Book Review: "A Grief Observed" by C.S. Lewis

"Did you ever know, dear, how much you took away with you when you left? You have stripped me even of my past, even of the things we never shared."

This is the first time I read a C.S. Lewis book other than "The Chronicles of Narnia." I thought I'd read some of his science fiction material first but, as I read somewhere online, you don't look for this book, this book FINDS YOU.

Reading an author's own words in a book that wasn't intended for publication feels like an invasion of privacy at first, but while you keep reading, you discover a huge amount of similarities between you and other people, and this is an incredible reminder that we aren't different when it comes to love or pain, no matter the nationality, no matter the distance, no matter the time.

This book helps you grief because you find sentences you need from someone who really understands, from someone that wrote those words in THAT moment of despair. Lewis was able to put all the questions that come through our heads when we lose someone -although this book was written from the death-grief perspective, this is also relevant for a separation of a loved one, which was my case.

I am not a religious person, I tried to but failed years ago; I've always disliked when people approach me and try to make me feel better by saying that God works in mysterious ways and stuff like that. Lewis's words felt different. In his despair, he questions God's intentions, but in the end, you can see evolution and acceptance, because no matter how much you blame a deity or try to find your questions answered, this deity can't bring you that person back, so if your relationship was a pure one, you can always go back to those beautiful memories.

"I know that the thing I want is exactly the thing I can never get. The old life, the jokes, the drinks, the arguments, the lovemaking, the tiny, heartbreaking commonplace."

And yes, it hurts like hell but is what we have and is what we can work with. Lewis found his reconciliation with God while looking back at his memories and seeing them as perfection. 

A Grief Observed was my tiny reminder that I need to find reconciliation, not with a God/Goddess, but with myself.

C.S. LEWIS was an author, essayist and Christian apologist. He is best known for his children's classic series – The Chronicles of Narnia. Clive Staples Lewis was born on 29 November 1898 and lived until 22 November 1963. He was born in Belfast, North Ireland into a Protestant Ulster family.