤓: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
Rating: really liked it
I have to say that this book
took me completely by surprise. Honestly, I think sometimes when I approach a book about real people, in this case C.S.Lewis and Joy Davidman, I cannot help but ask myself "So which one is going to be the jerk?" But Patti Callahan unfolds the story of the meeting of the minds as much as much as that of the heart. People, this book is #relationshipgoals, the type our mothers and fathers hope we will encounter as we travel the road of love. Seventeen years in age difference, "Jack" and Joy correspond first to discuss their own search for a relationship with religion, which eventually leads to a relationship based on mutual respect and friendship that as the years go by does lead to more. Upon completion and this might seem a bit silly, but
Becoming Mrs Lewis is definitely a book that made me feel like for just a few hours, Joy and C.S. Lewis once more walked the earth. Their story lands this book safely in
my favorites of 2018
Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review
Rating: really liked it
This is going to be less a review than just myself explaining how I was all over the place while reading this novel. I think most people have heard of C. S. Lewis and his Narnia, but of his only wife Joy, very little. Was what drew me to this book. I liked it, I didn't like it, found it repetitive at times, interesting at others, grew frustrated with all the spirituality, philosophizing, the tone was so melancholy, not much joy to be found within. So conflicting, a good look at a woman who wanted more than her time period generally allowed a woman, but so much complaining, searching.
Well written, a woman few knew much about, a love affair that seemed somewhat unreal but was, and a spiritual searching for snswers from a most unlikely source. As i said I was all over the place as I was reading.
ARC from Netgalley
Rating: really liked it
I'm in the minority on my rating of this book, so I'll just say it was not my cup of tea. Had I not been reading it for my book club I would have DNF'd the whole thing. I was frustrated and bored because it felt as though the author couldn't decide whether this was a biographical novel, religious fiction, or chick lit, and the combination just did not work for me.
Rating: really liked it
I love the backstory on this: when a friend asked Patti Henry what she would write about if she could write about anything: the answer came at once: Joy Davidman. Years later, this book is the result of that conversation.
In this biographical novel, Henry tells how American poet and mother Joy Davidman became the wife of C.S. Lewis. While I
thought I was familiar with the story, I learned something new on every page, and polished this off in an enjoyable two days.
Rating: really liked it
This beautifully written book details the growing friendship of Joy David and CS Lewis that culminated with their marriage.
In the early 1950s, Joy was unhappily married to Bill, an alcoholic, unsuccessful writer. She was also a writer. Born Jewish, but an atheist, and later even a communist, she found God one night waiting for Bill to come home. She proceeds to continue to struggle to keep the marriage together as some sort of Christian duty. She strikes up a correspondence with CS Lewis which leads to a great friendship. Suffering from bad health, she heads to England to recover and meet him. In doing so, she leaves her husband and two boys in the care of her cousin, a newly divorced woman. It amazed me that Joy had no idea where this would lead. And, to be honest, I found it rather disingenuous that she was so dumbstruck when her husband wrote to her about his love for her cousin.
It’s hard to know how well a work of fiction captures a real person. Certainly Joy didn’t fit the expectations for a proper lady in her day. She wasn’t at all content to just be a mother and wife. Written in the first person from Joy’s POV, I often found myself wondering if she was being truthfully portrayed. That becomes even more of a question when the Author’s Notes state that all their letters were destroyed. Though Callahan did have access to all their personal papers and Joy’s unpublished works that are housed at Wheaton College. She also worked with Douglas Gresham, Joy’s son.
There were minor gaps in the writing. Joy consistently laments that she has no money, not enough to buy a return ticket to the States. Then two sentences later, she’s talking about a new dress she bought and toys for her sons. But overall, the book captures her religious faith, her bravery and her deep love for Jack.
This was a selection for my book club.
Rating: really liked it
Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan is a 2018 Thomas Nelson publication.
This book is the fictionalized version of the love story between Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis. I have been meaning to read this book for ages and have been wildly curious to see how Callahan approached the material.
While I did like the story, and appreciated the way Joy’s particular challenges were presented, I struggled to stay invested.
The relationship is fascinating, their initial correspondence very insightful, especially from Joy’s perspective as a woman trapped by poor health, a bad marriage, and the longing to write and pursue her career as a poet and writer.
