What do you think?
Rate this book
Jack: C.S. Lewis and His Times
As I walked away from New Buildings, I found the man that Lewis had called “Tollers” sitting on one of the stone steps in front of the arcade. “How did you get on?” he asked. “I think rather well. I think he will be a most interesting tutor to have.” “Interesting? Yes, he’s certainly that,” said the man, who I later learned was John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. “You’ll never get to the bottom of him.”
Over the next twenty-nine years, author George Sayer’s first impression about C. S. Lewis proved true. He was interesting; but he was more than just that. He was a devout Christian, gifted literary scholar, best-selling author, and brilliant apologist. Sayer draws from a variety of sources, including his close friendship with Lewis and the million-word diary of Lewis's brother (Warren Hamilton Lewis), to paint a portrait of the man whose friends knew as 'JACK'.
Offering glimpses into Lewis’s extraordinary relationships and experiences, Jack details the great scholar’s life at the Kilns; days at Magdalen College; meetings with the Inklings; marriage to Joy Davidman Gresham; and the creative process that produced such world-famous works as the classic 'Chronicles of Narnia', 'Mere Christianity', and 'The Screwtape Letters'.
This book is an intimate account of the man who helped - and through his works, continues to help - generations hear and understand the heart of Christianity.
RUNNING TIME ➱ 13hrs. and 25mins.
©1988 George Sayer (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Over the next twenty-nine years, author George Sayer’s first impression about C. S. Lewis proved true. He was interesting; but he was more than just that. He was a devout Christian, gifted literary scholar, best-selling author, and brilliant apologist. Sayer draws from a variety of sources, including his close friendship with Lewis and the million-word diary of Lewis's brother (Warren Hamilton Lewis), to paint a portrait of the man whose friends knew as 'JACK'.
Offering glimpses into Lewis’s extraordinary relationships and experiences, Jack details the great scholar’s life at the Kilns; days at Magdalen College; meetings with the Inklings; marriage to Joy Davidman Gresham; and the creative process that produced such world-famous works as the classic 'Chronicles of Narnia', 'Mere Christianity', and 'The Screwtape Letters'.
This book is an intimate account of the man who helped - and through his works, continues to help - generations hear and understand the heart of Christianity.
RUNNING TIME ➱ 13hrs. and 25mins.
©1988 George Sayer (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Audible Audio
First published June 1, 1988
112 people are currently reading
6060 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 184 reviews
March 16, 2025
I read ‘Jack’ not long after I retired, nearly twenty years ago.
I had become a C.S. Lewis groupie (and still am)! My membership in that exalted group had been confirmed during my initial post-cube-farm passion with Amazon, when I had (very wisely) invested some of my severance pay in the complete three-volume set of Lewis’ correspondence.
But then - I only skimmed through THIS book at first, when it arrived in the mail.
Horrors!
WHAT TEMERITY! I said inwardly - that some so-called close friend would so humanize this man, the Unimpeachable Icon of the Moral Majority, by displaying his foibles and follies!
But you know, folks, life’s like that.
No one’s perfect, no matter what Christian media might say or imply. We all expect our heroes to be really ROCK-SOLID people.
But let’s just look at ourselves honestly - are WE ourselves really solid - through & through?
More like shot full of holes!
Right?
And it’s unavoidable. BUT even an imperfect person can - with God’s help - make perfect their will, as T.S Eliot said.
And to will with our Maker that the world be what it is, can be enough - for to inure ourselves to its imperfect essence is a necessary exercise in faith.
And therein lies the rub!
For living life simply, without all of its omnipresent bells and whistles and distractions is perhaps all the spiritual discipline we need.
Our worlds are broken worlds - and so was Jack Lewis’. Our inheritance is a ruined estate.
But we can try to make the best of a bad situation.
Can any of us say more?
Nor could Jack Lewis.
After a tough childhood and even tougher time in the trenches of WWI Europe, no one could even hope that he could later rise above all the horrors of life amid the awful screams and silences of the Western Front completely.
But rise above it he did.
Later, his housemate brother would become utterly irresponsible and hopeless, as would their aging sometime friend and tenant... and then came the Blitz.
