Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

This is a good book, and deserves more stars. My review is on the quality of the kindle edition. There are OCR problems throughout the book. Many times the word "live" is written "five" in the book. There's even a spot where there is an unprintable character that didn't get fixed. The whole book needs to be proofread and corrected after the scan from the original. This book should be much cheeper if there was little to no cost in it's production. (Since it's pretty obvious no actual editor reviewed the book after it was scanned). Avoid it!

As someone richly blessed by many books written by C.S. Lewis, including several that I would include among my all-time favorites, it grieves my soul to give his work two stars. But there's simply no way around the fact that I genuinely disliked this book. My critiques are broad but they really cover the entirety of the book. I found the entire narrative to be filled with the tiniest of details that I could not reasonably construe as even remotely interesting or relevant. What made these details especially meaningless was that they included references to countless authors, poets, British geographical locations, and British topographical features, all of which were completely unknown to me. If this were a rare occurrence, I could have done some research, but it was pervasive throughout the entire book. "While developing my sense of intellectual rigor under Kirk during the week, I was so delighted on the weekends to wander among those famed swargnalls of Garnsy, reading the luscious prose of the likes of McLongington and Fensterberns." What?!

To be fair, this was C.S. Lewis, so there were pockets (paragraphs, not pages) of the book that were insightful and interesting, but they were simply lost among the meandering randomness of the rest. An unexpected bonus from reading the book is a newfound appreciation for the amazing gift I've been given to have avoided the British boarding school system of the early 20th-century, which appears to have been so riddled with horrors of unspeakable wretchedness as to defy comprehension. But I would not recommend that you read this book to discover that blessing for yourself, instead imploring you to simply take my word for it.

Ultimately, this is the first Lewis book I've read that I didn't like, and I really didn't like it. He remains my favorite author and will forever influence my thinking, writing, and preaching. But, please, read his other stuff...

C. S. Lewis fans will find the book, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, incredibly uplifting and impacting. Those who are unfamiliar with Lewis, especially as the foremost apologetic of the twentieth century, will find the story less meaningful and may even fail to recognize the merit of the book. Surprised by Joy does not address the author’s fame as a writer of children’s tales, for which he is more well-known, but the significance of this work lies in Lewis’s impact in the world as a defender of the Christian faith. The book does not provide the reader with a complete biography of Lewis, as the author himself states. Rather it is written to recount his conversion from atheism to Christianity and to “correct one or two false notions” that were apparently circulating (vii). A brief background is given in this review to inform the reader of Lewis’s importance in the modern Christian world and to aid in understanding the significance of this story.
C. S. Lewis was one of the most profound British scholars of the twentieth century and possibly the most irrefutable defender of the Christian faith in modern times. Though he is most well-known for his children’s series The Chronicles of Narnia, his apologetic proclamations were what first brought him international fame. What Justin Martyr gave to the early church, Lewis has given to the modern church through his apologetic writings. In his well-known trilemma, in which he states that Jesus never gave people the option of calling Him a “great moral teacher,” Lewis calls for the reader to accept one of three choices: that Christ “was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.” This argument was first voiced during World War II when Lewis shared his thoughts on BBC radio. Within a few short years, these broadcasts made him the most popular Christian apologist in the English-speaking world of the twentieth century. Rather than a “general autobiography,” the book Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life is Lewis’s defense of his own faith, as he shares his personal account of how he “passed from Atheism to Christianity” (vii).
Surprised by Joy clearly reveals the Divine master plan in the author’s life. While God could have brought Lewis to salvation through simpler means, He instead allowed this champion of the faith to journey into the depths of philosophy, spirituality, atheism, and agnosticism in order to prepare him for the great role he would play in furthering the Kingdom of God in the modern era. In this partial autobiography, Lewis employs analogy, imagery, and allusion in his typical literary style to answer the many questions he had received regarding his transformation from atheism to faith in Christ. Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life carries the reader through Lewis’s life-story as he veers from an early child-like belief in God, to a harsh denial of God in the dark pits of atheism and agnosticism, to finally turn to Jesus, and “fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.”
In explanation of the title, Lewis recounts his many experiences of a longing or desire which he calls Joy, and which once encountered, seemed to both entice and elude him throughout his life. Early in the book, Lewis claims that he detests emotion, yet this Joy which he so longed to re-encounter was clearly an emotion of something greater than pleasure. Lewis shares the many occasions in which Joy returned and the influences that led him to awaken to this sensation, only to realize that the longing, once achieved, never truly satisfied.
Lewis was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1898, in a socially secure and well-educated family. His father Albert was a lawyer who loved books, and Lewis grew up surrounded by a vast array of titles. His mother Flora was the daughter of a clergyman, and Lewis had one older brother with whom he was very close. It was through works of authors such as Beatrice Potter and Longfellow, and a shared imaginary world with his brother Warren that Lewis first experienced the sensation of Joy. When they were boys, Lewis created a magical, medieval Animal Land in which animals wore clothes and talked, and Warren created drawings and wrote stories set in India. The brothers’ close relationship was interrupted when Warren was sent to boarding school, and they had to limit their adventures to holidays. This was a sad and lonely time for Lewis, yet in the solitude his imagination flourished.
Lewis’s relationship with his father had always been distant and strained, and his mother’s death, when he was only nine years old, widened the chasm. Following this loss, the brothers grew even closer, however, and Lewis was sent to the same boarding school as Warren. The head master was a man called Oldie who was a poor teacher and an unfair and abusive administrator. Although Lewis never experienced Oldie’s harshness, he saw a great deal of injustice against other boys, and other than geometry, he learned nothing academically at the school. He did, however, develop a strong sense of camaraderie with four other boys, and thus a sense of loyalty. At Oldie’s school, Lewis also first came to an awareness of God and assented to the doctrines of Christianity. Within a short time Oldie’s school closed and in 1910, when he was almost twelve years old, Lewis was sent to Campbell where he saw much abuse by the older boys and little intervention from the staff. After only a few months at the school, Lewis was sent home to recuperate from a childhood respiratory illness and, to his delight, never returned.
Lewis’s self-awareness increased in his thirteenth year, after his father enrolled him and Warren in a preparatory school called Chartres. There young Lewis took up smoking and, in time, abandoned his childhood Christian faith. At Chartres, Lewis was greatly influenced by a matron he called Miss C who introduced him to spirituality and the occult, but he readily admits that he was relieved to shake off the restrictions he found in his religious life. The time spent at Chartres was only two school years but they led Lewis into a season of weakened inhibitions and increased apostasy.
At Chartres, Lewis earned a scholarship to Wyvern and transferred there in 1913 at the age of fifteen. Social struggles were a huge issue at Wyvern, with the more established boys controlling those of lower status and forcing them to do chores such as shine their shoes, and even perform sexual favors. Lewis saw this school as a negative effect in his life, as it was here that he grew most prideful and intellectually arrogant. He later recognized that, as an atheist, his life had been full of contradictions. While he claimed “God did not exist,” he also found himself angry with God for both “not existing” as well as for “creating a world” (170).
The next season in Lewis’s formative and educational years was more positive. From 1914 until 1916 his father sent him to a private tutor in Bookham named Kirkpatrick, generally referred to as Knock. Knock taught Lewis that there must be some basis for his beliefs, and that they should have a logical foundation. This increased his relief at being free from Christianity, as he saw no logic or basis for belief in God. Yet even this new-found way of logical thinking, was a part of God’s plan to equip Lewis for the task ahead – to defend the Christian faith. With wonder Lewis later acknowledged that God had protected him from becoming more radically entrenched in atheism. For it was during these last days at Bookham that Lewis read George MacDonald’s Phantastes and recognized a holiness in MacDonald’s tale. He found that Joy was ever present in the story, and against his will, his heart began to stir.
In the winter of 1916 Lewis received a scholarship to Oxford, but before he had completed even one term he was called to war. Lewis served in the British Army during World War I and was wounded in battle in April 1918. As he was recovering in the hospital, he read Chesterton and greatly identified with his work. Although the author’s essays were notably Christian, Lewis determined that he “did not need to accept what Chesterton said in order to enjoy it” (282). Lewis later reflects that in reading these two great Christian authors, Chesterton and MacDonald, he “did not know what [he] was letting [himself] in for,” adding that God can be “very unscrupulous” (283).
God continued to orchestrate His plan in Lewis’s life through encounters and friendships with strong believers in Christ. As Lewis put it, “The great Angler played His fish and I never dreamed that the hook was in my tongue” (311). Lewis returned to Oxford after his discharge from the army and, in 1922, met Nevil Coghill. The two became great friends in spite of Coghill’s strong Christian faith. In 1925 Lewis began teaching at the college, and there two other Christian friends came into his life and both greatly influenced him: H. V. V. Dyson and J. R. R. Tolkien. During this time, the longing known as Joy continued to entice him.
Through both literature and unbelievers, God tugged at the cynical heart. After meeting Dyson and Tolkien, Lewis continued to read works of Chesterton, and through the book Everlasting Man, the history of Christianity was starting to make sense. In 1926 Lewis met the “hardest boiled” atheist he had ever encountered, who ironically claimed that the “evidence for the historicity of the Gospels was really surprisingly good,” and that the death of Jesus “really happened” (330). Soon after this Lewis felt he was given a choice to either “open the door or keep it shut; […] to unbuckle the armor or keep it on,” though he also felt he really had no choice other than to “open” and to “unbuckle” (331). Lewis defines this as his conversion to Theism, when he came to accept that “God was God, and “knelt and prayed” (337).
Near the end of his journey from Theism to Christianity, Lewis came to realize that as a literary scholar he could no longer disregard the truth of the Gospels as if they were only myths. Quite distinctly he recalls the sunny morning, on a drive to the zoo, when he came to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Lewis describes the final stage in his conversion as the moment when “a man, after a long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake” (350).
Regarding Joy, Lewis realized after he became a Christian, that it no longer held the importance he had once thought it had. He then saw that its true value was only that it pointed to something greater outside of himself. When he had been lost, Joy had been the signpost to direct him to Christ.
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life leads the reader through Lewis’s deepest thoughts as he fearlessly opens himself to the criticism of the Christian and non-Christian world. It is an excellent testimony of humility in one who accomplished earthly greatness, yet acknowledged God as Supreme. Lewis never refers to himself as the defender of the faith he is known to be, nor does he make reference to his accomplishments, other than scholarships and teaching posts, except to state that he was “experienced in literary criticism” (348). The fact that he concedes to the public demand to know his salvation story by writing the book is all the acknowledgement he gives to his own credentials and fame. He spends the majority of the book simply describing God’s workmanship in his life and how, despite his resistance, he came to see that God’s “compulsion is our liberation” (338).

Lewis’s first years were greatly impacted—mainly in a negative manner—by the death of his mother and his years in boarding schools. On the other hand, the close relationship and creativity that he and his brother enjoyed were positive influences.
What he refers to as “concentration camp” is the schools he attended and the general lack of fiends that they knew. On the other hand “Mountbracken” is the name of a home where Lewis had accepting relatives and “Campbell” refers to the school that he did not like at all.
The “broadening” of Lewis’s mind included his dropping of his faith “with the greatest relief” (p.66). The “renaissance” refers to “that wonderful reawakening which comes to most of us when puberty is complete” (p.71). Lewis took up serious reading, poetry and Old Norse and it was at the end of his Summer Term in 1913 that he won a classical entrance scholarship to Wyvern College (p. 82). Once at the school he was confronted with what he calls “Bloodery,” the hierarchical system of administration and teachers. Lewis had no love for sports and he recounts the way they were admired in the school, much to his dismay. He was not happy in the system, especially the “fagging” by older students on the younger ones.
Lewis sees the immorality at his school, called the “shade” and contrasts it with the education he is receiving on the classics and mythology, which he calls the “light.” His “release” refers to both his release from school and from his father, whom he refers to as “flippant, languid, empitied of the intellectual interests which had appeared in his earlier boyhood...” (p. 127).
“The Great Knock” was Lewis’s private tutor, a man who had considerable influence on the way Lewis thought and went about his studies. “He was over six feet tall, very shabbily dressed..., lean as a rake, and immensely muscular” (p. 133). He was “purely logical” and known for his “ruthless dialectic” who instructed Lewis in the classics and modern languages, although Lewis claimed that his “German has remained all my life that of a schoolboy” (p.145).
“Fortune’s Smile” is Lewis’s finding Arthur Greeves as his lifelong friend—a neighbor who was never robust physically, but had an immense love for the same kind of books and thoughts as Lewis. The chapter called “Check” is a recounting of the events and thoughts that made Lewis reconsider some of his most basic atheistic and philosophical assumptions. As he says, “keep your eyes open and you will not be allowed to go very far before warning signs appear” (p. 177). He saw that true Joy did not lie in the direction of “Magicians, Spiritualists, and the like.”
Lewis went off to serve in WWI and he tells us about it in “Guns and Good Company.” His story of the war, his wounds and his experiences are short and vivid—he had gone to battle at the age of 19 and witnessed its terrible tragedies. Due to his wounds, he was out within a year and trying to gain entrance to Oxford. He had begun to read Chesterton and MacDonald, the Herbert and states that “A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading “ (p. 191).
“The New Look” includes the many Christian men that had a profound influence on Lewis: Jenkin, Barfield, Coghill, Dyson, Tolkien, Griffiths, Chesterton, Johnson, MacDonald and others. Lewis was soon in “Checkmate” and “My Adversary began to make the final moves” (p. 216). He knew that he had to either “unbuckle the armor or keep it on” (p.224) and it was as if “I were a man of snow at long last beginning to melt” (p.225). Lewis had found that, as an Atheist” he could not “guard his fait too carefully” and, upon examining himself, found sins that appalled him. It was not his search for God, but God finding him, and in “1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant and convert in all England” (pp. 228-229).
It was a new beginning for Lewis, not initially with any love for the church: he disliked hymns and organs but recognized the stories of the Bible as true and not mere myths, seeing Jesus as a person unlike any other ever depicted (p. 236). There had been signposts all along the journey but it had been some time before he had seen the road.

While I can appreciate the chronology of his experience, this approach to spirituality is very intellectualized. I also felt as if I needed to have a PhD in English literature to understand the thousands of references alluded to in the book. It was comforting to hear someone else's story but difficult to navigate.

The title of Lewis’ memoir is shorthand for his oft quoted confession of having been so reluctant a convert to theism (p. 182.) But Lewis does not begin his story at the climax, like too many narrators do. He starts on page 9 with the record of his birth in 1898 in Belfast, and does not accept Christianity until about page 189. A lot of space is reserved for telling us of his childhood, adolescence, and military service; discussing authors and romance; and making sundry observations. By far the best, and rather large part of the story, thankfully, has to do with the history of his awakening to theism from atheism, when “the fat was in the fire with a vengeance” (p. 142.)

The strongest argument open to atheism, according to Lewis, is that a world designed by God would not be as faulty as ours is (p. 57.) The principal factors that brought him to doubt the correctness of materialism and to finally surrender his unbelief were these: the unproven assumption by teachers and editors that the religious ideas spoken of by Virgil and other classical writers were illusory; his reading of Yeats and Maeterlinck, who both believed a metaphysical world existed; the fact that the Christian Faith is treated differently than all other religions; Chesterton’s essays, most notably his Everlasting Man; his reading of George Macdonald, Johnson, Spenser, and Milton; and the perusal of writings by Langland, Donne, Thomas Brown, and George Herbert, this last author being ‘the most alarming of all’ to Lewis’ atheism and anti-Christianity (pp. 55, 141, 154, 171, 178.) “A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading,” remarks Lewis (p. 154.)

