The Great Divorce

When I was a kid my mom recorded the British version of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" on PBS. We watched it over and over, and every time Edmund tasted the Witch's Turkish Delight I wanted to taste it too. That was pretty much the extent of my exposure to C.S. Lewis until now. I've always wanted to read some of his other books, but never quite got around to it. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis was the book club pick this month. It was a pretty mixed bag. I enjoyed it, but quite a few people could not get past the fist few pages. We did however, have an excellent discussion.

The book is about a man who travels from Hell to Heaven and has to choose whether to stay or not. He encounters several characters who have to give up a particular vice in order to progress and become exalted. Most decide they are not willing to change or take a leap of faith. They are uncomfortable in Heaven and choose to go back to Hell. I found these caricatures to be insightful, and Lewis' theological ideas to be interesting though doctrinally shaky. I kept waiting for the "divorce," but it wasn't until I finished the book that I realized the title was indicating a divorce between Heaven and Hell.

This was not a difficult read, but I feel like I would have to read it several times to gain a better understanding of the book. When I was in Mrs. Hill's high school English class, she would go into an endless amount of detail about the symbolism found in the novels we were reading. I often thought she was pulling it out of thin air. How did she know that the author really meant to create the symbolism? Maybe he was just writing a simple story. Well, now I realize that Mrs. Hill probably just understands literature a whole lot more than I do. When I read this book I had the feeling that C.S. Lewis was trying to say more than I could really understand. I'm sure there was a lot of symbolism that just went over my head.

I enjoyed thinking about some of the "what ifs" about the after world that C. S. Lewis wrote about. It also made me think about some of my own vices that need to be abandoned. Overall, I would recommend this book, but I think it will be awhile before I'm ready to pick up Screwtape Letters.