Jack still held his head high.
And still later, when his soulmate, wife and love of his life was snatched from him by death - still, after ordeal upon ordeal...
He rose above it all!
A great philosopher said that life’s not a spectacle, but an unremitting struggle.
And so it was with Lewis.
We tend to forget all that... when we discover a writer who can fight eternal duels, ford raging rivers of adversity, and dream our happiest dreams for us - all effortlessly!
The Magician’s Nephew seems so magical...
But just consider the ruin of our existence in which he first saw the light of day.
While Lewis himself, on his own, seemed to ‘effortlessly’ - but in reality, only by overcoming Enormous Odds - create a World of Wonders in which the rest of us could recognize our destination and eternal home...
And know it for the first time.
So - Jack Lewis.
Flawed?
Just like the rest of us.
He was a man of dualities.
But we can THANK him for showing us the Right Way in spite of his flaws...
For stealing dualistic fire from the heights of heaven for his books -
And for never giving up the struggle -
AGAINST ALL ODDS.
I had become a C.S. Lewis groupie (and still am)! My membership in that exalted group had been confirmed during my initial post-cube-farm passion with Amazon, when I had (very wisely) invested some of my severance pay in the complete three-volume set of Lewis’ correspondence.
But then - I only skimmed through THIS book at first, when it arrived in the mail.
Horrors!
WHAT TEMERITY! I said inwardly - that some so-called close friend would so humanize this man, the Unimpeachable Icon of the Moral Majority, by displaying his foibles and follies!
But you know, folks, life’s like that.
No one’s perfect, no matter what Christian media might say or imply. We all expect our heroes to be really ROCK-SOLID people.
But let’s just look at ourselves honestly - are WE ourselves really solid - through & through?
More like shot full of holes!
Right?
And it’s unavoidable. BUT even an imperfect person can - with God’s help - make perfect their will, as T.S Eliot said.
And to will with our Maker that the world be what it is, can be enough - for to inure ourselves to its imperfect essence is a necessary exercise in faith.
And therein lies the rub!
For living life simply, without all of its omnipresent bells and whistles and distractions is perhaps all the spiritual discipline we need.
Our worlds are broken worlds - and so was Jack Lewis’. Our inheritance is a ruined estate.
But we can try to make the best of a bad situation.
Can any of us say more?
Nor could Jack Lewis.
After a tough childhood and even tougher time in the trenches of WWI Europe, no one could even hope that he could later rise above all the horrors of life amid the awful screams and silences of the Western Front completely.
But rise above it he did.
Later, his housemate brother would become utterly irresponsible and hopeless, as would their aging sometime friend and tenant... and then came the Blitz.
Jack still held his head high.
And still later, when his soulmate, wife and love of his life was snatched from him by death - still, after ordeal upon ordeal...
He rose above it all!
A great philosopher said that life’s not a spectacle, but an unremitting struggle.
And so it was with Lewis.
We tend to forget all that... when we discover a writer who can fight eternal duels, ford raging rivers of adversity, and dream our happiest dreams for us - all effortlessly!
The Magician’s Nephew seems so magical...
But just consider the ruin of our existence in which he first saw the light of day.
While Lewis himself, on his own, seemed to ‘effortlessly’ - but in reality, only by overcoming Enormous Odds - create a World of Wonders in which the rest of us could recognize our destination and eternal home...
And know it for the first time.
So - Jack Lewis.
Flawed?
Just like the rest of us.
He was a man of dualities.
But we can THANK him for showing us the Right Way in spite of his flaws...
For stealing dualistic fire from the heights of heaven for his books -
And for never giving up the struggle -
AGAINST ALL ODDS.
January 16, 2020
Quite a good biography of Lewis from a man who was his student and friend. Worthwhile.