As it became harder to hang on against the pull toward theism, Lewis became increasingly dissatisfied with writers with whom he shared an atheistic view. Entertaining writers like Shaw, Wells, Mill, Gibbon, and Voltaire (p. 171) were therefore supplanted by deeper thinkers like Langland, Donne, Thomas Brown, and George Herbert. As a new Christian C. S. Lewis began to find non-Christian writings more boring than before (p. 172.)

The climax of his story is when he has to decide between unreasonable atheism, and theism pointing to Christianity that has no exit. Prior to this climax is a scattering of original expressions couched in the smooth story-telling of those lesser spheres of life that are common to us all. While going through Mere Christianity I marked something on probably every page, it was so rich. In this, most pages remain unmarked. Though all conversions are wonders, and all deserve some sort of hearing, Surprised by Joy, compared with memoirs that other famous Christians have produced, is not that remarkable. The most worrisome part of the whole thing is that the doctrinal method that Lewis was saved by is not stated.

In Surprised by Joy, Lewis chronicles the journey that led him to reject his (nominally) Christian upbringing for atheism and then slowly return to faith through agnosticism, basic theism, and finally trust in Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Throughout this time of his life, Lewis was pursuing what he called joy. When he talks about joy he is referring to a desirable longing for “something.” That “something” was at first very ill-defined, but over time he came to understand it as a longing for something unattainable in this world.

Lewis was far more interested in his spiritual journey than in telling about his life events for their own sake. This leads him to omit or rapidly pass over some major life events (e.g. his service in WWI, his long-lasting poorly-defined relationship with Mrs. Moore) that he feels did not have deep spiritual impact. This results in all kinds of second-guessing from people who write Lewis biographies as to what REALLY influenced him and what REALLY happened, but I think that such reading between the lines is unhelpful and misses out on enjoying the story as Lewis chooses to tell it.

Overall: interesting as a unique spiritual autobiography and even more so as a starting place in exploring the works of one of the 20th century’s greatest Christian authors.

I’m surprised I haven’t read this book before now. And I’m still surprised that it was so inexpensive – bought this version new and the print was fine.

This was a quick and very interesting read for me – I didn’t read Lewis until I was grown, and while I did read the Chronicles of Narnia I haven’t read much else - The Screwtape Letters and Miracles - one of the hardest to read and also most important books (to me) I’ve ever read.

There are moments of joy – but mostly hardship – yet Lewis is decidedly upbeat about it all. I love his hostility to math (“algebra – Devil Take it!”), but couldn’t keep up with all of his literary references – and couldn’t quite keep up with his reasoning. It’s like he backed into the kingdom of God through deductive reasoning over a number of years. He even compares it to losing at chess. But when he was in he was all in. And he didn’t stay sad either. I guess it’s the opposite of a lot of us who grow up believing in God and then somehow throw it all away. We lose the wonder. The awe of a realization that if God is actually there, then we’re not the only one in the room.

"Joy" is a theme you'll find popping up in a few places in C.S.Lewis' writings. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it's when the children first hear about Aslan from the beaver family, it's what the name "Aslan" suddenly inspires in their mind. He doesn't call it "joy" there, but in Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, you will recognise it by that name.

It first happened when he was very young, and his older brother showed him a model farm he had made, using green moss for some of the landscape and trees. Seeing it, momentarily opened a window into another world. Later, he caught it again from one line of Tegner's Drapa that popped out at him, "I heard a voice that cried, Balder the beautiful Is dead, is dead——". You can sort of imagine that as a voice echoing from some strange wonderful world, can't you?

Seeking for those moments of "joy" inspired a few of his quests in his early life. Lewis tells a captivating story of his growing up in Belfast, his early education, a rather horrible boarding school he was sent to that resembled Creakle's Salem School out of Charles Dickens, the college where he developed a distaste for traditional boarding school culture and decided to become an atheist, his time with his tutor Mr. Kirkpatrick where he learned to think logically and reinforced his atheistic beliefs, his time on the battlefield during the Great War, and university, both as a student, and then as he began his career as a professor. As time went, moments of "joy" became more scarse, only to suddenly surprise him one day as he finally opened his heart and mind, not just to Theism, but to God as a person.

The purpose of the book is to relate his spiritual and intellectual journey, therefore it's not a complete biography of his early life. There is a lot about what he read, what authors influenced him, what affect various of his friends and mentors had on him. I was inspired to download a few old books from Gutenberg.org with the intention of reading them sometime, and perhaps listen to a bit more of Wagner (where he also got moments of "joy").

Along with his other book, Miracles, this is also a good resource for understanding the journey from atheism to being a believer. This one is more narrative, whereas Miracles is more of a study. I should add that not all atheists will be bowled over backwards by his arguments, simply because not all atheists think alike. Some won't be convinced by any argument at all. And certainly, those ideas many of us were taught by teachers who had, themselves, never met an atheist, such as the argument "First Cause", and the intricacy of the universe, won't go very far either. However, Lewis' accounts of his own journey is valuable, because they do document the experiences, thought processes and arguments that were enough to convince him. And there's a lot more there than just the subject of atheism and theism.

I am not quite sure how to classify C. S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy. It is an autobiography, of sorts, but Lewis only wrote about his early, pre-Christian life. He had quite a lot to write about his childhood and adolescence and his early loss of his faith. He seemed to have less to write about his adult life, his service in World War I, and his career at Oxford and the narrative ends when he became a Theist. He seems to have ended just when many readers might want to know more.

Lewis’s journey was not primarily a spiritual one. There was no conversion on the road to Damascus for Lewis. His journey was largely an intellectual one. His faith was shaken by the death of his mother but destroyed by his intellectual pride and a too ready acceptance of the materialist philosophies of his time. C. S. Lewis became a Theist when he realized that many Christians were quite intelligent men. He found that he could no longer believe that a writer like G. K. Chesterton or George MacDonald was brilliant despite his faith.

Lewis’s journey was also a lifelong search for what he called Joy, an in describable longing for something not found in this world and that can never really be satisfied by the world. Lewis describes his search for Joy in pleasure, the world’s philosophy, and other such vanities. He got snatches of Joy in Nordic mythology, a feeling he called “Northerness”, in music, friendships, etc but it was never the real thing. Ultimately, Lewis found Joy after he stopped looking for it, in his Christian faith. He didn’t expect to find Joy there. Lewis described himself as a reluctant and miserable convert. Lewis’s lesson seems to be that you cannot find Joy by looking for it. If you seek for other things, especially the Ultimate Source of Joy, Christ, you may surprise yourself by finding Joy.

I do not believe that C. S. Lewis was ever really an Atheist. He was not being dishonest, except with himself. For a very long time, Lewis tried to convince himself to be an atheist, but it never really stuck. He never fully accepted the materialist, naturalist worldview that is necessary for true atheism. By his account here, Lewis always had a somewhat mystical bent, a feeling that there is more to the world than meets the eye. One of the temptations he faced in his youth was a fascination with the occult and Lewis admitted that if he had run into the right (wrong?) sort of people he might have ended up a magician or even a Satanist. This seems hardly the sort a Richard Dawkins is made of, but a Dawkins would never have responded to Christ’s call.

Surprised by Joy is one of Lewis’s better books. Some of his best lines, the ones people are always quoting can be found in this book. Lewis recounts his early life with good humor and the result is a very readable story. There are too many typos in the Kindle edition of this book which are very annoying. I hope this can be corrected.

I read “Surprised by Joy” only because I had been impressed with “Mere Christianity,” which had proven to be very insightful and thought-provoking for me. “Joy” was recommended to me by the same person, and I had anticipated another book along religious lines, hoping for more of the same – I wanted more of the intellectual nudging in the direction of Christianity provided in “Mere Christianity.”

But this was not to be. Lewis warns readers early on that he is first going to detail his childhood and young adulthood so that we as readers will better understand his thought processes. I had assumed this might take the first ten or twenty pages, before an inevitable focus on religion, theology, philosophy and such would dominate. I was in for a surprise, for it took at least 75% of the book to reach a point where his religious evolution came into play at all, and perhaps only in the last few pages did he really address such topics as his main focus.

The majority of the book introduces you to the early life of the author. This is a book for die-hard fans of C.S. Lewis who seek his autobiography, not for fans of “Mere Christianity.” I now clearly understand his early influences – the death of his mother, the lack of close understanding he would have liked from his father, the freedom and joy he experienced in reading, reading, and more reading. I learned that boarding schools of his place and time (England and Northern Ireland, a century ago) were apparently hotbeds of institutionalized sodomy; it was quite expected that, in the absence of girls, many if not most of the upperclassmen would pressure the underclassmen into homosexual relations.

One other thing that stands out is his constant expectation that the reader is familiar with everything he knows. “Joy” is easy to read only if the reader is willing to gloss over dozens of references and miss some of the meaning an assumed Oxford education could provide. Not only are there frequent quotes in Latin, French, or German without much-needed translation, but even his use of English strains the bounds of comprehension. Almost every page has references to the era and location and assigned readings of his childhood. No amount of dictionary consultation could help translate all of his references in lieu of growing up in Northern Ireland or England at the turn of the 20th century, and the book does suffer as a result, for I am certain I could have learned and understood more, had there only been a hundred extra translations of Lewis’ intended meaning into recognizable English.

Despite the author’s apparent assumption that his readers have also read all great works of all prior English and classical literature, and lived in great proximity to him in space and time (and I can not fault any author in failing to write for a future audience on another continent – but no other old author I know of strikes me as so determined to exclude the possibility) I did understand most, or at least – enough – of what he was trying to say. Should I read more of the works of C.S. Lewis I will certainly understand where the author is coming from, and why he thinks or writes something.

Near the end, he finally focuses on the evolution of his religious thoughts as he started to succumb to Christianity kicking and screaming. But I do identify with and understand many of his thoughts, and could summarize by saying that in childhood, he preferred logic over emotion and magic, and religion seemed foolish because it seemed hard to believe that God could fail so miserably at a poorly-made, horribly flawed world - or in making religion unclear and unconvincing. Older and wiser, both Lewis and I seem to find logic in God’s somewhat hidden nature forcing us to question things and seek Him out. And older and wiser still, we agree that there is only so much meaningful seeking a human can do in a universe that appears so flawed – and that God must initiate the seeking of a relationship even more – for we are but actors on His stage, and Hamlet cannot search out Shakespeare unless Shakespeare writes it into the script…

My last comments would be that we should not focus so much on God’s power over us. We should not worry about how to act based on eternal rewards and punishments. We should obey and submit to God (assuming we can even understand what he really wants from us) simply because He is the embodiment of good and right and logic and reason. Assuming He is all these things, how could we wish to do what is not good, not right, not logical, not reasonable? And finally, on joy – one cannot search for it and contemplate it and experience it simultaneously. Experiencing things can bring joy, contemplating the experience is different. In contemplating we can hope to train our minds to appreciate all extremes, and find joy even in the grimiest, bitter dirt and horror and poverty of the world, if only in amazement of its extreme nature. We can be in awe of extreme failure or the greatness of the universe and hopefully find joy in both.

Lewis clearly wanted to describe his own evolution from atheism to Christianity. There is no one moment of realization; he compared it to realizing one is awake in bed, without being sure how long one has already been awake. But I do believe he succeeds in encouraging readers to continue down the path that may take them in the same direction (despite a sometimes agonizing autobiographical prelude.)

It is unlikely that I ever would have chosen to read this book on my own. I read The Screwtape Letters many years ago and started but lost interest in Mere Christianity not quite so many years ago. C.S. Lewis was simply not on the radar, but this was recommended to me by an old friend with whom I've had several discussions regarding religion, and specifically Christianity, in the past. I'm fairly confident this recommendation has been made multiple times through the years, but I just... I don't know... never got around to it. But I've been on a reading kick lately, she knows me well, I figured I should give it a shot, and I'm glad I did.

I'm not sure how I got into reading memoirs or pseudo-memoirs, (Ham on Rye: A Novel,A Million Little Pieces,A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,Going All the Way...) but I have definitely found that I rather enjoy the... genre? Style? I don't know what it is, but something about these books causes me to group them together in my mind. This book, at first, appeared to fit that mold for me, so on that level I found it very enjoyable but also found it somewhat frustrating. Lewis was very forthright in the preface as well as throughout the book that this was being written with the intention of tracing the details of one particular aspect of his life's journey. While I really liked the narrative and Lewis's ability to create pictures from words, it was this directed march toward a specific goal that kept nagging at me as I read. I wanted to get into this the same way I did those other books, but both the style and substance of this kept leading me to feeling like I did while reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (text only) by R. M. Pirsig with Lewis's "Joy" being substituted for Pirsig's "Quality" and "aesthetic experience" substituted for "quality."

So then, much like Zen, (as best I can recall) I felt that this book rested largely on an evolution of comparisons to eventually reach its foregone conclusion and prove its point. Or "Point," if you will. Both are stories of desire - what it means, why it exists, defining its object, and, of course, sating the yearning. His search for the answer was often heartbreaking... "Oh, I desire too much - and before I knew what I desired, the desire itself was gone, the whole glimpse withdrawn, the world turned commonplace again, or only stirred by a longing for the longing that had just ceased." I wonder if everyone empathizes with that in the way that I do.

Irrelevant. The first, and perhaps ultimate, choice that had to be made was in choosing the actual object of desire - the illusive "Joy," and coming to that understanding was pivotal. "Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is." I understand pleasure intimately... I think we all do. I understand Joy theoretically. Yet I understand the pursuit of Joy wholly. So how do we, with our experiences and our senses come to an understanding that our primary motivation in life is not something we can create - nor even something we can chase with any hope of success? Perhaps we tend to simply forget that we desire something more than simple pleasure. I know I have done that in my own life and have, as did Lewis, found it impossible to fully quash those innate desires. It will sneak up on you when you least expect it, throw you to the ground, "and with that plunge back into my own past there arose at once, almost like heartbreak, the memory of Joy itself, the knowledge that I had once had what I had now lacked for years." I could substitute any number of words for "Joy" here, be it Love, Meaning, Understanding... but "Joy" really seems to encompass most of the yearnings of the heart. It seems important to also mention Lewis's stark differentiation between "being joyful" and "having Joy" later in the book much as he delineated "Joy" and "pleasure" at the outset. I found this somewhat frustrating as I want to say that "Joy" is something you are rather than something you do or something you possess, but regardless, having defined the object of desire it became important to understand how one can experience it.

In pursuit of this, Lewis also created himself as two separate beings - the "outer self" and the "inner self." I found this premise somewhat difficult to accept, but he used it well to further illustrate the real meaning of Joy and begin the long process of eventually believing that his "inner self" was really hardly "self" at all. The eventual Point, I believe, was that one has to eventually see your separate selves, realize that your "inner self" is, not only not yours, but also the most important part of who you are. For all the time spent reading, learning, befriending, drawing, or creating in an attempt to find Joy, Lewis had to conclude that his outer self could never truly give his inner self the Joy for which he was searching. In fact, he posited, the two are hardly interconnected at all. "Where there are hungry wastes, starving for Joy, in the one, the other may be full of cheerful bustle and success; or again, where the outer life is miserable, the other may be brimming over with ecstasy." Understanding this dichotomy and the eventual separation of "inner self" from Self set the stage for all of the coming revelations, for none of the understanding he later illustrates could have existed in a being who believes he is in control of his inner self.