I am familiar with C.S. Lewis, like most people, but I never studied his personal life. I was aware, vaguely, there was a tragic love story, but I knew nothing about Joy. Her story is a bit melancholy, no?
I am so happy she found her spiritual/Christian calling, which is quite a feat considering her background. I am also happy she found Lewis- who was a beacon to her as she navigated unfamiliar territory. I am also happy she found comfort and love after the years she spent in an unhappy and abusive relationship.
I’m sorry though, that she never enjoyed the fullness of marriage with the man she loved, which, in my opinion was unnecessary, and I’m sorry her health was so fragile, and she died so young. Her characterization here, though, is terribly somber. The story is flat- bland, even, and I had to force myself to keep going at times. A book I thought would be inspirational, only left me feeling bereft, instead.
I was SO positive I was going to love this book, and am disappointed it didn’t grab me, as it has so many other people. I do have
“Once Upon a Wardrobe” on my Kindle and will read it shortly. I’m sure I will have better luck with that one.
Overall, I am a little let-down I didn’t have the experience I was hoping for with this book- but I did like the book enough to give it a three- star rating- mostly based on the quality of the writing and that I learned a lot about Joy’s life and found her journey to be unique and interesting, if very sad.
3 stars
Rating: really liked it
I first read an excerpt of this stunning new book and longed for more, so was ecstatic to receive a full review copy from Thomas Nelson-Fiction. Felt like Christmas had come early, which indeed it had, as BECOMING MRS. LEWIS is everything I’d hoped for and more.
Author Patti Callahan is a writer’s writer and a reader’s dream. Her prose is lush, her characterizations true, and her fictionalized account is thrilling as she retells the towering love story between C.S. Lewis, the 20th Century’s greatest Christian apologist, and Joy Davidman, Brooklyn divorcee and Jewish covert to Christianity.
BECOMING MRS. LEWIS recounts the romance between these two brilliant, flawed people ... one the Oxford Don who called himself “the most reluctant covert in all England” the night he came to faith, and the other a New York writer once married to an alcoholic, desperate for hope in a life of poverty and despair.
The impact of their love still resonates, through Lewis’s “A Grief Observed” written after losing his wife to cancer soon after marriage ... and now through the resplendent BECOMING MRS. LEWIS. 5 Glorious Stars!
Thanks to Patti Callahan, Thomas Nelson-Fiction and NetGalley for the advance copy. Opinions are fully mine.
Rating: really liked it
Brutal. I’m actually disappointed and finally decided to stop reading it at page 320. Can’t take the drivel anymore!
The italicized thought of Joy mid page 320 “or take me in your arms and set me down on that bed and make love to me”. I actually eye rolled. I wonder if either Lewis or Joy would want things like that included. Doubt it.
My main issue, besides the mediocre writing, which made it easy to skim big portions at a time, was with Joy’s portrayal. She’s selfish, promiscuous, and even childish in her thoughts and conversations regarding her parents. I found her non relatable as a mother. The author continues to drag you along with Joy’s feelings towards Jack to the point of annoyance. Ultimately it’s just distracting.
All while I was reading I kept thinking that this story doesn’t do their story justice. I much preferred Douglas Gresham’s book about Jack, where he tastefully and beautifully describes their relationship. Go read that instead.
Rating: really liked it
How does one write a review for a book like this, a book that is quite possibly the best I've read this year? How can a review even begin to give this book the proper justice?
This book has taken a piece of my heart with it when I finished it, never to be returned!
I'll admit to having never read a C.S. Lewis book and never having heard of his wife, Joy.
This book isn't just a mundane book about their life and how they met, it started out by her contacting him by letter, by the way. No, this book has a depth which may be deeper than the ocean, nor is it one dimensional. This book has so many layers, like an onion waiting to be peeled and discovered. When you think you have it all down and understand their lives separately and together you will discover your understanding is just at it's beginning. C.S. Lewis was a man who enjoyed the simple life, a good (fag) cigarette, a whiskey and simple friendships. He did not have a need for romance, he had his books and his writing. he had more of a need for a deep friendship with Joy than anything else. He came to depend on her in many aspects of his book work. An unlikely friendship that developed into true love. This book develops all the truth,tenderness and triumph you could expect in this time period, the 1950's. Joy Davidman was a woman who had a voice when women were expected not to.
Pub Date 02 Oct 2018
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson--FICTION through NetGalley. Thank you. All opinions expressed are my own.