November 12, 2011
Derek Brewer, one of Lewis' onetime pupils, records that a Cambridge professor once said that Lewis was "a very good man to whom goodness did not come easily." This biography seconds that opinion: it presents Lewis as having a troubled life, but one that was continuously offered up to the Lord as a sacrifice. In the appendix, written a decade after its intial publication, Sayer addresses several alternate biographies that had appeared of Lewis since: he says that the very real ugliness of much of Lewis' younger life was, for all practical purposes, exterminated from his later life by, as he quotes Lewis as saying, "prayer and fasting." After reading this, I have even more admiration for Lewis; having heard his story from someone less reticent about his virtues and more objective about his sins (can one be objective about anybody's sins?), he seems even more like an Augustine or a Paul to me: a powerful mind pulled from sin and self-centeredness to champion Christ.
April 25, 2017
I have been reading this book on and off since Thanksgiving. I love C.S. Lewis and was excited to read this biography. However, the author dwells too much on Lewis's sexuality and assumes too much about Lewis's writing. The personal tidbits were interesting. I can't say I cared much for the other analysis, however.
Overall, a book I wanted to enjoy but can't really say I did. I definitely want to find something else on Lewis now.
Overall, a book I wanted to enjoy but can't really say I did. I definitely want to find something else on Lewis now.
February 20, 2016
I liked the latter half of this better than the first. This biography was well done and it felt like it was written with love and respect for C. S. Lewis.
The first half dealt with his childhood and his entrance into the adult world. C.S. Lewis, aka Jack, had some difficult things to endure. I've heard that he is the most oft quoted person in Christian religions. So I was kind of surprised to hear that he actually walked away from religion because of some things he was dealing with. But he came back later in adulthood and wrote some amazing things.
I liked the way the author presented the material in latter half. He went over what Jack was going through when writing specific books. It was well done. It made me want to go back and reread some of his books that I haven't touched in years.
The first half dealt with his childhood and his entrance into the adult world. C.S. Lewis, aka Jack, had some difficult things to endure. I've heard that he is the most oft quoted person in Christian religions. So I was kind of surprised to hear that he actually walked away from religion because of some things he was dealing with. But he came back later in adulthood and wrote some amazing things.
I liked the way the author presented the material in latter half. He went over what Jack was going through when writing specific books. It was well done. It made me want to go back and reread some of his books that I haven't touched in years.
March 2, 2018
This is the best biography I have read on C.S.Lewis, and I have ready many. It was finally great to get around to reading it. I had been told really great things about it from friends, and from Lewis' step-son Douglas Gresham who is a very good friend of mine.
September 29, 2021
A really good and thorough biography of CS Lewis. I don't like how personal some of the details got. I don't need to know about CS Lewis' private sins of his youth or of his sexual relationship with Joy
October 31, 2020
This is the first biography of C. S. Lewis that I read, some forty years ago. It is still one of the best.
February 12, 2010
Not much new here, but I wanted to get more personal info about Mr. Lewis and from someone other than himself (see Surprised By Joy).
C.S. Lewis and his great friends have done an excellent job of keeping certain details of his life private, even decades after his death. Can't say that I blame him for his discretion (Louisa May Alcott, for example, entrusted her diaries and letters to a friend with the instruction they be destroyed upon her death. Well, yeah, you can read them all in various published books! Egads!).
Much of the material here (besides the personal accounts of the author) come from Lewis's letters (widely available) and there are many insights supposedly gleaned from Lewis's literary works (a practice Lewis himself disdained). I admit passing over many of these passages.
I'd like to read a couple of the other biographies out there. I've enjoyed spending this winter reading Mr. Lewis and would like to hear more about him from friends and from D. Gresham (his stepson) who lived with Mr. Lewis for a few years after the death of his mother. That would certainly be an interesting perspective.
Mr. Lewis was definitely an interesting and learned man who valued friendship, faith, good books, and good humor; this biography only increases the respect I have for him.
C.S. Lewis and his great friends have done an excellent job of keeping certain details of his life private, even decades after his death. Can't say that I blame him for his discretion (Louisa May Alcott, for example, entrusted her diaries and letters to a friend with the instruction they be destroyed upon her death. Well, yeah, you can read them all in various published books! Egads!).
Much of the material here (besides the personal accounts of the author) come from Lewis's letters (widely available) and there are many insights supposedly gleaned from Lewis's literary works (a practice Lewis himself disdained). I admit passing over many of these passages.