So what moves a person? Do we understand the difference between being driven and driving ourselves? Lewis's understanding of this seemed to come to a belief that, strive as we might to drive ourselves toward a non-ephemeral feeling of Joy, the only way to achieve that lost feeling is a total surrender to something greater. For the majority of the story this theme was central, and his eventual acceptance of it was absolute. "Shut your mouth; open your eyes and ears. Take in what is there and give no thought to what might have been there or what is somewhere else. That can come later, if it must come at all." Throughout the growth he experienced in the latter sections of the book, Lewis continued to chastise his younger self for the error of believing in Self... the error of "having thus falsely made a state of mind your aim, to attempt to produce it." Not only are we not driving ourselves, but we aren't even being driven to or for ourselves. At least not for our outer selves. Or our imaginative inner selves. On multiple occasions Lewis notes that he was "far more eager to escape pain than to achieve happiness" and that he "had wanted to `call my soul my own'" and, again, had been "far more anxious to avoid suffering than to achieve delight." These were the goals for which he was striving and, as he concluded, not the goal to which he was being driven.

The path, as initially seen, to that goal, "man's search for God," was, in his eyes, not even a path man has the ability to choose to walk. Lewis had to also denote the vastly different notions that man is searching for God and that God is actually the one searching for man. Could the Animal Land creations search for and find Lewis himself? Obviously not, he reasoned, unless he chose to insert himself into their story. Would the mouse search for the cat? Could the mouse catch the cat? We are not the hunter here - we are the prey. This, for me, was also rather problematic. Are all of us hunted? Are some of us predestined to hell? Are we to think that, if God is hunting us, we lowly creations have the ability to elude him? I think I might be making too big of a deal about this, but this one idea gave me pause more than most others presented here. I don't like comparing man's search for God and God's search for man. I think they have to be two sides of the same coin, despite understanding that this seems to somehow detract from the divine and omnipotent nature of a God. (even if the omnipotence turned out to be unimportant.)

As I write this, I think I've figured out just *why* this book frustrated me. This sounds like a report; it reads like schoolwork. I like to read something that makes me feel. I like to subsequently write about what it made me feel and how it left me when I was finished. I'd like to talk about how engaged I was with characters and the story. I'd like to say that the flowery language with which the countryside and the sea were described pulled me out of where I was and into something else. Perhaps that is because I no longer search for Joy in my own life but rather in getting outside of it, but I, nevertheless, still want to say those things yet cannot. This book had me stuck inside my head and trying to follow these reasoned arguments to the conclusion I knew would be presented. I identified with almost everything Lewis said in the beginning. By the end, however, it just felt dry and flat. There was no real emotion in the discovery. There appeared to be no Joy. In fact, "the subject has lost nearly all interest for me since I became a Christian." There was only cold acceptance. The conclusion that you just "do" because He just "is" was an incredible let down. It also pained me greatly to see a question with which I struggle given life in these pages (at least twice!) and then go completely unanswered. I also am, "very angry with God for not existing" and "equally angry at him for creating a world." I too often wonder, "Why should creatures have the burden of existence forced on them without their consent?" I still feel it "something of an outrage that I had been created without my own permission," and I found little that spoke to these problems. Instead of the warm "personal relationship" he said he discovered despite his earlier belief that it was impossible, it still felt like Lewis was describing, outside of his understanding a Creator that could accept such a flawed "prodigal son," a cold and academic affair.

I know it sounds like I'm really down on this book, but I'm really not. I'm just down after having read it. I very much enjoyed the act of reading this, but I am not enjoying the act of reflecting on it. (As an aside, I very much appreciated how, in the end, he did point out that his acceptance of Theism was not his acceptance of Christianity.) It kind of makes me sad that this wasn't an autobiography as I think I would have thoroughly enjoyed that. Few (if not, "none") of these conclusions feel like they lead me to Joy. Perhaps that is the real lesson and sums the whole book up nicely. We are not here to search for our Joy but only to be found by our Creator and understand that whatever comes from that is, and must be, our only true Joy. Ugh. I'm just not there.

What is this book like? Lewis states honestly in the preface "I have tried so to write the first chapter that those who can't bear such a story will see at once what they are in for and close the book with the least waste of time." Indeed the next two hundred and fifty or so pages, which contain reminiscences of his life in Edwardian Britain, his experience in the Great War, his education and his frequent social commentaries, can at times seem tangential and almost, but not quite, soporific. My suggestion is that a reader may find it useful to peruse the penultimate chapter (ch. 14) first, where he explains why it took him so long to find God again: "Remember, I had always wanted, above all things, not to be 'interfered with', I had wanted (mad wish) 'to call my soul my own'." It seems to me that this is the key passage and message of the whole book. If one bears that in mind when one consumes the book, then I guess one may find it much more easily understood. It should also be pointed out that the whole book is predominantly about Lewis re-converting back to Theism. He only spends a couple of pages (in the last chapter) on why he believes in Christianity. Some may find this wanting. Overall, it is a fascinating story because one really wants to have a glimpse of Lewis' long spiritual journey.

This book was of extreme importance for my Senior Thesis last year. It is an indespensible resource for anyone using Lewis in their research or other connected fields of research about the Christian Imagination and faith. As some reviewers already stated, Lewis did live in another world from today's world. He was educated extremely different then we are today and it is viewed that he may have been one of most read men of the century (there are many citations from his students where they cited that he could remember verbatem everything that he ever read). At the ages of nine and ten he already was reading Shakespeare, this alone points to big difference between him and many people who enjoy reading him.
Another thing that is important to understand about Lewis before he converted, is that though he was an Athiest he was not a Modernist, he was a Romantic. His genre of choice was not Realism but Mythology and the Classics. Because of this, Lewis can only write to those from a similar background and interest. I am not only a Christian, but I am also a Romantic, my athiest good friend and roommate from college, who double majored in Psychology and Literature, was niether and he therefore probebly wouldn't be too persuaded by Lewis's journey. So I will agree this book isn't for everyone, but I don't think Lewis intended it be just for Christians, I think he intended it also for people who were like him and spoke the same "language" as he.
All one needs to do is get a sample chapter of the first chapter. If right away you think this book isn't for you, then it probebly isn't. Just like Chesterton's A.B., the first chapter is what the whole argument henges upon. If you fully don't understand the arguement presented in chapter one, or likewise, if you are not intersted to keep reading further, then this book isn't probebly for you. Lewis's arguement is on the topic of Longing and Joy and his journey as a young man trying to recover his feelings of Longing and Joy through Literature (and physical intemacy), if you can not relate to this then perhaps the Lewis who was an Athiest might not have been someone one could personally relate with if one knew him at that time. The wierd thing that Lewis would acknowledge is that though he was an Athiest he kept discovering that most of the friends he kept wanting to be around and most of his favorite authors were all Christian.
For those wanting to continue research on Lewis's Letirary tastes and Imagination I would recommend the volume of Letters that he wrote as a teenager to his christian friend, Arthur Graves.
I hope this has made one better informed before one reads, and I also hope those who have been wanting to read this but haven't decide to read it soon. I was surprised by how much of a joy I had reading it (I know, that was corny).

"Surprised By Joy" is an intimate spiritual autobiography by one of the most prolific and profound Christian writers of the twentieth century. In his own words, C.S. Lewis relates his early life, including his gradual slide from Christianity into atheism and, finally, back into Christianity.

While the book is well-written and fascinating, parts of it were also humdrum. This is because, as with anyone's life, some of it is so personal, so woven into the writer's own life, that readers cannot appreciate the event or thought. For instance, Lewis spends a great deal of time writing about the landscapes he lived in. This makes sense as he, along with many of his fellow Inklings, disliked the industrialization that was ruining the countryside. As well, Lewis explains the land of Boxen that he and his brother devised and developed. One can appreciate how this planted the roots for Narnia and his other fiction, one can also become bored because it seems to have little bearing on his religious epiphany. Lewis himself notes that his discussion of Boxen will probably not be very interesting except to its own creator.

I wish Lewis had elaborated more on his conversion, especially the period immediately after he returned to God. As soon as he believes once more, he ends the book - too prematurely, I think. Yet there are also some wonderful passages that I was deeply moved by. One of these is Lewis' discussion on prayer and his abandonment of it in childhood because of his attempt to produce a "realization", a feeling that he powerfully and sincerely believed that God would answer his prayers. Lewis writes that he could not produce this feeling, this "realization" by sheer will power and this caused him to cease praying.

Although a bit dull at times, Lewis allows the reader into his spiritual angst and struggle that eventually led to him to be "the most dejected, reluctant convert in all England". Lewis' re-conversion is itself extremely interesting as all the intellectual bulwarks that he had set up to make him resist and reject Christianity crumble before his eyes. For C.S. Lewis fans, for Christians and for skeptics as well, "Surprised By Joy" is a fascinating read.

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963; "Jack") was a professor at both Oxford and Cambridge University, but is best known as an imaginative novelist and Christian apologist. This 1955 book was (surprisingly!) dedicated to Dom Bede Griffiths (1906-1993), a British-born Indian Benedictine monk who lived in ashrams in South India and became a noted yogi. (See his books such as The Cosmic Revelation: The Hindu Way to God,A New Vision of Reality: Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith,The Marriage of East and West, etc.)

Lewis explained in the Preface, "This book is written partly in answer to requests that I would tell how I passed from Atheism to Christianity and partly to correct one or two false notions that seem to have got about. How far the story matters to anyone but myself depends on the degree to which others have experienced what I call 'joy.' ... The book aims at telling the story of my conversion and is not a general autobiography... it gets less like a general autobiography as it goes on." (Pg. vii)

Of his very early religious upbringing ("high 'Anglo-Catholic'") he said, "What really mattered was that I here heard the doctrines of Christianity ... taught by men who obviously believed them. As I had no skepticism, the effect was to bring to life what I would already have said that I believed." (Pg. 33) But later, he recalls, "The authentic 'Joy'... had vanished from my life: so completely that not even the memory or the desire of it remained..." (Pg. 72) Still later, "nature... became herself the medium of the real joy... All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still 'about to be.'" (Pg. 77-78) He notes, "To 'get it again' became my constant endeavor... Because I was still young and the whole world of beauty was opening before me... I again tasted Joy. But far more often I frightened it away by my greedy impatience to snare it..." (Pg. 169)

He recalls, "my own Atheism and Pessimism were fully formed before I went to Bookham. What I got there was merely fresh ammunition for the defense of a position already chosen." (Pg. 139-140) But later he was attracted to the English Hegelians: "The Absolute was 'there'... In fact, it had much of the quality of Heaven. But it was a Heaven none of could ever get to... I should be very sorry not to have passed through that experience. I think it is more religious than many experiences that have been called Christian." (Pg. 210) Later, he adds, "I perceived ... I had been equally wrong in supposing that I desired Joy itself. Joy itself... turned out to be of no value at all. All the value lay in that of which Joy was the desiring." (Pg. 220)

Of his conversion, he notes that "I read Chesterton's The Everlasting Man and for the first time saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense... [then] something far more alarming happened to me... the hardest boiled of all the atheists I ever knew sat in my room and remarked that the evidence for the historicity of the Gospels was really surprisingly good... Was there then no escape?... before God closed in on me, I was in fact offered a choice... Really, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side... I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England... a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape..." (Pg. 223-229) He adds in conclusion, "what... of Joy?... To tell you the truth, the subject has lost nearly all interest for me since I became a Christian." (Pg. 238)

Lewis's story will be of immense interest to all his legions of fans.

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963; "Jack") was a professor at both Oxford and Cambridge University, but is best known as an imaginative novelist and Christian apologist. This 1955 book was (surprisingly!) dedicated to Dom Bede Griffiths (1906-1993), a British-born Indian Benedictine monk who lived in ashrams in South India and became a noted yogi. (See his books such as The Cosmic Revelation: The Hindu Way to God,A New Vision of Reality: Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith,The Marriage of East and West, etc.)

Lewis explained in the Preface, "This book is written partly in answer to requests that I would tell how I passed from Atheism to Christianity and partly to correct one or two false notions that seem to have got about. How far the story matters to anyone but myself depends on the degree to which others have experienced what I call 'joy.' ... The book aims at telling the story of my conversion and is not a general autobiography... it gets less like a general autobiography as it goes on." (Pg. vii)

Of his very early religious upbringing ("high 'Anglo-Catholic'") he said, "What really mattered was that I here heard the doctrines of Christianity ... taught by men who obviously believed them. As I had no skepticism, the effect was to bring to life what I would already have said that I believed." (Pg. 33) But later, he recalls, "The authentic 'Joy'... had vanished from my life: so completely that not even the memory or the desire of it remained..." (Pg. 72) Still later, "nature... became herself the medium of the real joy... All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still 'about to be.'" (Pg. 77-78) He notes, "To 'get it again' became my constant endeavor... Because I was still young and the whole world of beauty was opening before me... I again tasted Joy. But far more often I frightened it away by my greedy impatience to snare it..." (Pg. 169)

He recalls, "my own Atheism and Pessimism were fully formed before I went to Bookham. What I got there was merely fresh ammunition for the defense of a position already chosen." (Pg. 139-140) But later he was attracted to the English Hegelians: "The Absolute was 'there'... In fact, it had much of the quality of Heaven. But it was a Heaven none of could ever get to... I should be very sorry not to have passed through that experience. I think it is more religious than many experiences that have been called Christian." (Pg. 210) Later, he adds, "I perceived ... I had been equally wrong in supposing that I desired Joy itself. Joy itself... turned out to be of no value at all. All the value lay in that of which Joy was the desiring." (Pg. 220)

Of his conversion, he notes that "I read Chesterton's The Everlasting Man and for the first time saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense... [then] something far more alarming happened to me... the hardest boiled of all the atheists I ever knew sat in my room and remarked that the evidence for the historicity of the Gospels was really surprisingly good... Was there then no escape?... before God closed in on me, I was in fact offered a choice... Really, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side... I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England... a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape..." (Pg. 223-229) He adds in conclusion, "what... of Joy?... To tell you the truth, the subject has lost nearly all interest for me since I became a Christian." (Pg. 238)

Lewis's story will be of immense interest to all his legions of fans.

[Throughout the years, I have written a number of reviews that have never been published online on the store. These writings comprise two types of reviews: unfinished reviews, abandoned during various stages of composition, and completed reviews that for life reasons were never posted. Of the later type, back in September 2001 I wrote a cache of work, a full sixteen reviews of several different C. S. Lewis books which have never been released. I am publishing these reviews now for the first time, over a decade after they were initially written. Mike London 10-3-2012]

"Surprised By Joy: The Shape of My Early Life" stands much more as a purging of the soul than a true autobiography. A third of the book is spent on the hideous perceptions and experiences Lewis endured at school. To him, schools encouraged on to be foppish and caddish, and encourage the search of that damnable inner ring which Lewis so detested. Many of the young boys, if they were not into sports, were cruelly left out of the Bloods, the name he gave the inner ring at school. There is only one book that shows Lewis more intimately than this, and that is "A Grief Observed", the emotionally naked and extremely painful short book that he wrote after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman.

These school experiences would come to shape so much of how Lewis thought and what he wrote. The Inner Ring, which he so highly detested, was a key theme in his novel "That Hideous Strength" as well as "The Abolition of Man". He frequently used school in a negative context in "The Chronicles of Narnia", especially the end book, "The Last Battle", where he talks about how school has ended and break has come at last.

