Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Summary (adapted from Goodreads)
This is a fictional novel based on 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.
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 Review
Didn’t finish this one. I just couldn’t get past the fact that this is a work of fiction. While the people in the book actually existed, the picture that the author paints of them is all her own creative work. Sure some of the events actually happened, but the responses and feelings of the people that you see in this book are completely the author’s ideas. And while the author’s writing is engaging and entertaining, it didn’t work for me when what I really wanted was to know the real people better. Even the letters between Joy and C.S. Lewis, which are such a huge part of their developing relationship, are completely faked by the author. I tried getting into a mindset where I could read the book as pure fiction, but I was reminded too frequently that these were real people; and I couldn’t help wondering if they would approve of their portrayal in this book? Which just made me want to pick up a biography rather than spending time on the fiction. And that’s what I plan to do.
Age Recommendation: 18 and older would be most interested in this book, I think. I didn’t read the whole thing, but what I did read wasn’t necessarily “action packed.” It was more about personal discovery, character and relationship development. I know the events that occurred later in Joy Davidman’s life, so I imagine the book gets more dramatic as it goes with some difficult facts of life to deal with, which would be another reason more mature readers would do better with this book.
Appropriateness: There was infidelity and drinking discussed in the portion of the book I read, but nothing explicit or glorified. However, deep down I think I do object to the author fictionalizing these real people so much. Though I know she did her research so if anyone has deep insight into who these people were it’s probably her. For me her interpretation came across too much like a soap opera; these great people in history felt minimized by becoming characters. I would have preferred they stay more “real.”
Other Book Recommendations: I plan to read And God Came In by Lyle Wesley Dorsett, a biography of Joy Davidman. If you are interested in people like Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis I think you would also enjoy Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. The writing style of this book reminded me some of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Victoria by Daisy Goodwin, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, and Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.
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