I'd like to read a couple of the other biographies out there. I've enjoyed spending this winter reading Mr. Lewis and would like to hear more about him from friends and from D. Gresham (his stepson) who lived with Mr. Lewis for a few years after the death of his mother. That would certainly be an interesting perspective.
Mr. Lewis was definitely an interesting and learned man who valued friendship, faith, good books, and good humor; this biography only increases the respect I have for him.
February 21, 2015
Jack is an affectionate biography of CS Lewis by George Sayer, once a student, then a friend, of Lewis. This is an engaging, and warm look at Lewis and his writing. Sayer lays out Lewis life, and books, but what ultimately comes across is the joy and faith that characterized so much of both the public and private man. Reading this I felt that I knew something of the man, and not just the dry facts of his life but rather a bit like we had a long chat over tea on a rainy day. Strongly recommended. There are other, more objective and analytical books but this book is a the book of a friend and admirer. That is what gives it its' quality.
June 20, 2009
A good general biography of Lewis, though perhaps a little obessessed with Lewis' sexual habits. I swear there was a whole chapter on whether or not Lewis and his wife had sex before they got married.
December 6, 2017
By far the best biography I've read on C.S. Lewis. Gets down to who Jack was as a person beyond his writing in many ways people don't realize. A beautiful portrait of a famous author.
January 11, 2025
A view of Lewis from one who knew him--in one sense, it's helpful to see a more personal perspective, and yet the biography also feels biased and incomplete. Still, it's valuable to see descriptions of direct interactions with Lewis. Sayer adds a new flavor to my understanding of Lewis's personality.
Sayer is sympathetic toward Albert and Mrs. Moore, yet seems biased against Warnie. He is strangely preoccupied with Lewis's sexuality in his early years, which felt jarring and out of place in the middle of conversation about other things. He provides personal opinions on many of Lewis's works, which again feels biased. The chapters felt uneven and don't always follow the heading. Yet it's still a valuable and enjoyable Lewis biography overall.
The afterword in my edition critiques inaccuracies in the controversial Wilson biography: C.S. Lewis: A Biography.
Not the first Lewis bio I'd point people toward. Instead I would recommend reading these first:
--C. S. Lewis: A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet
--The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis
Sayer is sympathetic toward Albert and Mrs. Moore, yet seems biased against Warnie. He is strangely preoccupied with Lewis's sexuality in his early years, which felt jarring and out of place in the middle of conversation about other things. He provides personal opinions on many of Lewis's works, which again feels biased. The chapters felt uneven and don't always follow the heading. Yet it's still a valuable and enjoyable Lewis biography overall.
The afterword in my edition critiques inaccuracies in the controversial Wilson biography: C.S. Lewis: A Biography.
Not the first Lewis bio I'd point people toward. Instead I would recommend reading these first:
--C. S. Lewis: A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet
--The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis
June 10, 2022
Probably the most balanced biography of Lewis that I've ever read. Most articles and books about him are a rave from beginning to end, but this takes his flaws and mistakes into account, whilst still portraying a very loving picture of one of the most influential men of our times.
March 16, 2015
The beauty of his mind is what captivates people who read anything by C S Lewis. Reading his biography is like trying to see how and where that beauty came from. This biography, written by an intimate friend, shows that C S Lewis had a very unextraordinary life. He grew up, went to school, served in the military, hired on as a professor, gave lectures and wrote. None of these events show the beauty like the books he wrote. What they do show is that he was injured by an abusive teacher right after his mother's death. His conflict of faith was only resolved after he kicked out some of his demons. There might be a strong correlation between his ideas and the books he read. The author mentions his favorites and how he reread them. Yes, he married in an unconventional sort of way. Marriage changed him for the better. I think it had an earthquake-like effect on him. I wish he had lived longer after marriage to write more. One characteristic that stood out more than once was his humility.
Caution: This book covers the trauma he suffered and its effects. May not be suitable for children without parental supervision.
Caution: This book covers the trauma he suffered and its effects. May not be suitable for children without parental supervision.