Lewis said in "A Preface to Paradise Lost" that to judge an item you first know what that item was built for. For those coming to this book as an autobiography, they will be sorely disappointed. Lewis wrote this book more to escape and finally be freed of his past, coming to terms with his traumas in terms of writing. As it is wildly unbalanced as an autobiography - nothing is said of Mrs. Moore - the book must be taken on its own terms. Mrs. Moore was the mother of a friend of Lewis's who got killed in World War I, and who Lewis took care of until she died in 1953. There have been rumours that in the early stages of their relationships they were lovers. Although unknown if that is true or not, it is known that Mrs. Moore ultimately became a mother to him. In regards to "Surprised By Joy", this is a way for Lewis to expunge his past, and by going through this psychological process he would be able to let his mind be much more fresh and much more spirited, for he gained the shedding of the past by writing this book. It was after writing this book that he wrote "Till We Have Faces", his best fiction.

Many have suggested that he paints a wildly inaccurate picture of his school, for others have said their experience was not so bad. Who is right we cannot know, but we do know from Lewis's account that school, whether his descriptions and perceptions were distorted or not, did a great amount of harm to him, and his hatred of school politics and much of what goes on in a school finds expression in many of his works. In this manner, SBJ is much more for Lewis himself than any serious students of his, but this book still stands as one of his best sellers.

*(These reviews covered all seven books of "The Chronicles of Narnia", the three novels of "The Space Trilogy", "The Abolition of Man", "The Four Loves", "A Preface to Paradise Lost", a revised version of my 2000 review of "Till We Have Faces", "Surprised By Joy", and "The Screwtape Letters".)

To read of his life and times, the importance of education, and thinking out, talking out with others seemed their goal in life. Search every philosophy until you discover the exact one for you, consumed these young men. So unlike education in America today where we find so few that search, and so many that care not to learn, nor see the importance of it.
One of his great quotes in the book:
"Remember, I had always wanted, above all things, no to be "interfered with." I had wanted (mad wish) to call my soul my own. I had been far more anxious to avoid suffering than to achieve delight."

In this short memoir, C. S. Lewis describes his spiritual journey from youthful atheist to firm and faithful believer. This isn't really a memoir of Lewis' life, although it does contain some interesting anecdotes about his school years. Mostly, he only focuses on incidents in his life that impacted his spiritual development. I have read many spiritual development memoirs, and this one is like the others...only it stands out because it is a classic. It was written when these types of journeys were not as commonly shared in memoirs. (In fact, I suspect that this book was one of the ones that inspired so many of the spiritual-journey memoirs that we see today.) One thing I found interesting about this book is it explained to me why so many people retro-diagnose Lewis with Asperger's syndrome. He talked about his difficulties dealing with other students...not knowing how to respond in social situations and being told to "take that look off [his] face" when he was trying very hard to keep an appropriate facial expression. I think it is important to recognize that we can't accurately retro-diagnose people with today's syndromes, but it IS interesting to see how such personality traits were present in Lewis' day, and how he excused them with stories about how childhood events affected his social interactions. It was definitely an interesting read...and anyone who likes to hear about others' spiritual journeys really should start with C. S. Lewis.

C.S. Lewis will forever be assoicated with the "Chronicles of Narnia", his seven books for children that were largely influenced by his early love for fairy stories and myths. Yet these novels are also a byproduct of Lewis's reluctant conversion to Christianity, a subject he explores in his autobiography "Surprised By Joy: The Shape of My Early Life". And while he may best be rememberd as the author of childrens' books, his wisdom and insight poured itself out into numerous works that examined what it means to be a faithful Christian in this world.

"Surprised By Joy" is not a read for everyone - one must certainly be a diehard C.S. Lewis fan to read this accounting of his life. The author begins with his birth and a brief family background before moving on to his school years and finally, late within the book, the story of his famous conversion. Lewis devotes much of his book to explaining just what did shape his early life - his first encounters with mythology and fairy stories, the first time he felt the pull toward atheism, the events that make up an ideal day, the people who had both positive and negative impacts on his life. At times he wanders off on tangents, making the reader wonder where he is heading. Some chapters are ponderous and difficult to read, while others move skippingly along the page. Yet all of the chapters are filled with Lewis' trademark wisdom and insight.

The conversion that C.S. Lewis experienced may be unique in the fact that it was an intellectual conversion before it ever became a religious conversion. Weighing the evidence, Lewis could no longer deny the existence of God, but it was a while before he actually found himself practicing that belief. I especially enjoyed his tale of finally making the connection that the authors he was most drawn to were authors who were religious and how he had failed to understand their intelligence before. "Surprised By Joy" is a window into the life of an astonishing man that no one but himself could have written, a tale that is imbued with every shade of its writer, a man who has finally come to terms with his maker.

How one appreciates this book may depend, in part on, one's own background and beliefs. As someone who has not experienced Joy as described by Lewis, and who mostly avoids questions of a spiritual or religious nature, this book did not resonate with me. To be fair, Lewis does state in the first chapter that, after giving a few examples of Joy, if the reader finds no interest in them, then he ought to stop reading. I was reading this book at the request of a dear friend, and thus did not heed his sound advice.

I should say that I still enjoyed the book. As someone who primarily reads dry historical or social scientific nonfiction, it brought out a deep longing for the purely intellectual world of Lewis, where reading of great tales and wrestling with serious philosophical and theological issues is commonplace. He also led an interesting and very well-off life which makes for pleasant reading; if I had read any of his other books, I'm sure I would have found Surprised by Joy, which is largely autobiographical, even more gripping.

Lewis is extremely well-read, so much so that I was often lost by his literary references, his use of Latin and French, and his verbose vocabulary. The book is nonetheless very readable and I was able to understand much of it.

I confess that my rating of this book is more about me than the quality of the book; I found it worthy of three stars but others may find it fascinating. To them, I tip my hat.

Note that this review is for the Blackstone audio book narrated by Geoffrey Howard. I really enjoyed listening to this book, which is told in the first person. The narrator sounded just like I imagined CS Lewis to be. Initially his tone sounded to me like a stern professor, but it grew on me and ended up being perfect for this book.

I have always been fascinated with CS Lewis; initially as a child I read the Screwtape Letters and much later read the Chronicles of Narnia and then some of his Christian apologetic work. I love his style and I've always thought he had a brilliant mind. I wanted to learn more about his conversion to Christianity and bought this book to find out.

The story is sort of an autobiography, but focuses on his intellectual development as it relates to his becoming an atheist, then a theist, and finally a Christian. This all took place during his childhood through young adulthood. He lost his mother when he was young and never had a good relationship with his father. He didn't develop any true friends until later in his youth, so it was a difficult childhood. He would be termed a geek today; he hated sports and was a bookworm. His recounting of boarding school sounded horrifying. In fact, he describes fighting in World War I as less stressful.

The one thing that I found most interesting was his describing the affect various authors had on him and he found to his disappointment that the authors that impacted him the most were Christian; and that the atheistic authors didn't seem to have the same depth. The book is full of other remarkable insights and is worth reading. I highly recommend this book in either the audio or written format.

I just recently finished reading Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis. This was my first full read through of any of Lewis’ books. I have read a few chapters of Mere Christianity, A Grief Observed and I have heard some of the audiobook of The Screwtape Letters, but finished none of them. After reading this book I find myself feeling eager to go back and read these and his other works as well, both fiction and nonfiction.
I must also say that I found this book by accident. I was actually in the midst of a questioning journey about my faith, bordering closely to the edge of Atheism. At this point in my life I have been a Christian for roughly five years and one month. I was a self-proclaimed Atheist before that. I resonated very familiar with Lewis in the last few chapters, especially with his feelings of “the most reluctant convert” while he prayed. I fought my beliefs with every thought up until I no longer could, in a similar way in which Lewis found himself unable to live a life that concluded there was no God.
It is interesting though, the main point I took away from this book. I have only enjoyed reading since becoming a Christian and reading this work by Lewis has risen my enjoyment of it to such a level that I am considering change my college major to English and Literature. Lewis gives the unexperienced reader of the classics a plethora of names and works to begin with. After reading some reviews I know this was a negative in the eyes of some readers, but I found it to be probably the most influencing character of his story as in this work.
Lewis also does a very good job describing his life as a young boy and his progression into early adulthood. His descriptions of the landscapes in which he found himself at all the various stages causes one to wish to board a plane and fly to Ireland before turning the page. It is like a time machine of words into a time that we can only imagine, which I find is or should be an aim of a writer. Don’t we all want to take the reader somewhere?
However, the only negative I can associate with this book is its ending. The ending felt abrupt to me, and if you are expecting chapters of apologetics and details in regards to his conversion you will be disappointed. The conversion is realistically limited to the last two or three chapters, with from Theism to Christianity being the last chapter (which is probably the shortest chapter in the whole book). Lewis does make many points to say the book is neither an autobiography nor an apologetics book, it is straightforwardly a book about his early formative years.
Overall, I found this book to be very satisfying. It kept me engaged and it inspired me. While I felt wanting for more as I closed the back cover, I know that where one book ends another can pick up on. For those who want more of Lewis’ life you have a list of other works to which he dissects his thoughts and moments within a Christian life.

Surprised By Joy is an eye-opening autobiography of C. S. Lewis's childhood, education, and journey from atheism to theism. Many who are only familiar with his better known works (such as the Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity) may be shocked at how honest and open Lewis is about the people, places, and incidents that helped shape him. In Surprised By Joy, Lewis journeys through churchdom, atheism, the occult, academia, and finally arrives at a knowledge of God. It is all about growing up. Many Christians may find this book a bit disturbing. But we need to be disturbed. Why be satisfied with a caricature when the reality is available?

One thing I have always loved about Jack Lewis is his unpretentious honesty. There is never even a hint of fakery or pride in his books. He is the anti-televangelist. He comes to his readers perhaps even a bit embarrassed, but nonetheless open and honest in his experiences, his questions, and his discoveries.

I am grateful to see a resurgence of popularity in the works of C. S. Lewis. Even though he wrote in the mid-20th century, many of his explorations and questions need to be re-explored and re-asked in the 21st century. One of the oft-neglected questions he asked was about the fulfillment of paganism by Christ. Many Christians can see the fulfillment of Judaism in Christianity, but Lewis goes further. One of his complaints: "No one ever attempted to show in what sense Christianity fulfilled Paganism or Paganism prefigured Christianity." (p. 62). He asks, "Where has religion reached its true maturity? Where, if anywhere, have the hints of all Paganism been fulfilled?" (p. 235). Lewis writes, "That is why I often find myself at such cross-purposes with the modern world: I have been a converted Pagan living among apostate Puritans." (p. 69).

A thoroughly enjoyable look into the early life of a great author.

Dr. Mike Kear

Surprised by Joy is C.S. Lewis' partial autobiography, partial in that he recounts events from early childhood up until his conversion to Christianity as a young Oxford academic. The purpose of the book is not a straight forward autobiography, hence the relatively early conclusion of the work, but rather an account of how Lewis, at one time an atheist, came to believe in God and finally in Christianity.

The recurring theme of the book, expressed in the title, is Lewis' experience of joy, a deeply felt, intense longing or desire, that came upon him in rare and special moments, usually associated with literature and nature. The imaginative side of Lewis from boyhood on pursued this experience of joy as the highest good of life; he associated the best writing and most worthy culture with works and experiences that elicited this deeply-felt and spiritual exultation. Finally, after being convinced both intellectually and existentially of God's existence, Lewis realized that his experiences of joy were not ends in themselves, or the final object of life, but signposts towards God.

In the book Lewis covers his ancestry, childhood, close relationship with his brother Warren, troubled relationship with his father, his education in the English public school world, his blissful studies under the retired schoolmaster Kirkpatrick, his WWI military service in France, his Oxford education and his earlier years as an Oxford tutor. Lewis' writing is absorbing, penetrating, insightful and fascinating. One characteristic of the book (and Lewis' writing in general) is a brilliant brevity. Most of the subjects are dealt with in a few pages and none are described with any methodical detail. Yet in these brief treatments, one gains rich impressions of the various topics covered. With one anecdote or several skillful images Lewis draws his readers into turn-of-the-century Belfast, a brutal English boarding school, the boat ride between Ireland and England, and the trenches of World War I, to give examples.

Lewis is equally skilled at depicting the development of his own personality and beliefs. A bookish, imaginative child, he cultivated a special literary taste and style through his pursuit of joy and his natural intellectual gifts. He began with the children's classics of his era such as Beatrix Potter but later had a special love for Norse mythology and the related music of Richard Wagner. His human desire to be master of his own destiny and free from the external authority of any supernatural being was supplemented by the fashionable skepticism of the age; he became an atheist as an adolescent. But his literary taste and imaginative life ran relatively free of the influence of his philosophical outlook. Thus, on the one hand he read literature and experienced nature as if there was some objective basis for the beauty and harmony he sensed there, while on the other hand he was intellectually convinced that since the material world was all that existed, there could be no real beauty or truth behind the lovely images of art and scenery.

The climax of the book occurs when Lewis is a young academic at Oxford and he realizes that his atheism is untenable. Influenced by intelligent friends who were theists and even Christians, struck by how many of his favorite authors, including Plato, Milton, Spenser, George Herbert, George MacDonald, and G.K. Chesterton were supernaturalists or religious, and having rejected materialism for philosophical idealism, Lewis also felt himself pursued by a personal God. Through reading and meditation, he realized that his lifelong interest in aesthetic ecstasy, or joy, was an expression of the innate longing of mankind for relationship with God, only that he had mistakenly made the experience of joy an end in itself. In reality, this joy or deep desire was a by-product or characteristic of the contemplation of God. Joy cannot be pursued and therefore cannot be captured or achieved. It is like trying to hold water in the palm of one's hand or capture sunshine with a butterfly net. Rather, God is the only thing worth pursuing and when we pursue Him as the supreme end in life, we not only gain snatches of holy joy in the process, but we learn, as did Lewis, that it is really God who has been pursuing us all along.

Surprise by Joy is a masterpiece on many levels--as an account of Edwardian Ireland and England, as a depiction of English boarding school life and the generations of British leaders who emerged from this culture, as a chronicle of the education and literary development of a great English writer and thinker, as an exercise in self-reflection and analysis, and as an unparalleled example of the conversion of a priceless human soul to belief in God. It is one of the best books I have ever read and I recommend it highly.

I have read many of C.S. Lewis' books, and I love them all, including this one, but I have to say that this volume should not be your first C.S. Lewis. The writing is awesome, I loved the book, but I doubt it would interest a reader who knows nothing of Lewis; I could be wrong, though.

I expected a book about Lewis' move from atheism to Christianity, and while there is that in there, there is definitely not as much as you'd be led to believe! Lewis makes clear that he isn't going for a full autobiography, and when it comes to his spirituality, he does not get into much detail. Used to his theology books, I expected a complete explanation of his thoughts and the likes, but of that there was little, so it remained more autobiographical than theological or philosophical.

Because of this, I felt like the book had its "ass between two chairs": not fully autobiographical, and not fully the detailed account of a conversion. I wanted to know more about Lewis' life, and I wanted to know more about his thoughts on atheism, theism, and Christianity. In the end, I wasn't satisfied on either domain.

This sounds rather negative, but I still give the book 5 stars because it was an excellent read. Some parts are truly hilarious, others nearly made me cry. From bad boarding schools to the trenches of World War I, to Oxford, this is quite a journey, and well told.

