Rebekah Reads: Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis Book Review

Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis by Patti Callahan

About the Book

Through the fictional account of the letters between the married but unhappy Joy Davidman and the author Clive Lewis, known as Jack, the author paints a portrait of Joy as a woman who becomes once she falls in love with Jack. Already an authoress, Joy Davidman is portrayed sympathetically as a woman scorned. Joy and her husband have an unfulfilling marriage with different goals and desires. Joy wants to pursue her own plans while her husband, also an author, pursues alcohol and women. While Joy is off to England to refresh and meet up with the man she loves, her husband has an affair with Joy's cousin who is living with them. What choice will Joy make? What path will she take? 

My Thoughts

Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbably Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis is an excellent book, well-researched, well-written, and a good listen as an audio book. The author presents the complexities of Davidman's life.

Listening to this as an audio book and hearing about Joy's life did not endear her to me. Her pseudo-intellectualism comes across as just that, fake intellectualism. I'm sorry she and her second husband had these issues, but, she hardly seems the jilted wife in need of protection and coddling. If that makes me unsympathetic, so be it. Her quest to be brave hardly requires the paths she chose.

Lesson Learned: Don't read the letters of an author you appreciate, unless you want to see them warts and all. I have read some of C.S. Lewis' writing and found some interesting insights in his Reflections on the Psalms, I've learned a few things from his writing, and it always makes me think, ponder, and reflect. I've yet to read anything by Joy Davidman.

About the Author

Patti Callahan, New York Times bestselling award-winning author, nurse, and mother also writes under the name Patti Callahan Henry. Her other novels, which I've not read, include Wild Swan: A Story of Florence Nightingale; Surviving Savannah: The Titanic of the South; and The Favorite Daughter.