I was given this biography of C.S. Lewis for Christmas quite some time ago now, but didn’t so much as open it until about a week ago. It’s an odd thing, as there was a time when I’d have dropped good money on a grocery list if it happened to have Lewis’ name on it. I simply wasn’t in a C.S. Lewis mood. On top of that, I’d previously read The Inklings once or twice, and Surprised by Joy numerous times, and almost all of Lewis’ other books, and I’m afraid my thought was, “Just what I needed, another biography of C.S. Lewis.” An ungrateful thought, to, as the family member who gave it to me really had considered my likes and dislikes.

Anyway, it languished on the shelf until I happened to pick it up about a week ago. I just finished it; and frankly, it’s not just another biography of C.S. Lewis. There’s a lot of material in it that was new to me, and the author writes with perception, affection, and good sense.

The only rough spot comes toward the end, when Jacobs addresses Lewis’ thoughts on men and women and what we now call “gender roles”. Poor Lewis, so wise in other ways, but here such a prisoner of his class and era–it is only in this section that Jacobs appears a prisoner of his own.

Anyway, good stuff; I enjoyed it thoroughly.