Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
by C.S. Lewis

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Book Reviews of Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

Book Review: Wise, Entertaining, Beautifully Written
Summary: 5 Stars

Lewis himself said that the best part of many long novels, such as Dickens's, is the beginning - - the childhood years. As an autobiographer Lewis excels here, too, with his account of his imaginative formation in a big old Belfast house and as a junior member of a family that included some eccentrics indeed. We read on to an account of his school-days miseries that rivals George Orwell's notorious essay "'Such, Such Were the Joys'." (One of Lewis's masters was institutionalized as insane within a year or so of Lewis's leaving the school.) Later, we read of his wartime experiences. (He did not have to serve in World War I, by the way, as Irish-born.)

Are you a Tolkien fan? You'll enjoy Lewis's account of his wary meeting with a "Papist" philologist.

The account of his conversion is, of course, a classic, one that people may, I believe, be reading for decades, even centuries, to come; many people have found it useful in understanding their own spiritual experiences.

The book is generous, poetic, and fresh.

Dale Nelson English Department Mayville State University, USA

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