Un dol observat (1961)

A gem that I am sure to revisit. I am grateful for Lewis’ capacity to write so vividly of his experience of loss even in the midst of it. It makes the rest of us feel less alone. ( )

My mind is blown. From the sucker punch that is that first paragraph to the exit as we begin to see light in the tunnel.

Of course.

I loved this book and was absolutely enthralled by it. I read it for a college class on escaping romance addiction and finding real love (aka charity) for other people and using that to build relationships versus the flimsy flirty stuff. This book is another MUST READ for anyone who thinks they're in love. Not that you aren't, just that you should double check. Would it cause this sort of pain should it depart from your life?

Review #2: Still love it, but live in fear of traversing this same path. Thank heavens for what I know.

Review #3
Recommended this book to a friend and picked it up again. It doesn't seem so terrible now. Just the natural part of grief and doubt that must be traversed in a certain period. Still love it.

Review #4
Good food for thought. Always keep coming back to it--a masterpiece. Somewhat therapeutic in #covid19 days. ( )

Reading this was like looking in a mirror... ( )

It feels weird assigning a star rating to the ostensibly private thoughts of a man going through a traumatic loss. It was a little disappointing (spoilers) that part of the resolution involves an encounter with his wife’s disembodied intellect, and he sees fit to dismiss certain difficult questions as merely absurd, but Lewis’s conception of God as loving you so much it hurts has always been compelling to me. He presents a number of striking, counterintuitive ideas, and takes issue with some of the namby-pamby religious stuff you hear in the mainstream. Plus, this isn’t so much a theodicy as a meditation on the application of an idea. His thoughts about pain are pretty raw. I found myself reacting emotionally to what I was reading more than once. I’m glad to have read it. ( )

This slim volume is Lewis's writings after the death of his wife. It is honest and heartfelt and wrestles with the impossible of question of how there can be a good God in the face of great suffering.

It doesn't come up with many answers, and the ones it comes up with are not all comforting (is God deliberately torturing us for our own sakes, a cosmic dentist?) but it is a book that takes the dark thoughts of grief and reminds you that you are not alone, and this too will pass.

It ends with Lewis getting a strong sensation of his dead wife's presence, an intimacy strangely without emotion. ( )