Jack's Life ~ a book review

 

Jack's Life by Douglas Gresham is one of the most heart-warming books that I have read in a very long time.  

It is the life story of C.S. Lewis written by his youngest stepson, Douglas. I've always found C.S. Lewis interesting, perhaps with a bit of mystery about him.  After reading this book, my respect for Jack has grown even more immensely.  Douglas writes with his heart and shares things about his stepfather that I never really knew before.

I knew of some of Jack's childhood from reading other books and I've also known about his love for Joy Davidman.  It seems in recent years, his and Joy's relationship has been the primary focus in books concerning Jack.   But in this book, Joy isn't even mentioned until the last two or three chapters.  The majority of the book speaks of Jack from his birth through until his death in 1963.

The book details Jack's relationship with his mother, and how his life changed dramatically when she died while Jack was still a young boy.  His father did not cope well after the passing of Jack's mother, and Jack was sent off to boarding school.

The book details his close relationship to his older brother, Warner (or Warnie, as he was known).  

It details Jack's time that he served in World War One, how his injury sent him home, and then how, even though he and Warnie both by this time had been back home, wanted to be involved in what they could do in their community when World War Two began.

In this book, you will also learn a great deal about the mother and sister of Jack's dear friend Paddy.  They were in World War One together and had promised each other that if something happened to the one, then the other would take responsibility for caring for their family they left behind.  As it turned out, Paddy was killed in France and even though Jack was only 19 years old, he carried through with the commitment he'd made to Paddy.  I am amazed at the stamina that Jack exhibited because of this commitment.  Talk about resilience!

As anyone who knows much at all about C.S. Lewis knows that through all of the circumstances of his early life after his mother died, he was a self-proclaimed atheist.  In this book, you will find how he came to know Christ and how he went all over England during the war years, giving lectures about Christianity.  He became so well known for these lectures that he was requested to speak to the troops, which he gladly did, and he was also requested to give these lectures on the BBC that more people could be exposed to what Christianity was about.

There are beautiful descriptions of Jack's and Warnie's home, The Kilns and how Jack diligently worked with Paxford, the gardener, to make the grounds free of all of the overgrowth, etc. that was there when The Kilns was purchased.  

Would I recommend this book?  Absolutely...especially if you are already a C.S. Lewis fan because you will get to know Jack more intimately.