July 1, 2019
This is a splendid biography of CSL by a friend and former student. His descriptions of Lewis' lectures makes me yearn to be transported to one. I found it fascinating the Sayer was present at the first face-to-face meeting between CSL and Joy Davidman. Sayer's assessment of Joy and of their marriage is tender and sympathetic.
What bibliophile can help but love C.S. Lewis? Book buying was for him a lifelong habit. He knew that if he really liked a book, he would want to read it again and would find new delights in it when he did. He would, therefore, have to own it.
I long to have Jack's discernment. By and large, he formed his literary tastes in his teens and hardly altered them. Even then he had an astonishing gift for distinguishing the best from the second-rate.
There were several laugh aloud moments, including what Lewis wrote to Sayers in a 1951 letter: I've just been having mumps. Humphrey [CSL's physician and friend] kept on quoting bits out of The Problem of Pain, which I call a bit thick.
What bibliophile can help but love C.S. Lewis? Book buying was for him a lifelong habit. He knew that if he really liked a book, he would want to read it again and would find new delights in it when he did. He would, therefore, have to own it.
I long to have Jack's discernment. By and large, he formed his literary tastes in his teens and hardly altered them. Even then he had an astonishing gift for distinguishing the best from the second-rate.
There were several laugh aloud moments, including what Lewis wrote to Sayers in a 1951 letter: I've just been having mumps. Humphrey [CSL's physician and friend] kept on quoting bits out of The Problem of Pain, which I call a bit thick.
September 17, 2021
Audible.com 13 hours and 25 min. Narrated by Frederick Davidson (B)
Although I'd read C. S. Lewis's autobiography Surprised By Joy many years ago, I've now had the experience of getting to know "Jack" through the eyes of one his early students and later good friend. George Sayer. It took a few chapters for me to get comfortable with the narrator, but the longer I listened, the more I enjoyed him. We know so much of "Jack's" life because of the wealth of letters written by and to Lewis from his father, brother, and friends. Not only was this an interesting story of la life well-lived; it also showed the guarded personal emotions of one of Britain's greatest English scholars and Christian apologists. Personally I enjoyed learning more about what was behind the writing of so many of my favorite books and amazed by the quantity of Lewis's own poetry. I enjoyed listening to passages from his epic poem and verses from his shorter poems. A great book about a great man.
Although I'd read C. S. Lewis's autobiography Surprised By Joy many years ago, I've now had the experience of getting to know "Jack" through the eyes of one his early students and later good friend. George Sayer. It took a few chapters for me to get comfortable with the narrator, but the longer I listened, the more I enjoyed him. We know so much of "Jack's" life because of the wealth of letters written by and to Lewis from his father, brother, and friends. Not only was this an interesting story of la life well-lived; it also showed the guarded personal emotions of one of Britain's greatest English scholars and Christian apologists. Personally I enjoyed learning more about what was behind the writing of so many of my favorite books and amazed by the quantity of Lewis's own poetry. I enjoyed listening to passages from his epic poem and verses from his shorter poems. A great book about a great man.
April 13, 2024
3.5 stars [Biography]
(W 3.24, U 3.44, T 3.69)
Exact rating: 3.46
A worthy companion for CSL's autobiography, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, especially since it provides context and nuance to CSL's own recollections. The choice to include some of the adolescent, non-Christian CSL's vices without euphemism lowered the Utility rating a half-star. So, recommended to adults.
Sayer was a personal friend of Lewis and his eyewitness account makes for a good biography. Sayer's [thankfully sparse] comments on religion (specifically Christian Praxis) made him seem inexperienced with such things. However, much else in the biography redeemed these demerits, especially its high sub-scores for lexical content [Writing], backgrounding [Utility], and second opinion [Truth].
(W 3.24, U 3.44, T 3.69)
Exact rating: 3.46
A worthy companion for CSL's autobiography, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, especially since it provides context and nuance to CSL's own recollections. The choice to include some of the adolescent, non-Christian CSL's vices without euphemism lowered the Utility rating a half-star. So, recommended to adults.