Recommended for Lewis readers, not so much for others.

I've read Lewis's spiritual autobiography three times in forty years and enjoyed it differently each time. It is among the twenty most influential books I've ever read. Nevertheless, the prospective reader should be warned that this book was not written with the general reader--much less, the modern American general reader--in mind. It's much stiffer going than Screwtape Letters or Mere Christianity and assumes a more sophisticated education than the vast majority of readers will bring to it. (I was amused to discover that on first reading I had scribbled in definitions of words that were unknown to me at the time.) Also, while this work does tell, in Lewis's elliptical fashion, the story of his conversion, he does a poorer job at that task than at revealing the childhood experiences that molded the mature scholar and Christian apologist.

As many have noted, there are parts of this book that tend to drag a bit and are less than gripping. These parts, found mostly in the middle chapters, are the most important descriptions that Lewis gives us in explanation of his conversion. These chapters methodically, if somewhat dryly, layout the thought patterns that Lewis went through in his various stages philosophy. They are the equation of how he got from A to B (including the detours that he took to C, G, and F). If the reader will force himself to read them slowly and methodically, he/she will be rewarded with a much deeper understanding than without.
On the whole, Lewis's account of his conversion is raw and honest. He spares himself no punches in describing his own arrogance and 'priggishness'. The author is upfront in admitting that his memory may be flawed on some items. Some readers may be struck at the author's deep humility at always portraying everyone in his story in the best possible of lights, regardless of any 'deservedness'.
For sheer entertainment value, I found his descriptions of his early childhood, his relationship with his brother and father, and his home and surroundings quite charming. Having never been to Britain, I felt that I was treated to a slice of life I will likely never experience the likes of. His accounts of his life at Wyvern (school) should give all parents pause in considering their own children's education, both academic and social. If there is an "Ah, ha!" moment in this book, for me it is near the end where Lewis proposes that could we (as humans) strip God of all his powers to 'punish' us, that we should still worship and adore, simply because God was God - not because we could be punished (sent to Hell) for doing otherwise. Indeed, Lewis makes clear that Hell is not about geography, but about separation from God, separation from God being the definition of the nature of Hell.
If I have any complaints about this book, it is only one, and is perhaps forgiveable. I was sorely disappointed that Lewis did not include an account of his becoming Christian. While Lewis explains that he felt still too close to explain it, I felt disappointed in some measure. Still, this does not detract from what the book does have to offer, which is quite a lot. There are lessons to be learned and I have little doubt that I will aquire new perspectives upon successive re-readings.

The mark of a good teacher is the degree to which his students learn even when, or especially when, he goes off on a tangent. By that measure, Lewis ranked among the best, and the Medieval cornocopia of miscellaneous ideas that is this book is an education. You learn philosophy, English and Irish topography, education, jokes, a theory of language study, a theory of C.S.Lewis, and most of all, everything you did or did not want to know about literature. Actually, some of what he says on that subject assumes more knowledge than most of us are likely to possess.
Yes, there is also a story here also, about how Lewis searched for Joy and found Jesus instead. (The title is a pun, by the way, worth five stars all by itself.) And the interuptions and detours tend to enhance the reader's appetite for the story, rather than detract from it.
I don't agree with the reader below, or with the criticism in A.N.Wilson's biography which it parallels. Reason clearly played a central role in his conversion. In this book, however, he describes the effect of the reasoning on him, rather than recounting the particular arguments in detail as he has done in other books. He said the book was going to be subjective, even apologized for the fact in the preface! To speak subjectively is not to belittle the objective facts which act on the subject; to make that equation shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Lewis' thought and of thought in general. For example, Lewis describes here how the "most hard-boiled atheist I ever met" came into his room one day and admitted that the evidence for the Gospels was "surprisingly good." Lewis describes his shock, and the effect this idea had on him. But if you want a fuller version of Lewis' reasoning on that subject, written just a little bit later than this book, see his brilliant and devastating little essay, Elephants and Fernseed -- which to my mind drove a stake through the heart of all Higher Criticism, including that written decades after his death, such as Wilson's silly biography of Jesus. Lewis also speaks of the effect the arguments of his Christian friends and the books he read had in converting him to Christianity, but again don't expect him to give you those arguments here.
My one criticism is Lewis ought not to have subjected his father to his satirical and rather cutting brand of humor as he does in a few passages.
Author, True Son of Heaven: How Jesus Fulfills the Chinese Culture

This is a facinating book, but not autobiographical in the typical sense. While he does recount the different people, places, and events of his life (especially his early life), he does so to set in context the ideas he held and the philosphies he was exploring. It was far more important to discuss the thoughts elicited by the events rather than the events themselves. So we do not merely have a recount of Lewis growing up with his brother and father, heading off to boarding school, the military, or college, but rather an exploration of what Lewis was coming to believe in and through these times. There are 2 elements that made the book difficult; 1. without a somewhat intimate knowledge of 19th century literature (especially English), many of Lewis' allusions ring silent, and certainly lose the import they undoubtedly have. This is not Lewis' fault at all, but mine as the reader. 2. His writing style, while descriptive and rich, is sometimes damaged by his many parenthetical statements. Arguments and lines of thought are sometimes very muddled by his injection of anecdotal addendums. While these secondary observations are no doubt important (and worth considering on their own), the frequency of their presence has the unfortunate effect of reducing clarity. Clarity is critical in this book, given the nature of the ideas being sketched, and the occasional lack of clarity is the reason it loses a star. Moving on...there are facets of his life that are simply beautiful, that make you long for a life free of rampant industrialism, commercialism, television, noise, etc. The simple, pure joy of admiring the rolling hillside as you pick your head up from a fantastic book you waited all week to have time to read. An imagination running running wide and deep; the silent bliss of solitude; learning and acquiring knowledge for it's own sake... The book is not easy to read, but it is fascinating to climb inside the mind of one who took ideas seriously (as they should be taken), realizing (contrary to our modern stupidity) that what one thinks and believes has the gravest of effects on the lives we choose to live. The development of his ideas during his college years sometimes moves quickly, and I wanted him to slow down and flesh things out a bit more. All in all, though, I heartily recommend this book to every human being: for the thinker yearning for a compatriot, for the intellectually lazy needing to be shamed for their laziness, for the theist looking for some new angles on the nature of God's presence in the world, for the atheist willing to forgive the nonsensical ramblings of a religious acquaintance and sit down with an equally critical mind, and for everyone else who needs to stop and ponder our human tendencies in close combat with objective truth.

Naturally CS Lewis is interesting -he wrote the fabulous Narnia chronicles and was a respected theologian and scholar. But what about the man?

This book is written by Lewis himself, and describes his early childhood through to about age 24-25. He says how he had three occasions of joy as a child and youth, and sought to find them again. They lifted him up and gave him such a feeling that he wanted to duplicate that emotion. That is the main part of the book but it is with utter fascination that I read about the man himself as well.

As a child he had a whole fantasy world set up, wrote books and maps and craved solitude. His mother died when he was young. He was sent away to boarding school, which was not a happy experience, and after a year in an English public school (which is an absolutely fascinating chapter in itself) begged to be removed for private tuition -he was amazed when his father consented.

He developed a huge love for literature -I never dreamed anyone could read so much. He loved fantasy and occasionally got these bursts of joy when reading or walking in the country (a favourite afternoon pursuit). He was an incredible thinker -very logical and thorough.

Very late in the book there is the discovery of joy through Christianity.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in CS Lewis, and also anyone who wants to gain an insight into the way scholars and theologians think -for me it was a whole new way of looking at things and interpretations -just amazing.

I have not read much CS Lewis (only a few books), so I will not pretend to be an expert about the man, or his writing. I figured that Surprised by Joy would be excellent since it provides a first hand account of the spiritual conversion of CS Lewis. I was not disappointed - it is an interesting read.

I particularly like the fact that Lewis not only describes the environment which influenced his perspective of the world and early decisions in life (his family, the death of his mother, his schooling, etc.). But, he also traces his intellectual journey back to God. The influencers are many - the books he read, the friends he made, the discussions he had, and the observations he made about life. Considered by many to be one of the best thinkers and writers of the last century it was fascinating to see the progression of Lewis' thinking about the world in which we live and the God who made it.

I highly recommend this book for any CS Lewis fan (I am rapidly becoming a bigger one), or any one who is having an intellectual struggle with believing that God exists. This book may help you unpack some of the baggage that the world presents about this topic. A short word of warning - if you are looking for some "light" reading this book is not a very good choice. I am not surprised that some reviewers found the book boring - it is not suitable for all tastes.

You do not need a PhD to read this book! If you have difficulty with this book, what you may need is patience, a dictionary, and Wikipedia. Yes, there are many references, and complexities, and subtleties. But, please try looking at the book's depth as part of the fun. Approach the book to learn from it, to sit at CS Lewis' feet as an apprentice, not to merely be comforted or entertained. If one puts forth a little effort, you may be rewarded with a glimpse of the world from CS Lewis' eyes - and maybe Narnia.

I love all things CS Lewis. Surprised by Joy is his finest work in my opinion. Not only is it great in and of itself, but it also added to my depth and understanding of Lewis' other works, rekindling my love and increasing my appreciation.

This is the firsthand account of how C.S. Lewis passed from Atheism through to Theism, and onward to Christianity. Lewis says in the Preface that he knew of no autobiography in which the parts devoted to the earlier years were not by far the most interesting. As such, the entire first half of his own consists of a detailed recollection of childhood and adolescence. The second half is devoted to tracing his adult intellectual interests and particularly to recounting the thought processes which led him in his thirtieth year to a profound conversion experience.
Lewis said "How far the story matters to anyone but myself depends on the degree to which others have experienced what I call 'joy'." By "joy" he was referring to his concept of "sehnsucht" a German word that came closest to the sense of yearning or longing that Lewis felt as early on as six years old. Sehnsucht is an experience difficult to define... it is a longing for an object which is never fully given, coupled with a sense of alienation or displacement from what is desired. Perhaps another way of describing it could be a ceaseless yearning which always points beyond itself. It is this elusive nature of sehnsucht that Lewis had in mind when he (in typical brevity) coined the phrase "our best havings are wantings." At any rate, sehnsucht or "joy" was such a crucial element in the development of Lewis that we find it here in the title of his life story, and the "surprise" for him was in the gradual realization that joy (as such) was not foreign, contrary to, unaddressed by or otherwise OPPOSED to theism. In fact, Lewis began to see that the most religious writers (Plato, Aeschylus, Virgil, Spenser, Milton, Sir Thomas Browne, Herbert, Donne, Chesterton, MacDonald) were those in whom he found the most kinship in this respect, while those who did not "suffer from religion" (Shaw, Gibbon, Voltaire, Wells, John Stuart Mill) seemed as nourishing as old dishwater. He concluded that "A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading."
Even though the book is never preachy, I believe that the above conclusion applies to any atheist that reads Surprised By Joy through to the end. As with other writings by Lewis, Christianity emerges as something that actually makes a lot of sense. It's not until the last page that Lewis takes this final step, and his theism becomes "not a god, but God." My title for this review is taken from that last page, where Lewis describes what happens when one accepts the Incarnation.

This book is essential for anyone curious about the life of Lewis. Or anyone who his a fan of his thought.
This book is a bout the life and conversion of Lewis, told as an autobiography, as opposed to an allegory as in "Pilgrim's Regress." It culminates with Lewis's conversion to Anglican Christianity:
"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling . . . the steady, unrelenting approach of Him who I so earnestly desired not to meet. . . I [finally] gave in and admitted that God was God, and I knelt a prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not see then what is now the most shining and obvious thing: the Divine humility will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?"
This book, however is not religious mumbo-jumbo, and is not just strictly a religious text, but it encompasses other aspects of Lewis's life: his experience as a son, a brother, a student, an intellectual freebooter, etc.
On a human level, this book has touched and resonated with me more than any other book I have read, outside of Scripture. I have experienced many of the same things Lewis had experienced. In a slightly different way, and in a different order, but there was enough of the essence of the events to harmonize with me. I almost felt that I was Lewis in a way.
Even if you are a non-Christian, non-believer, or a non-interested person, I recommend this book as part of one humans experience in life, as one slice of humanity!

Surprised By Joy is a moving and thought-provoking intellectual, and ultlmately (stemming from the transformation of the intellect over time) spiritual autobiography. Like most of Lewis's works it is an engrossing book written in envigorating and lucid prose. Of all the books coming out of the growing "Lewis industry" there are none that do a better job of biography than this short work by the man himself.

Lewis tells the story of his life up until he found true joy in following Jesus Christ. From his misty early memories of playing with his brother, to his time in school, Lewis gives his personal history a rigorous and reflective once-over. Along the way, he encounters many sign posts, all of which lead to his eventual encounter with Christ.

In school I once had a class on Christian Mythopoeic authors. We studied four: George MacDonald, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams at length. Each of us were given two huge projects on which our grades depended. Mine were to research and present on C.S. Lewis and Frederick Buechner.

I got to know the works by and about both men quite well.

Many Lewis biographers focus a lot of their time on Lewis's schooling experiences. This is probably because of their salacious "shock value." But focusing solely on those experiences without getting the point of what Lewis is saying in this book (as so many do) is a massive example of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

True, Lewis, like any autobiographer, has some axes to grind (and in my opinion is more than just in doing so), but he also has a most vital message to share:

Behind all of our longings, even our sufferings, is the unimaginable possibility of true, pure, radiant joy.

On another note, I found that Surprised By Joy is itself a great reading list for works in the "Northern" and mythopoeic fields. Lewis was nothing if not well read, and he shares his intelectual evolution (and the works involved) in this book.

I will leave you with a favorite quote of mine from this book. The set up, is that a former schoolmate of Lewis's (who became the Archbishop of Dublin) and Lewis are sitting together at the funeral of a horrid man who had once been their very abusive schoolmaster:

"Speaking of Oldee's death, I said to him, "Well, we shan't see him again."

"You mean," he answered with a grim smile, "we hope we shan't."

I give this book my full recommendation.

For the past couple weeks I have been reading Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis. I really enjoyed this autobiographical account of his early life. I've read many of his books, both for children and adults. I gained a lot of insights into the origins of his books and personality. It was refreshing to see the humanity in a man so revered, and to see how he became a writer. This book is truly the story of his search for Joy, and ends with his belief in God and conversion to Christianity. It was really interesting to see how he came to faith through the books he read, through serious reasoning, discussion, and debate. At many times in this book I was reminded of the long philosophical discussions that college students love to have long into the night. This book was very different from any other book I've read by Lewis, but his admirers will find this book a fascinating look into his personal life.

Surprised By Joy is a moving and thought-provoking intellectual, and ultlmately (stemming from the transformation of the intellect over time) spiritual autobiography. Like most of Lewis's works it is an engrossing book written in envigorating and lucid prose. Of all the books coming out of the growing "Lewis industry" there are none that do a better job of biography than this short work by the man himself.

Lewis tells the story of his life up until he found true joy in following Jesus Christ. From his misty early memories of playing with his brother, to his time in school, Lewis gives his personal history a rigorous and reflective once-over. Along the way, he encounters many sign posts, all of which lead to his eventual encounter with Christ.

In school I once had a class on Christian Mythopoeic authors. We studied four: George MacDonald, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams at length. Each of us were given two huge projects on which our grades depended. Mine were to research and present on C.S. Lewis and Frederick Buechner.