Rating: really liked it
I received this book for free as part of an Instagram tour (Just Read Tours specifically) I did to promote the book.
I was interested in reading this book because I am a fan of C.S. Lewis. I hadn’t heard of Joy Davidman before, so I was curious to learn more about her. Please note that although this book is based on real people and real events, it is still a work of historical fiction.
This book was incredible. It beautifully depicted the relationship between Lewis and Davidman. Their romance was unconventional but epic. The love they had for one another is truly remarkable. I loved how they influenced each other’s work and treated each other as equals.
Joy was such a strong woman. I enjoyed learning her backstory and seeing how she had the courage to not only leave her alcoholic and cheating husband, but also to start a new life with her children in another country.
I loved the epilogue. It really gave Joy a voice. She comes from a time where people often silenced her voice and contributions. I liked that the author let Joy have the final word.
Since this is a book about C.S. Lewis, is also discusses the Christian faith but it doesn’t go overboard with it. If you’re worried that it might be too religious, don’t be. The heart of the book is really their love story.
Lastly, the endpapers of the book feature a map of Oxford which I found to be a really nice touch, since the Narnia books are known to have maps.
Overall, this is an amazing read! If you are fan of C.S. Lewis or love books about incredible women, then pick this one up!
Rating: really liked it
4 intensity of love stars
My reviews can be found here: https://yayareadslotsofbooks.wordpres...
It is often very hard to find true love, searching for it, we so many times stumble looking for that one person who makes us whole, who makes us feel valued, who makes us feel loved.
In Becoming Mrs. Lewis, Patti Callahan explores the love story between C. S. Lewis, a well known older author living in England, and Joy Davidman, a young poet, mother, who was trapped in a marriage to an alcoholic and philanderer. She writes to C.S. Lewis and over time through their letters finds herself falling deeply in love with Lewis's words which represent the man he is. Both Joy and Lewis were former atheists, but found religion and god to be a solace. Joy is restless. She needs to provide some stability in her life and it is through her correspondence and later meeting Lewis that she finds that stability. This book of fiction imagines that world where Joy and Lewis correspond, meet and eventually marry after many years and as the story continues we see the tragedies of their lives unfold.
Joy's first foray to England because of health problems, was her entrance into the world of Lewis and his alcoholic brother. She, leaving her boys behind with their father and her cousin explore Lewis's world, that of Oxford and Cambridge, and of course finds herself falling for the author. She is conflicted by her love for her boys, and growing hatred for her husband. Returning home, eventually the marriage breaks apart, and Joy and her boys return to England and to Lewis where she lived out the rest of her life.
There were some wonderful reading moments in this story as the author interspersed Joy's poetry and sonnets with the text of the story. Not always did I feel for Joy though. She seemed to leave her children and spend months away from them knowing the environment in which they lived. It was at times that I found her character difficult to connect with. Baring that, this was a poignant story of friendship and love, of happiness found, and of knowing that at any time when life seems to be at its lowest ebb, there is hope. Recommended to those who love the idea of literature connecting people to one another, of finding love and hope at any age, and living a life that leads to a true path of caring, devotion and fealty.
Thank you to Patti Callahan, Thomas Nelson Publishing, and NetGalley for a copy of this commendable novel.
Rating: really liked it
Started off ok, but this book is severely lacking in one thing: Jesus. This smacks of someone who only understands the motions of religion and the forced human tradition, rather than actually knowing Jesus.
I feel as this has been heavily researched, but I have to severely question Joy--and even C.S. Lewis's--actual Christianity if this book is entirely true. The characters represented here do not resonate with actual Christians who have read any of the Bible, rather than just sort of skimmed through it.
Perhaps our culture's obsession with Lewis as a reformed theologian has forced him into an image reflective of the current culture's beliefs. Everyone today seems to make an idol of him, and any simple searching about the man only leads to such praises.
The main thing that bothered me is that Joy and Jack both sought the "approval" of God through the Church of England, as if the church can rightly say yes or no to what God, Himself, approves or disapproves. And if the Church of England withholds their approval on a marriage, than it is not sanctified. As if there's this magical, spiritual fairy dust that floats about these "sacred" things. It says several times in the Bible explicitly not to marry a divorced woman, yet Lewis does. Why Joy should find any issue with the Bible conflicting with her divorce is beyond me because if her husband was cheating on her, she was due a divorce if she so demanded.
