The Narnian

The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis
Author: Alan Jacobs
Genre: nonfiction, biography
Publication info: HarperCollins, 2006 (hardcover in 2005)
Pages: 342 (including notes and index)

C. S. Lewis has long been one of my literary heroes. As a child I enjoyed the Narnia series, a little later I read Out of the Silent Planet, and more recently I devoured some of his famous Christian writings such as The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and The Great Divorce. Throughout all this reading, I've been fascinated by Lewis's deep thinking and vivid imagination.

But I didn't know very much about him as a person—his life. Enter The Narnian. I picked this book up from a bargain book sale (it ranks among the best five bucks I've ever spent). Finally, around Christmas I got around to reading it.

I have never found a biography so gripping.

True, I haven't read many biographies, but this one had me hooked as I had no idea a biography could. I suppose this is partly due to my already keen fascination with Lewis, but I also must give credit to Alan Jacobs for doing such a stunning job. He admits in the preface that the book is "almost a biography," leaving out "certain details that a responsible biographer would be obliged to include" (what modesty!). Instead, the purpose of this book is to record "the life a mind, the story of an imagination."

It turns out that Lewis's mind and imagination make quite a story. Before reading the book, I knew the guy was smart, but I didn't know that he was actually brilliant until reading it. I can't begin to recount some of the ideas I learned about in this book—they are too deep, and Lewis and Jacobs both put them much better than I could—but I will say that this book made me think. It made me think deeply, about a lot of things. It inspired me. It turned me to introspection. It changed me.

I can't promise that this book will have the same effect on everyone who reads it. But if you have an interest in the works of C. S. Lewis, particularly in the Narnia series, than you would do well to read this book. As the back cover invites, "enter the world of a creative genius."