I got to know the works by and about both men quite well.

Many Lewis biographers focus a lot of their time on Lewis's schooling experiences. This is probably because of their salacious "shock value." But focusing solely on those experiences without getting the point of what Lewis is saying in this book (as so many do) is a massive example of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

True, Lewis, like any autobiographer, has some axes to grind (and in my opinion is more than just in doing so), but he also has a most vital message to share:

Behind all of our longings, even our sufferings, is the unimaginable possibility of true, pure, radiant joy.

On another note, I found that Surprised By Joy is itself a great reading list for works in the "Northern" and mythopoeic fields. Lewis was nothing if not well read, and he shares his intelectual evolution (and the works involved) in this book.

I will leave you with a favorite quote of mine from this book. The set up, is that a former schoolmate of Lewis's (who became the Archbishop of Dublin) and Lewis are sitting together at the funeral of a horrid man who had once been their very abusive schoolmaster:

"Speaking of Oldee's death, I said to him, "Well, we shan't see him again."

"You mean," he answered with a grim smile, "we hope we shan't."

I give this book my full recommendation.

For the past couple weeks I have been reading Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis. I really enjoyed this autobiographical account of his early life. I've read many of his books, both for children and adults. I gained a lot of insights into the origins of his books and personality. It was refreshing to see the humanity in a man so revered, and to see how he became a writer. This book is truly the story of his search for Joy, and ends with his belief in God and conversion to Christianity. It was really interesting to see how he came to faith through the books he read, through serious reasoning, discussion, and debate. At many times in this book I was reminded of the long philosophical discussions that college students love to have long into the night. This book was very different from any other book I've read by Lewis, but his admirers will find this book a fascinating look into his personal life.

CS Lewis never ceases to amaze me with his sincerity and utter humility. His genuine goodness is clear in all his works, but even more so in this. Surprised by Joy is an autobiographical book in which Lewis relates the events of his early life--particularly those which led to his eventual return to Christianity. As usual, he is frank and very analytical of all that happened as he first lost his faith, and then found it again.
Lewis talks about many events which led him to question the existence of God, and he explores what may have motivated his way of thinking. His candid analysis of these events provides some wonderful insights. He also explains how he gradually was brought back into the fold of Christianity, and how he reluctantly embraced God once again as "the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."
Though this is an autobiography and strays considerably from the format of Lewis's theological works, there still is a significant amount of theology involved. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in theology, especially Christianity. For fans of CS Lewis, this is a must have!

Lewis points out in "Mere Christianity" that mankind's worst sin is pride (setting his will before God's will)because ir is the root of all other sins. In "Surprised By Joy", Lewis describes his own willfullness, arrogance and pride as he wanders through his search for Joy down all manner of intellectual and aesthetic blind alleys. At last, having exhausted all options, he reluctantly surrenders and then, at last, finds the Joy he had been so diligently seeking. While the facts differ, Lewis' story is a familiar one to many of us who simply were unable to accept what was readily available without wasting time, energy and emotion first. Lewis' story is a reminder of the nature of Grace, freely given to the willing recipient. As with everything Lewis wrote, the prose is wonderful, the references challenging and Lewis' mental workings amazing. This is not the easiest reading and not the best introduction to the author (Screwtape and Mere Christianity are better for that purpose), but the volume is extremely rewarding, especially for one who identified with the journey described.

Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis is a book that binds Christianity and philosophy like many say can't be done. The brilliance of C.S. Lewis is once again displayed in this most enthralling novel. Surprised by Joy is not like most other books by Lewis in that it is not a fantasy or a book for the theologen. It is really a book for a person struggling with the philosophical aspects of Christianity. Surprised by Joy is the story of C.S. Lewis' early life. It tells the story right from his early childhood on into the years of his service in the war and his college years. Lewis is very descriptive and paints a very vivid image of his early years in life. Lewis' brilliance is one thing that cannot be disputed. This book details his turn from Christianity to atheism and then back to Christianity. Lewis describes his struggles of mind about the belief in the supernatural. He describes how he came to realize that in reality to deny the supernatural becomes the absurdity. Overall this is a great book for any of those who feel Christianity is absurd or for those who struggle with the validity of the Christian faith. I recommend to all.

This is C. S. Lewis's spiritual autobiography and it is a masterpiece. Lewis was raised in a somewhat nominal Christianity, which he threw off as a school-boy. But as Lewis says, "A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There were traps everywhere - 'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and strategems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." And this book is Lewis's chronicle of God's strategems and nets and the surprises which eventually converted Lewis back to Christianity. Central to this process was Lewis's experience of joy, which he defines as "an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction." As a boy and as a man, Lewis was stabbed by this desire, yet never able to satisfy it. By a process of elimination, he came to realize that (as he says in another book) "if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." The desire led him to the Objective Other - the Absolute - Spirit. At first, Lewis viewed this Other as an impersonal and objective absolute. But, God strategically boxed him into a corner (Lewis uses the analogy of check-mate in a game of chess) where he was forced to acknowledge that this Other was God Himself, and beyond that, God enfleshed in Jesus Christ. Woven into the story are the events of Lewis's childhood, education, and intellectual development. Quite a lot of the discussion centers around his reading, from Beatrix Potter as a child, to Keats, Herbert, MacDonald, and Chesterton as a young adult. This is a fascinating book and one cannot quite hope to fully appreciate Lewis without reading it. I highly recommend it!

As much as C.S. Lewis hems and haws in his preface about how suffocatingly subjective and uninteresting this book will be to many readers, there are few books in Lewis' corpus that I have gleaned more joy and help from. Lewis takes us on a tour through his adventures in joy, that peculiar longing for something that is itself more enjoyable than the thing longed for, this desire that he found ultimately only has its fulfillment in Christ, as joy is merely a longing for the heavenly. He brilliantly analyzes his earlier life, exposing his childhood follies and rejoicing in his youthful literary loves; several times I found myself laughing out loud about similar mistakes and mishaps I had fallen into. He scatters his typically brilliant social commentary and theological insight throughout the work, and a chapter never goes by without gaining a preciously helpful understanding of some important topic. This book is easily among the top three autobiographies I have ever read.

"I have tried so to write the first chapter that those who can't bear such a story will see at once what they are in for and close the book with the least waste of time." Go ahead and read that first chapter. You won't want to stop.

This is not a novel and not really an autobiography, but rather a first-hand account of one man's journey from atheism to belief in God (Christianity came much later and is not covered in this book--for that, read his many religious works). I discovered this little gem while living in Scotland, at a time when I was neck-deep in the pit of atheism and feeling almost totally lost. I don't know why I was moved to take it off the shelf and buy it, but it was to be only the first of Lewis's books that I read. It's still my favorite because its theme is so close to me.

What makes Lewis's book so remarkable is his unashamed honesty and willingness to shed all masks in the face of reality, no matter how unpleasant or frightening that reality may first seem. Lewis did not want to find God, and we feel with him that burning desire to run away once God has been discovered. The wonderful lightness and love that characterize many of Lewis's later works are not found here. Instead we see his defenses against God shattered one by one as he follows an intellectual path to belief. He tries his best to argue his way out of it, fighting every step of the way and using all the trivial excuses that human beings use, but we feel God's presence bearing down on him step by step like a great weight until he realizes that there is no escape. Lewis sees that it is indeed a burden at first if one has come to it honestly, because with it comes the realization that we are required to abandon ourselves and submit to God's will in order to find eternal peace. This is not an easy road for a human being to follow -- indeed, it is the most difficult thing in the world, and Lewis knew that very well. We feel with him the pain and weight that came when he realized that there IS a God: the account of his final days as an atheist is absolutely excruciating for a reader who has had the same experience.

Lewis's account of his spiritual journey shows that God can be discovered in the most unlikely places and in the most unlikely ways, no matter how hard we try to avoid Him. When we think we have trumped God, we find that He has in fact trumped us, always remaining well ahead of us on the path. Lewis's account often reads like a great chess match between one man and God, but it remains familiar because it is a match that we play again and again. As always, Lewis's honesty is disarming, his insight staggering, and his humor refreshing. I cannot recommend this book enough, but if you are looking for a biography of Lewis's life, this will not provide it. For that I recommend George Sayer's study, but the best way to find out who Lewis was is to read his books.

I'm a huge C.S. Lewis fan, however like most people who reviewed this book, I did start to trail off when reading the middle chapters of this book. In the first 8-10 chapters of this book Lewis focuses on his life as a child and the pages seem to fly by.
The same thing goes for the last 4-5 chapters where we finally get the details of his coming back to Christianity. However, the few chapters in the middle of the book are filled with Lewis' definitions and opinions on a lot of different topics and though they are relevant to the mindset of Lewis' thoughts, the chapters do not follow along with the story-telling element he so well utilized in the other chapters of the book. Not that that's a bad thing, but for those reader who were expecting to read a certain type of book from beginning to end (myself included), it's kind of confusing to adjust to and is probably a major reason why some people don't recommend this book.
Now don't get me wrong, this book is very touching and is a very worth-while read. However, if you plan to read this book, you may also want to make sure you're ready to read two different types of writing in the same book.
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A very interesting look into the early life and later conversion of C.S. Lewis. The book is not at all typical Lewis - this is much more of a personal examination of his family life and education and ultimately his pursuit of joy or meaning in life. It was very interesting to see the path of his life and those individuals that clearly helped shape his thinking and understanding along the way - most importantly his relationship with his brother and his father (his mother passed away while he was a youth). Lewis is such a gifted writer and communicator - many times throughout the book he was able to transport my imagination to the hills of Ireland or the boarding house in England with his vivid descriptions of places and people. Lewis was a very diligent student, dedicated to learning and obviously gifted with an incredible mind that has greatly been used by the Lord to challenge and encourage countless others following his conversion.

The book is not at all an easy read, but for those Lewis admirers, the book is semi-autobiographical and well worth the time and effort. Plus, if you read Surprised by Joy, I guarantee that your vocabulary will increase by at least a dozen words!

Required reading for anyone interested in C.S. Lewis' serpentine journey to faith. A delightful description of what it was like growing up in early 20th-century Ireland for a middle-class boy. A keen look at the much-maligned (and rightfully so) English public school system. A reminder of how invaluable we are to one another in thinking critically about matters of belief.

And just pure Lewis from start to finish.

This is C.S. Lewis's autobiography on his journey from atheism to theism to Christianity. What more do I need to say to get you to read this book?

I loved this book, but it was not as easy a read as I thought it would be. Lewis is immersed in authors and poems that I've never heard of, and he assumes the reader is following along nicely. He name-drops more than a D-list celebrity at the Green Room club on Hollywood Boulevard. While the reader need not know all the poems referenced, it would help understand Lewis's train of thought better. At the very least, one would need to understand Romanticism to a beginning degree to follow along.

Throughout his school life, Lewis continues to search for Joy (his capitalization) that connects to something in our hearts for something bigger. This Joy turned to be our heart's longing for its Creator.

Here are a few excerpts that show the power of Lewis to turn a phrase:

"All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still "about to be."

"Joy is not a substitute for sex; sex is very often a substitute for Joy. I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy."

"The horror of the Christian universe was that it had no door marked Exit."

"A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere...God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous."

"The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation."

I've never been much of a reader of C. S. Lewis. I've heard a few quotes attributed to him that seemed very insightful and wise to me, and I once tried to read The Screwtape Letters before becoming bored and giving it up. Nor did I find his Narnia stories to be particularly enticing (I preferred Tolkien). Nonetheless, I've heard a little history about him and thought this short autobiography might be interesting.

This is only an account of his early life and eventual rejections of atheism. He speaks of his childhood, the memories he has of his mother who died while he was young, of his father whom he found to be rather overbearing, and his brother and their attendance at boarding schools. I found it a bit difficult to follow or understand some of his stories of school or when he slipped into discussing the imaginary world he had already begun to develop, but it seemed to be an honest telling even when some details must have been embarrassing. The latter half of the book deals more with his intellectual and spiritual conversion to belief in God, and this became even harder to follow. I'm not a student of philosophy and he was evidently on a far higher level of thinking than I am.

Overall, I found myself rather bored and disappointed with the book (I listened to the audio book narrated by Geoffrey Howard). I'm a Christian but wasn't looking for an inspiring conversion story (especially one that was so cerebral). I would have preferred to learn more about his life, and those parts were the more interesting to me.

This is an autobiography of the early years of C.S. Lewis. It describes the process that took place in his conversion to Christianity.

Lewis stipulates that the book is part biography and part a tale of his conversion from atheist to Christian. Early on it appears that it is all biography. But, indeed, upon reaching the end you realize that Lewis has been setting the stage to describe his conversion.

He was raised as a literary intellectual. He developed into a young man that neither sought nor believed in a God. His self-reliance and atheism grew in parallel with his intellect.

Lewis was firm and confident in his belief of atheism. He actually went on an intellectual excursion to prove his position. It was during his journey to disprove God that he found Him. He did not have an instantaneous conversion to Christ from atheism. His conversion can best be described as a scholarly process. He went from self-reliance, to there WAS a disinterested creator, to there IS a disinterested creator to, that creator is a vengeful God, to that creator is a loving God, to that loving God sent Christ to reconcile us. This was a very academic process for him and took several years.

If you are looking for a good biography of Lewis this is not it. This book has more to do with his alteration. While he does offer many personal details of his life he only provides that information that paints a picture pointing to his conversion.

Many people have written much about C S Lewis, and due to his wide appeal we have books on him from virtually every segment of the Christian world. Which leaves the aspiring Lewis devotee with a problem: Who to believe? For, as A N Wilson has rightly pointed out: `Two totally different Lewises are being revered by the faithful.' Lewis himself has solved the problem many years before his death by writing this autobiography. It is a work of art in every sense of the word, and even though essentially an autobiography, filled with so much truth and clear Lewisian thinking that authors quote it as though it were a scholarly work.
Lewis traces his path from his early years in Belfast all the way to his conversion in England 31 years later. The book tells little of the relationships in his life, and one who has read widely on Lewis cannot help but wonder about other obvious omissions and evasions. However, we are given the Lewis as Lewis wanted to give him, and that is what makes this book unique.
Whilst reading it, I was reminded of Lewis' own advice in his Preface to St Athanasius's 'The Incarnation of the Word of God', later published as a chapter (`On the Reading of Old Books') in 'First and Second Things' (ed. Walter Hooper), 1984. It remains to me the final and authoritative words on why Surprised by Joy is the most important book on Lewis' life, straight from the horse's mouth: "... I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator."
Makes you think, doesn't it?

Is it no wonder that C.S. Lewis NEVER fails to impress me? I have yet to finish anything by this man that I didn't love! What I've always enjoyed was simply the challenge of what I read by Lewis. Never that easy of a read, but always worthwhile if you take the time, and always an inspiration. When a great novelist like Dean Koontz can quote this man, you KNOW he is at least thought provoking, if not so much more!

So, YOU want to know about C.S. Lewis? When you wanted to know about C.S. Lewis, look no further than "Surprised by Joy". He loved to read the trilogy of Edith Nesbit, and says that at one point, "Seigfried and the Twilight of the Gods" book was more important than his doubts about Christianity. Meaning that he cared more about Mythological Norse gods that he didn't believe in, than in a true God he should have believed in. Sounds pretty worldly, but at least he admitted such things. Would many of us today as Christians admit a thing like that? There is nothing more than knee buckling from a man such as Lewis, and it proves he was human, not just the legend we read in awe. This work is partly the HEART of when Lewis was an atheist! I guess anyone who claims to never have sinned has never read the likes of this man, and then experienced the humility. For me it was close to gut wrenching. C.S. Lewis was for real, and he had real problems, and he wrote so many books on so many subjects. That would not only make him a great author, as well as a great Theologian, but also a man of great experience, and that is not to be underestimated!