Sayer was a personal friend of Lewis and his eyewitness account makes for a good biography. Sayer's [thankfully sparse] comments on religion (specifically Christian Praxis) made him seem inexperienced with such things. However, much else in the biography redeemed these demerits, especially its high sub-scores for lexical content [Writing], backgrounding [Utility], and second opinion [Truth].
September 4, 2016
C.S. Lewis was first known to me through his children's books on Narnia. I've since become introduced to him as a Christian philosopher. As a biblical theologian, Lewis, by his own admission, was an amateur. As a thinker, he has few rivals.
All biographies or books on history will be necessarily limited to the knowledge, perspective, and biases of the author. George Sayer was a close personal friend of Lewis. While his observations and comments on Lewis and his friends/family are fascinating, it is difficult to know how much is colored by his relationship with Lewis.
My favorite part of the book was Sayer's analysis of Lewis' writings. It whet my appetite for reading some of Lewis' works that I've yet to read. My rating is 4 *s. I took off a star because, as a biography, it is not terribly interesting to any who were not previously interested in Lewis.
All biographies or books on history will be necessarily limited to the knowledge, perspective, and biases of the author. George Sayer was a close personal friend of Lewis. While his observations and comments on Lewis and his friends/family are fascinating, it is difficult to know how much is colored by his relationship with Lewis.
My favorite part of the book was Sayer's analysis of Lewis' writings. It whet my appetite for reading some of Lewis' works that I've yet to read. My rating is 4 *s. I took off a star because, as a biography, it is not terribly interesting to any who were not previously interested in Lewis.
February 14, 2011
This biography of C.S. Lewis appealed to me as a former student of literature and as a Christian. I learned a lot about C.S. Lewis, but above all I was amazed at his humility and kindness when he had such an awesome intelligence.
September 6, 2022
this is a very good biography about CS Lewis. George Sayer was a person friend for more than 20 years. He knew "Jack" well.
August 25, 2015
If you're going to read a biography on CS Lewis, this is the book to read! Written by a close friend who shares intimate details about his life, you really feel as if you know who CS Lewis was.
March 22, 2023
Perhaps the best biography of Lewis out there. Sayer seems to have faithfully represented the man, his brilliance, flaws and all.
July 6, 2020
One of the little joys of my life is that although I never met my favorite author (I was 7 when C.S. Lewis died and hadn't encountered the Narnia books), I have met people who knew him well, including his stepson Douglas Gresham and the author of this book, which I've read several times.
My favorite part of the book remains the preface, in which George Sayer describes his first meeting with Lewis (who was known nearly all of his life to family and friends as Jack). Sayer was a student at Oxford, and Lewis was to be his tutor, and at that point Sayer knew nothing about him except that fact. Nor did he know a thing about the "neat, gray-haired man with a pipe in his mouth and a puckish face" who popped in to see Lewis just ahead of Sayer. He later learned that the man was J.R.R. Tolkien, who also wasn't well-known at the time. Tolkien made a lunch date with Lewis, and Sayer describes his conversation with Tolkien after he -- Sayer -- had his first visit with Lewis:
"How did you get on?" he asked.
"I think rather well. I think he will be a most interesting tutor to have."
"Interesting? Yes, he's certainly that. You'll never get to the bottom of him."
I love that line. I don't think any biography could get to the bottom of C.S. Lewis either, but I think "Jack" does so better than any other. Sayer certainly knew Lewis at least as well as any other biographer. He went from being a student to being a lifelong friend of Jack, so much so that when Lewis had his first face-to-face encounter with future wife Joy Davidman and another woman, Sayer was there also, filling in for Lewis' brother Warren.
Everyone seems to want to psychoanalyze Lewis, and even Sayer does that to some extent. I consider that a flaw in this fine work. I also suspect that he sees some things through his own lenses rather than Lewis'. He suggests that Lewis didn't enjoy being with stepsons David and Douglas. Perhaps so, or perhaps Sayers is really telling us how he would have felt about the two American boys.
Sayer describes and, in a sense, reviews all of Lewis' literary works. I'm not always in agreement with his views on specific books.