What I saw in Joy was nothing but a selfish woman who led her own brand of spirituality through her own will, then sprinkled a little "God" talk over it, rather than putting Jesus first. Her life did not read here at all as if she first sought God's will for her life. She left her children and husband (even though he was a heel) to go have fun in England by herself while looking to flirt with Lewis on the way, while she was still married. I did not see a woman who was attempting to work on her marriage, although this could just be because of the author's representation, and trusting in God to work through her marriage or through her divorce. Everything is Joy-driven, not God-driven. She was also far too obsessed with her own career and being literary over her own children. She was drunk in love with the idea of England, Oxford, literary idols, alcohol (even though she was so harmed by alcoholism), and tobacco. Lewis was just a representation of all of those things, as well as a better father. A lot of her issues she brought on her own head, and she never wants to admit that.
I wish I hadn't read this book because I'm not sure whether or not the Joy represented here is true to character--though I fear it is--or if she is representing, rather, what image the author wants to put down in paper. The author in the note is far too caring about these women muses being recognized behind the "great" men of literary history that I see a lot of Joy's characterization in the author's own character in her note. I feel, in part, that Joy may have fallen victim to today's feminist culture that demands recognition; however, I do believe Lewis has fallen victim to idolization in our churches today.
In this book, C.S. Lewis was Joy's Jesus. She followed him as she should've followed Jesus. She made an idol of her love for Lewis and worshiped only at the alter of "love" rather than Jesus. She put everything before Jesus, and it shows terribly through this novel. I do hope she wasn't really like this in real life.
Also, what need did the author have to include such explicit bits? Was Joy's only real demand sex? Because it certainly felt like it. Her husband acted in the same way, and he is villainized, but Joy held up on a pillar. If a man acts the way Joy did in today's culture, they are shamed! But Joy, here, is praised? What fallacy! The whole thing read like a harlequin romance or a soap opera.
Rating: really liked it
SUMMARY
Joy Davidman is a writer and poet living in Ossining NY in 1946. She is locked in a loveless marriage with her alcoholic husband, Bill Gresham, and their two young sons. In a moment of desperation, she says a prayer to a God she doesn’t believe in and has an overwhelming experience that causes her to want to find out more about Christianity. She writes to Christian apologist C. S. Lewis with questions about God. Lewis responds, beginning a long-term correspondence between the two. Joy finds friendship, solace and wisdom in the letters she receives. By 1952, her husband is both unfaithful and abusive, but Joy can find no way out. Her health is suffering from the stress, and she is under doctors orders to rest. She heads to England for six months, where she meets Lewis for the first time. She falls in love with both England and Lewis, but ultimately must return to the US. There, she is fully committed to divorcing her husband, and returning to England with her two sons. Once she returns to England, Joy is ever hopeful her platonic relationship with Jack, will be transformed into something more.
“You tolerate what you must when it becomes your reality.“
“God might not fix things for me, but he would be with me in whatever waited ahead, that was clear.”
REVIEW
BECOMING MRS. LEWIS is a fascinating historical love story of two literary giants. Joy was a intelligent and strong woman with a voice far ahead of her time. Patti Callahan Henry has recreated the exquisite details of the improbable friendship and ultimate romance between two people a world apart geographically, spiritually, and emotionally.
I particularly loved Henry’s vivid descriptions of Lewis’s home, The Kilns, as well as the depictions of the joy-filled times the two shared together, going for walks or sitting in front of the fireplace sharing stories. While this is a work of historical fiction, readers of C. S. Lewis will absolutely love a glimpse at the personal surroundings, thoughts and feelings of the man behind the beloved characters of Aslan and Wormwood.
Henry’s writing is evocative and masterful. She was inspired to write the story because of her love for the fascinating works of C. S. Lewis. Once she read Lewis’s A Grief Observed, she was committed to finding out more about the women he loved so fiercely he called her “his whole world.” Henry researched Joy’s writing and traveled to the Wade Center at Wheaton College where Joy’s papers are kept alongside C.S. Lewis’s. BECOMING MRS. LEWIS is her fourteenth novel.
“We can’t just surrender to our every desire. Man must have his principles and live by them regardless. Our nature must must be controlled or it can ruin our lives.”
Publisher Thomas Nelson
Published October 2, 2018
Narrated Lauren Woodward
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com