Here is a statement he made about himself without Christ, and about our free will. "Without words and (I think) almost without images, a fact about myself was presented to me. I became aware that I was holding something at bay, or shutting something out. Or, if you like, that I was wearing some stiff clothing, like corsets, or even a suit of armor, or if I were a lobster. I felt myself being, there and then, given a free choice. I could open the door or keep it shut; I could unbuckle the armor or keep it on." That means you have the choice to accept God or shut Him out. C.S. Lewis is a tough author, but he makes it pretty clear with that statement. Then he blew me away with this self-examination of himself. See if this statement doesn't knock your socks off! "For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. And there I found what appalled me; a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was Legion." And I read THAT saying WHAT?! This is the great C.S. Lewis, the man that we as Christians put on a literal pedestal, and you have to realize that YES!!!, like the rest of us, he was just a human. Lewis was just your average Joe, then he found something awesome, that something was Jesus Christ.

Through Christ, Lewis did amazing things. And he was indeed, an ordinary person who did some extraordinary things! This was just one of those things, and it will get the attention of the masses!

The formatting of this product is unappealing. And the type is so small I didn't even bother trying to read it. Instead, I gave it to a neighbor who has a magnifying glass. I'll be purchasing this title from another publisher.

This short book takes us from Lewis' early atheism to his later belief in God and ultimately, we know, to his belief in Christianity. Like all of his works, this book is clear and engaging to read, and often thought-provoking.
Unfortunately, I cannot give it my highest recommendation. Though I enjoy most of Lewis' works, this one fell a bit short for me. I had trouble believing Lewis was ever really an atheist, or even an agnostic. Perhaps that is partly by design, but I rather think that Lewis was trying to make his conversion seem a greater alteration than it was. Compared to the "great" conversions of St. Paul or St. Augustine, this one pales in comparison.
Also, this book is rather unfairly included with religious works, and while religion is one of its topics--and its organizing principle--Lewis is interested in other ideas, including education and child rearing. So much has changed in these 2 areas over the last 50 years or so, that I found much of those sections in the book uninteresting. Still, for Lewis fans, this is a book you should read. However, if you are looking for an introduction to Lewis' Christian thought, you'd be better of with Mere Christianity.

This is a great book by a great writer, telling both of CS Lewis's life, including his education and his experiences as a front-line soldier in World War I, and his discovery of "Joy" and the sense of the scared, and his final conversion from Athiesm to Christiantiy. Full of wisdom, humor and fascinating historical description. His descriptions of his father, mother and brother, including his reaction to his mother's early death, are poignant and moving. He tells, also, of what it was really like to be a yong officer in the trenches of World War I, in which he was seriously wounded. In another key, how to really learn a difficult foreign language. This is a book to treasure and to read again and again.

"Surprised by Joy" is C.S. Lewis' auto-biographical book about the early, formational years of his life, which began with a vaguely religious upbringing, led into devout Atheism, and ended in Christ's drawing Lewis home. This book is excellent as auto-biographies (Christian or non-Christian) go as C.S. Lewis was one of the 20th Century's best story-tellers and an amazingly well-read professor at Oxford as well. Whether the reader is a Christian or not, C.S. Lewis makes this story entertaining and thought-provoking.
For those readers who have come to believe in Jesus Christ as Man's only possible salvation, this book will leave them marvelling repeatedly at how Christ works in the lives of those he calls. Any Christian reader of "Surprised by Joy" will find numerous similarities in the path C.S. Lewis' salvation took him down, and a Christian reader can't help but want to join him in praising Christ for his awesome goodness in the lives of human beings he touches.
One fascinating element in C.S. Lewis' life, which is so encouraging for Christians in a post-Christian era, is that Lewis was raised by brilliant men to be constantly curious but always logical... always seeking the truth. One of the men Christ used the most in saving C.S. Lewis was a staunch Atheist; a dry, pensive, professor who demanded a rigid adherence to logic in any belief or action. This man, the "Great Knock", as Lewis, his brother, and their father called him, was so influential in Lewis' mental development that Lewis devotes a whole chapter ("The Great Knock") to discussion of him. How fascinating that whereas many today believe a rigorous pursuit of knowledge and facts leads to agnosticism, in the life of the greatest Christian apologist of the 20th Century it led to a belief in the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.
This is a book that I would recommend to anyone, but as "a must" to any Christian. While "Mere Christianity" is C.S. Lewis' best-selling book, and arguably has initiated more paths to Christ than any other book outside the Bible, "Surprised by Joy" presents a more complete understanding of those paths and their ultimate result.

I love CS Lewis but this one was a bit problematic and he is fully aware it. I will explain shortly.

'Joy' is a semi-autobiography of Lewis' journey from faith to atheism and back. It traces his inner and outer journey from childhood to adulthood and the corresponding spiritual maturation. He uses his characteristic rationality and objectivity along with acute self-awareness to explain how God 'conspired' to reel him into the ranks of the faithful through books, mentors, self-indulgence, family and friends.

The problem is that the journey is unavoidably subjective and can alienate readers who simply can't relate to his intellectualism and elitist education - there's even a hint of the prevailing view of race of the time. Lewis doesn't attempt to universalize his experience which, while sincere, can make one question the point of the book. You might question the inclusion of certain details - but with effort they do seem to have a place in the text. But as said - Lewis is fully aware of the risk he took.

Still, theists can leave with a deeper view (as I did) of how God pursues us. One reflects upon their own conversion with new insight and gratitiude. That God is present in everything and touches each one in a unique but apt way is re-inforced. You also get quite alot of insight into the man behind his many other writings and some of the inspiration for those writings ('The Inner Ring' speech seemed inspired by his academic life).

Non-believers may not be very convinced. But some may find striking similarities in thought. You could close the book somewhat paranoid about how God is 'coming to get you'.

The one Universal theme that does cross all boundaries is of course Joy. Lewis seems to imply that it is the one thing we all seek in this life, and often, in the wrong places. He suggests that if we are honest about where joy is and isn't - we may eventually be led (inevitably?) to God himself. I suggest you try it out for yourself to see if you will be Surprised by Joy.

C.S. Lewis is probably my favorite author, so I suppose it only fitting for this to be my favorite autobiography. While not having a terribly noteworthy childhood, or even adulthood sans writing career, Lewis still manages to pull the reader into a life that is largely lived nowhere else but inside the authors' head. It was a bit melancholy, as most life stories in this fallen world can be, but not overly so, and the gradual unfolding of how God dealt with a crusty old godless bachelor is the story within the story that gives it hope and energy. Even if you don't like Lewis, you can still appreciate the spiritual revival and awakening told with a wry and dry English voice.

Mr. Lewis' journey from Atheism to Theism and lastly to Christianity was impressive. With his knack for story telling, his childhood was an absolute marvel, narrated from a child's point of view. His early life was nicely laid out, full of purities from a boy's sense of judgment. This was a man who loved to be alone all his life. He didn't mind being by himself because his love for reading, writing, and drawing was immense. The time of war brought him up fantastically where he began to develop a few friendships with certain individuals. Later as a lecturer he expanded his camaraderie with more people who shared his affection towards literature, languages, and philosophy such as Tolkien. The most beautifully written chapter was the final one where Mr. Lewis adeptly summarized his search for his own Joy. He dwelled on matters he thought important and mentioned in passing of happenings or people that were less significant in his mind. All in all, the question asked of him of his conversion to Christianity was duly and brilliantly answered in this book.

C.S. Lewis has written a masterpiece on the subject of one man's conversion to Christianity. Not only that, it is a must-read for any fan of Lewis, for it sheds a great deal of light on his early life and biography. It follows Lewis from childhood to his conversion to Christianity as an adult professor, tracing the influences on his philisophical and religious thinking along the way. It is in my mind a modern Augustine's "Confessions". Lewis writes, as usual, with great candor and his usual lucid, easy to follow prose that takes complex issues and makes them understandable to everyone. This style has made him one of the finest Christian authors. His 'Mere Christianity' and 'Screwtape Letters' are other examples of his books that challenge a reader's religious philosophy. Of course, Lewis is more famous in most circles for his 'Narnia' books, which are also great, but it is his philisophical and deeply personal treatment of Christianity that makes him one of the greats.
Highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to see how one man made his journey to belief and/or wants to learn more about C.S. Lewis, the man.

The item i ordered was said to be in "good" condition, but describing the item i received as "acceptable" would be very generous. The book i received had stained and folded pages with some writing inside. The cover looks like it has taken significant damage over the years as well. Be wary of anything you buy from -Books in the Balance-

Having recently read Lewis' autobiography and George Sayer's biography of Lewis, I have to agree with Sayer that Lewis' account of his own life is interesting, but largely unbalanced. The majority of Lewis' autobiography examines his childhood, and of that the majority is given to Lewis' trials at public schools. Much of Lewis' purpose in writing, according to Sayer, is cathartic--Lewis is attempting to alleviate himself of the spiritual burdens of his past. This interpretation does not seem farfetched considering that Lewis himself admits that the experiences of childhood do much to shape our adult character and personality. It is also bolstered by the fact that so much of Lewis' writing was a self-acknowledged spiritual exercise. Despite the unbalanced nature of the book, it is very helpful in understanding Lewis' other books, in particular his fiction and theological writings. I found that reading Sayer after reading Lewis was very helpful in filling in the gaps I wanted Lewis to write about, which he did not.

I might not have been surprised by joy as I read this book - it was far to factually autobiographical for me, and not what I expected - but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed parts of it.

Both Lewis's description of his childhood education (and the hotbed of homo-eroticism that private boys-only schools were) was brilliant and non-judgemental and his glossed-over, but no less harrowing, account of his experience in WW1, provided an intriguing glimpse into a byone era.

Perhaps this was my biggest problem with the book - I expected a deeply inspiring, imaginative and very personal account of his spiritual awakening. Instead, this book is mainly autbiographical with a few paragraphs here and there covering his spiritual journey. Emotion was thin on the ground - intellectual scholarship was densely packed into each sentence.

Thanks to my long ago classical studies I could wade through the allusions without getting too lost, but still ... I wanted to be inspired, to feel what Lewis felt as he journeyed back to his God.

Instead, it took me nearly two weeks to struggle through it because as a rule, I don't read autobiographies. Ultimately, this was more biographical than it was spiritual and thus SURPRISED BY JOY didn't meet my expectations as a reader.

(This review is for the Kindle edition)

Far from being the typical "spiritual journey" book, C.S. Lewis captures, with his customary wit, the essence of his early life through adolescence which helped to shape his faith.
The preface is rather self-effacing, but not without some merit. Toward the end of the book his thoughts seem a bit more stream-of-consciousness and the transition from "a boy's life" to "concerned theologian" is not quite smooth, from a reader's perspective.
However, overall this is a very worthy read for anyone interested in C.S. Lewis or journeys in and out of atheism/agnosticism.

CS Lewis is a master wordsmith as a reading of this book will show. The way he puts together his words is delightful and impressive. However, the main merits of this book are not its tone or style but its content. This is CS Lewis' autobiography, yet it's not a proper autobiography. Most autobiographies follow a "I did this, then I did this" format. Lewis, on the other hand, tells the story of his life but in a pointed manner. His life is told with the perspective of his search for "joy" (later, for truth and his theology) always at the forefront. Lewis' transition from atheist to christian is told in a gentle manner, really in the way, it seems, it happened in real life--without much hype; simply through reasoning, thinking, and dialoguing with colleagues and friends. I give it a 4 out of 5 rating only because I would have liked more time spent on the thinking behind his conversion.

A challenging and exciting read for Christians and non-christians everywhere.

Not all of Lewis's experience will be interesting to the average reader. You have to be somewhat of a Lewis lover to fully appreciate this book about his gradual acceptance of Christianity. I greatly appreciated the book for its openness to mythology as the road that led Lewis to Christianity, where he believed he found the fulfillment of all he longed for in mythology. For Lewis, Christianity was the place where myth became fact. The book also provides an immense argument to support the importance of art and aesthetics, based on the divine role they played in this great man's life.

Lewis continues to amaze me in all of his works. This is his autobiography, but actually his account of his conversion from agnostism to Christianity. The first few chapters are a little slow, although it is interesting to find out how this genius grew up. It also neat to find out who Lewis' greatest influences were -- his teachers, Chesterton, Tolkien, Johnson, Herbert, MacDonald. The chapter "Checkmate" contains the meat of the work and if one were to read any of the book, this portion is exceptional. In fact, I read that chapter over and over and over. Yep.

Definitely not the lightest read in the world, but when are Lewis' nonfiction works ever light? The chapters about his schooling are a little difficult to understand if you're not familiar with the English schooling system, but I can honestly say I never got bored reading about his experiences. Also, if you're familiar with his other works, you know that he draws allusions from every sort book he's read in his past. I think he could have been a little more sensitive to those who aren't familiar with practically every type of Greek, Norse, and Irish mythology and English literature ever written! I found myself skipping over references of these kinds, wishing I had read as much as he had before picking up this particular book.

But! Enough ranting. Lewis is without a doubt my favorite writer of all time, and one can't help but to feel his heart through the pages of this book. Not to mention, this was definitely the funniest of his works I have come across to date. I found myself laughing out loud several times throughout many of the chapters. His wit and charm and great intellect pour out of this book. All-in-all, I believe it will be a fantastic and charming read for any fan of C.S. Lewis.

C.S. Lewis, who for fifty years has been considered one of the great Christian philosophers of our time, was best known for his fiction, next for his theology, finally for his literary criticism. A member of the Oxford literary group known as "The Inklings" (which included J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams), in his lifetime Lewis' work became popular worldwide--as his companions considered at first, an unfitting popularity.

In his autobiography Surprised by Joy, written at 57, Lewis offers explanations for his history, his faith, and the themes in his work. It is arranged chronologically, which is sensible enough for a narrative; however, it's less suitable for commentary: it ends a bit abruptly when he has caught up with himself. Moreover, the story is frequently interrupted for a long piece of not perfectly relevant philosophy. Generally, it doesn't bear the mark of craftsmanship.

The actual details, on the other hand, are sufficiently compelling to pull the story along. Lewis' writing style is in top form for precision and eloquence. About halfway through, we realize that although it's marketed as an autobiography, the book is mostly concerned with his journey from agnosticism to theism to Christianity. As the book progresses past his childhood, details about his life and interests are dropped in favour of documenting a mental progression.

This is not to say that only the particularly religious, or even just the devoutly Christian, will be interested. If anything, the opposite. Lewis' coming to faith proves surprisingly inclusive of various positions. The events that press him forward are recognizably intellectual, but there are certainly many who have found themselves in the same positions and with the same obstacles as Lewis faced.

As a child growing up in Ireland, Lewis' schooling was very hard but very thorough, due in no small part to the poverty of the schools, the competition of the classes of students, and even the incompetence of his teachers in dealing with children. One later teacher, affectionately called "The Great Knock" (who greatly contributed to Lewis' famous classicism), makes the prediction which threatens more and more students today: "You'll never make anything of him but a writer or a scholar." His mother died when he was ten, and in his adolescence he was sent to serve in the Great War.