In spite of these minor reservations, I think "Jack" is a splendid biography. If you're interested in learning about the man behind "Narnia" -- the man who also could write scholarly works such as "The Discarded Image" and satire such as "The Screwtape Letters" and apologetics for the common person such as "Mere Christianity" -- this is the place to go.
My favorite part of the book remains the preface, in which George Sayer describes his first meeting with Lewis (who was known nearly all of his life to family and friends as Jack). Sayer was a student at Oxford, and Lewis was to be his tutor, and at that point Sayer knew nothing about him except that fact. Nor did he know a thing about the "neat, gray-haired man with a pipe in his mouth and a puckish face" who popped in to see Lewis just ahead of Sayer. He later learned that the man was J.R.R. Tolkien, who also wasn't well-known at the time. Tolkien made a lunch date with Lewis, and Sayer describes his conversation with Tolkien after he -- Sayer -- had his first visit with Lewis:
"How did you get on?" he asked.
"I think rather well. I think he will be a most interesting tutor to have."
"Interesting? Yes, he's certainly that. You'll never get to the bottom of him."
I love that line. I don't think any biography could get to the bottom of C.S. Lewis either, but I think "Jack" does so better than any other. Sayer certainly knew Lewis at least as well as any other biographer. He went from being a student to being a lifelong friend of Jack, so much so that when Lewis had his first face-to-face encounter with future wife Joy Davidman and another woman, Sayer was there also, filling in for Lewis' brother Warren.
Everyone seems to want to psychoanalyze Lewis, and even Sayer does that to some extent. I consider that a flaw in this fine work. I also suspect that he sees some things through his own lenses rather than Lewis'. He suggests that Lewis didn't enjoy being with stepsons David and Douglas. Perhaps so, or perhaps Sayers is really telling us how he would have felt about the two American boys.
Sayer describes and, in a sense, reviews all of Lewis' literary works. I'm not always in agreement with his views on specific books.
In spite of these minor reservations, I think "Jack" is a splendid biography. If you're interested in learning about the man behind "Narnia" -- the man who also could write scholarly works such as "The Discarded Image" and satire such as "The Screwtape Letters" and apologetics for the common person such as "Mere Christianity" -- this is the place to go.
December 5, 2021
The advantage of this biography is that Sayer personally knew Lewis quite well. On the negative side, though Sayer is concise and brief, the slower parts of this biography are his summaries of Lewis' books. If you have not read them, then there is a good introduction and some analysis. But if you have, it slows the book down and on the second time through you notice it. On the positive side is all the rest: interesting anecdotes, a positive take on Joy, the story told from the view of a friend, and many little details and incidents that are not part of the written record. The best pages in this book are 337-346, which are unbeatable.
October 2, 2022
Written by a former student and friend of CS Lewis, this biography is thorough and well-written, written with a clear respect and affection for its subject.
For anyone who has already read a half-dozen biographies of Lewis, there is little new information, but Sayer's perspective on some events and people (notably Joy Davidman) does differ from that of other biographers and is interesting to read.
For anyone who has already read a half-dozen biographies of Lewis, there is little new information, but Sayer's perspective on some events and people (notably Joy Davidman) does differ from that of other biographers and is interesting to read.
July 23, 2017
Woehoee! Had deze van Christijn geleend en stond al minstens een jaar in de kast. In de maanden voor vertrek toch begonnen en de weken ervoor aan speedreading gedaan, maar net niet uit. En iedere keer als ik een boek updatete zag ik deze titel erbij staan, dus mijn vreugde was zeer groot toen ik 'm in de Karabieb zag staan. Uit!
February 10, 2019
This was a whole lot of fun. Sayer was a student and then a good friend of Lewis' and this acquaintance adds a great deal to make this an enjoyable read. Having just recently read McGrath's biography (which I also enjoyed), I have to say I prefer this one.
January 15, 2023
Really delightful to read about Lewis’s life from the perspective of a personal friend. Especially loved the focus on telling the background and making of each of his books.
March 21, 2020
Like taking a walk with friends.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 184 reviews