A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

I have had A Grief Observed on my list to read for a while.  Essentially, it is just the publication of the journals of C.S. Lewis as he wrote them after his wife died of cancer.  They had been married but 4 short years when she died and she left him with 2 sons from her first marriage.

The journals were interesting to read.  It felt like I was looking into his mind as his grief grew and changed.  It felt weird, like I was reading something I shouldn't be, but it also was nice because though every grief is unique (which he says in the book) some of the things he said I was thinking, "YES! Exactly that!"  But, his prose was a little difficult to read just because it was more of a stream of consciousness.

He just started writing in empty journals he found at his house and ultimately filled 4.  He ran out of journals so he stopped.  But it was the perfect stopping point because he had kind of come to terms with grief and God.  Not come to terms as gotten over her death, but the grief becomes more like a scar that you know and less than a gaping wound.

I don't really know what to say about this book, honestly.  If you have experienced grief, you should read it.  It's about faith and marriage and love and grief and death and sadness and all sorts of things in one 88 page book.  There are so many good quotes that I could fill the page.  I liked this one in particular, because it showed his struggle, his grief, his love, and his faith:

Lord, are these your real terms?  Can I meet H. [what he calls her] again only if I learn to love you so much that I don't care whether I meet her or not?  Consider, Lord, how it looks to us.  What would anyone think of me if I said to the boys, 'No toffee now.  But when you've grow up and don't really want toffee you shall have as much of it as you choose'?

88 pages