Finally he wound up in England (which he originally loathed), where he began his simultaneously academic, literary, and theological careers in earnest.
The main events already thirty years behind him, Lewis makes little attempt to stray from his purpose into the irrelevant, as acutely interesting as it may be. That said, there are interesting tidbits here and there: description of conversations with Tolkien and other figures, commentary on the geography of Ireland, England, and modern technology comparable to the classic Life handbooks, and the like appear here and there. (At one point he mentions an estimate early in life that with his lifestyle, he probably wouldn't make 65--rather prescient, considering he died a week before his 65th birthday.)

All in all, as with most autobiographies, the book is primarily of interest to fans of the author. On the other hand, unlike most autobiographies, Lewis is not trying to convert anyone to his side. As in his fiction, his storytelling conveys a certain intrigue that connects the events to the stages of maturity they indicate with a rare subtlety, reserve, and (it seems to this reader) honesty.

The book we received as a gift couldn't be read without a magnifier; extremely small type, single spaced lines. Formatting was way off, no spacing between paragraphs, no periods, half sentences beginning on next line.

If you're interested in learning more about C.S. Lewis and how he became what he was, then this is definitely the best source available, especially about his childhood years. I don't imagine this book would be too interesting to those who aren't already fans of Lewis, as his other works, especially fictional, are much better in my opinion.
It is very interesting, though, to see how such a fervent atheist could go from arrogance to one of the twentieth century's greatest Christian apologists.

Wanting to know more about C.S. Lewis I thought this would be a good book to read. It did tell me much about the man, but several times while reading it, I thought about in what ways would these things he is telling relate to his conversion from atheism to Christianity. However, in classic Lewis style, the ending makes all that came before it worth every minute of my time. To the casual C.S. Lewis reader this book may seem long. I wouldn't recommend it as the first book to read by Lewis, but to someone who is truly fascinated by him and wants to know more about this man, I would highly recommend it.

Lewis says the two families from which he sprang were extremely different in both temperament and origin. On his dad's side there was the Welsh lineage. He describes them as being sentimental, passionate, and rhetorical. While the Hamiltons, on his mother's side were less passionate, more critical and ironic. On both sides, his parents were "bookish" people. He says his brother was a blessing to him, although the two of them were different also.
I love the description of the house full of books in which he grew up. He writes: "My father bought all the books he read and never got rid of any of them. There were books in the study, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern attic, books of all kinds reflecting every transient stage of my parents' interest..."
He talks about staking out his claim in the attic and making it his study. Early on he became a reader and writer. It was a love affair with communication. He discovered his gift and pursued it from then on.
This book traces the stages of his spiritual journey as well. He is very straightforward in describing what was going on in his mind at various stages. In reading about his unique experiences one acquires insight that can be beneficial in reflection on one's own life.

C.S. Lewis helped bring me back from the brink of unbelief with "Mere Christianity," and his other titles have nurtured my faith back to health. That said, I wasn't terribly impressed with his spiritual autobiography. This works spends a lot of time detailing his childhood in somewhat disjointed vignettes, and when his actual conversion to Christianity comes there isn't much detailed explanation as to what he found so compelling in Christianity.

Still, as a fan of C.S. Lewis, I'm glad for the insight into his early spiritual life.

One of the greatest Christian apologists ever, you may know, had been in his youth an atheist. This is the story of his journey from faithful, believing child to (paradoxically) myth-worshipping atheist adolescent, to unabashed Christian. If you have any interest in the man himself, Surprised By Joy is autobiographical and describes a lot of details that really seem secondary to his conversion. Very fun and interesting read.

This is a most remarkable account of one's conversion to belief. It is the eloquent yet highly readable language that Lewis uses which enables the reader to relate to his way of thinking. Lewis ultimately realizes that 'before God closed in on me, I was offered...a moment of wholly free choice...I could open the door or keep it shut...' This reveals the truth that God loves us to the extent that we are alloted a FREE CHOICE regarding whether we want to accept Him. However, it seems silly NOT to accept him! For if we abandon God, we act just as Lewis did..."darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape..."
But who in their right mind would really want to escape Joy?
This autobiography will fascinate the person who is perhaps searching for God or is unsure of God's existence. It will present a rather different perspective of conversion as it is taken from an intellectual standpoint. Finally, this book will reaffirm the authority of the One who simply declared 'I am that I am.'

Lewis' unmistakable profundity is not lost in his most personal work. He recounts how his twin pursuits of atheism and joy eventually parted ways when their inherent incompatibility became inescapable. His is an amazing story of, as he puts it, "the most dejected and reluctant convert" in all of England. Skillfully told and remarkably insightful, Lewis reveals the footpath that led him to the depths of life without God and the ensuing journey that took him to the heights of a joy he once thought unknowable. His warning to young atheists is a classic: "A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere--'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and stratagems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." Surprised by Joy is a masterpiece that fittingly encompasses Lewis' story as well as our own.

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. -Weinberg

Whether you think you have, or you know you haven't, let C.S. Lewis tell you about his experience with Joy. With the storytelling style so characteristic of his delightful prose, Lewis recounts his childhood experiences and then shares about his incredible conversion from a skeptical agnostic to a passionate man of faith. One of the most brilliant literary minds of the 20th Century, Lewis is unquestionably candid and genuine in Surprised by Joy, and the story will challenge you to reflect on your own experience with Joy whether you describe yourself as C.S. Lewis once described himself (an agnostic), or as he later described himself (as a committed Christian). Enjoy!

C.S. Lewis writes about his upbringing, his relationship with his father and brother, his schooling, and quite extensively comments on his passion for reading and absorbing more and more literature as his life unfolds. It isn't until the far latter portion of the book that the movement toward a belief in theism, and then quickly to Christianity, that his spiritual beliefs are explained in detail. But when it is - it is a refreshing read to those of us who are patient enough and curious enough to see how his position unfolds. Vocabulary on the more difficult side - I used a dictionary from time to time to attain better understanding.

Loved seeing his working, brilliant mind transition from atheist to Christian. Fascinating to read some of the psychology and experience behind it. Shifted my paradigm view of God and understanding the difference between pleasure, joy, and holiness.

The Lewis admirer will greatly appreciate this book and its depiction of the early life of this Christian genius. He describes his slow transformation from stanch athiest to devout Christian in the complicated simplicity that only Lewis can achieve. However, be weary of this book if you have never previously read Lewis. The development of the story is rather slow and lethargic and the non-Lewis fan may find it difficult to get through the early chapters. Yet, for the Lewis admirer the lax early chapters are well worth the culminating transformation in the late portion.

Strictly speaking, this is a spiritual journey rather than a personal history, yet much biographical material goes into the telling. I enjoyed the book immensely and found Lewis's ever present sense of humor refreshing.

Recounts the early life, and conversion to Christianity, of the author. Lewis is one of the greatest Christian apologists in the history of the faith. This is his personal story. He writes wonderful prose!

Like one other reviewer, I too had trouble believing that Lewis was atheist or agnostic prior to his "conversion," which was more like an awakening to the relevance of it all in daily life.
I was surprisingly disappointed not only in what I learned about Lewis, but in his writing style here. Over half of the book was bland, unengaging; the psychology of his journey seemed insincere, transparent. The last few chapters were most interesting, suddenly articulate, and thought provoking.
But I don't regret the read. Although somewhat disappointing, this is still good information for the C.S. Lewis fan. The more one knows about an author, the more clearly one can understand and appreciate his work.

I have to admit, CS Lewis is my favorite author, so that's part of why I love hearing about his childhood. But the other part is the way he came to being a Christian, through his years-long quest to capture Joy.

This book provides the ultimate rebuttal both for scholarly non-Christians, and Christians who believe conversion is not a part of their faith. Lewis takes us through the journey of his conversion, which ultimately was that of his ever-curious mind. He is the epitome of proof that conversion is specific to the searching individual.

I love this book and at the same time detest this version. The ridiculous number of spelling errors, strange spacing which turns one word into two, confusing punctuation, seemingly random capitalization, and two words run together as one make this a frustrating read. There is nothing wrong with Lewis or his writing, only the badly rendered version which detracts from and slows the ability to comprehend him easily.

Surprised by Joy is a fascinating review of CS Lewis's formative years as he perceived them. As a great mind, a great philosopher, and a great observer, Lewis's commentary on his life made for great reading.

This is essentially Lewis' autobiography only up to the point of a small time after his conversion to Christ. I really wish he would have talked about his Narnia series at least a little bit and more than just a small paragraph on his friendship with Tolkien. As far as Lewis' story goes I can't really fault him on telling his life story, who can? The events that happened, happened. It seems though that Lewis attempts to be building up in certain areas of a general life lesson he wants to pass on but he doesn't quite seem to get there. Even when dealing with his conversion to Christ, it really only takes up the last three chapters and the book seems to abruptly end; something that I've seen Lewis do in other works. Overall, it's an ok biography but really for only someone who absolutely wants to know about Lewis' life before Christ. Pretty boring and slow paced for me. Overall grade - D+

This book is a fantastic read. I greatly enjoyed Lewis's thought provoking journey to the Christian faith. Not only does it include autobiographical information, it brings the reader to examine himself in a way that only cs lewis can. If you are interested in CS Lewis and his life, or simply wish to be challenged- read this book.

Do not expect to find here the profound insights of "Mere Christianity" nor the moving remarks of "A Grief Observed." "Surprised by Joy" is a good account of C.S. Lewis's travel to believing in God. The style, though, is less vigorous than that of other works, and during the first chapters there is a sense of subjectivism and not knowing why the author is discussing some details about his life. Chapters such as those related to Lewis' years in public and boarding schools are hard to understand, unless you have lived in England and are acquainted with the educational system there.

C.S. Lewis' life in his own words, from his affluent childhood in turn of the century Belfast 'til that marvelous day when he was surprised by the Joy to be found in Jesus Christ. This is a charming book that will hold your attention from beginning to end.

C.S. Lewis has written outstanding works, including Surprised by Joy, but the publisher of this edition had the book written in American English, which I found to be a departure from Lewis' style. When I say American English, I mean the word spellings are the American forms. Lewis was not American, and as far as I know, did not write using uniquely American spellings. Good book, but I recommend finding this same title from another publisher that keeps the British English spelling of words.

It seems sacrilegious to redact such a gifted writer whose phraseolgy make his prose almost poetic, but my patience wore thin as I listened via Books on Tape to all his self-absortive drivel awaiting the "piece de resistance" of the basis for his conversion. I was deeply disappointed in the short shift he accorded the latter. My iconoclastic opinion.

A disappointment, though not without interest. Lewis's purpose is to tell the story of his conversion from atheism to Christianity. But there is little here to challenge or even interest the open-minded atheist. It seems to me that Lewis converted largely for emotional reasons, apparently because he believed in some kind of Hegelian Absolute. The last two chapters are so vague and poetic (or perhaps poetically motivated...?) as to be very tough to read when trying to find out why he believes and what relevance his conversion might have to me. I never really got clear answers to these questions. Lewis is always readable, but this was disappointing on intellectual grounds (which is true of all his apologetics).

As an agnostic, I eagerly approached Surprised by Joy expecting to have my beliefs (or lack thereof) challenged by someone sympathetic to my point of view. After all, I thought, Lewis was once an atheist. Surely, he'll gently guide me to the Christian path that he himself followed.

In this I was greatly disappointed. The book is neither a true autobiography nor a rigorous Christian apology and sadly, rather than using his considerable talents to persuade atheists and agnostics to his way of thinking, he frequently resorts to disrespectful, even scornful attacks on non-believers that are sure to offend and alienate them. Moreover, his arguments are written not for a layperson but for someone well-versed in philosophy and literature. And even with all the scholarship he brings to the table, in the end, he resorts to his gut feeling rather than rational discourse when explaining why he decided to convert.

In the beginning of the book, Lewis tells us quite a bit about his early childhood and formative experiences. His story becomes increasingly sketchy as he ages. Although his life was certainly filled with dramatic events, such as the death of his mother and his combat experiences during WWI, his accounts of these events are vague and seem strangely devoid of emotion. Other life experiences that most people would consider important and relevant - the death of his father, for example - are barely even mentioned and are dismissed as having no bearing on the story Lewis is telling. One always has the sense of being held at arm's length in this book. We are invited into Lewis's mind but rarely into his heart.

What is left, then, is an extremely cerebral life story. Lewis writes endlessly about his education, the books he's read and the influence they had on him as well as the brilliant young men (and it's nearly always men) who befriended him over the course of his life and made him re-evaluate his thoughts and beliefs. All well and good.

But when he actually comes to his conversion, I'm afraid it's difficult to follow his train of thought. Lewis clearly expects his reader to be as erudite and well-read as he is. Sadly, that isn't the case for me, nor I suspect, is it true for most modern readers. I am not a student of philosophy and I am woefully ignorant of English literature. All his references to these topics, therefore, were entirely over my head.

Still, it's clear that an element of the irrational creeps into his arguments for rejecting old ways of thinking. For example, when Lewis senses a certain inconsistency in his own beliefs and the tenets of realism, he's must decide whether to reject realism altogether or embrace Behavioristic theory. He chooses the former not for any clear objective reason but because, as he writes, "I cannot force my thoughts into that shape any more than I can scratch my ear with my big toe..." I suppose I could give the same reason for my lack of faith. In fact, it isn't a reason at all.

Lewis would have us believe he was a very reluctant convert. Perhaps he was. But once converted, he clearly had very little patience for those whose views he once shared. He explains this with a quote from Donne: "The heresies that men leave are hated most." He goes on to add, "The things I assert most vigorously are those that I resisted long and accepted late."

To be fair, Lewis retains respect for an atheist called Kirk who played an essential role in his education. But he doesn't extend that respect to other atheists: "Atheism has come down in the world since those days, and mixed itself with politics and learned to dabble in dirt...I am ashamed that my old mates and (which matters much more) Kirk's old mates should have sunk to what they are now. It was different then..."

Ah yes. Somehow, when Lewis himself was an atheist, that particular way of thinking was far more respectable than after he converted. I suppose he would have nothing but contempt for atheists and agnostics today.

I don't mean to sound bitter but I really expected something much better from this book. I honestly hoped I would like it. I didn't. His reasoning, though bolstered by a veritable library of books, is unconvincing. His life story, though intellectually compelling, is an emotional desert. As I read it, I kept wondering, What of love? And anger? And sadness? And passion? Doesn't he feel anything at all? Even his description of Joy is oppressively unemotional. Was Lewis really so unfeeling? The Chronicles of Narnia suggest otherwise.

In short, the book was not to my taste but I suspect it was never meant to be. Lewis seems to be preaching to the choir, not reaching out to sinners. Those religious types out there who already adore C.S. Lewis should, no doubt, disregard my opinions on Surprised by Joy - I'm sure they, at least, will love it. But for those non-believers out there half hoping to be converted by Lewis's words I can only say it didn 't do it for me.

C.S. Lewis has a few interesting things to say in this book, but that's about all. I didn't get the feeling that C.S. Lewis was surprised at all while telling about his life story. However, I can say that C.S. Lewis does construct some good sentences in this book, and for this reason, I give the book three stars. He is a great writer, but I'm afraid this book was just okay.

I expected this book to be an account of the author's being born again as a Christian. Unfortunately the book contains very little material on this subject. Rather it is a pedestrian account of a rather boring boyhood and adolescence. His only slightly veiled anti-Semitic remarks contribute to a very uncomplimentary self-portrait.