Becoming Mrs. Lewis

 Becoming Mrs. Lewis (2018) by Patti Callahan

Synopsis (from book flap): In a most improbable friendship, she found love. In a world where women were silenced, she found her voice....an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called "my whole world." When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis--known as Jack--she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love after all, wasn't holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet teir minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn't destroy....we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren't meant to have a voice--and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn't know they had. At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer's life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story--a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.

I remember reading something about C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman (long before I started blogging/reviewing and keeping a comprehensive record of the books I read) that I found very interesting. And I was intrigued by the relationship that developed between them. So, when this book came up as an option in the Book Challenge by Erin bonus round, I made it one of my choices. I have a very mixed reaction. The book is passionately written and well-researched. Callahan definitely makes the people in Davidman's life come alive. I thoroughly enjoyed her visit to England when she first met Lewis (in person--she'd already "met" him through letters). Oxford and his home, The Kilns, became real. It is a fascinating portrayal of a woman struggling to be heard--both as a writer and as a wife; a woman struggling with the fact that she loves her abusive husband and wants the marriage to work but must face the fact that he's not going to change. He won't become the man she needs and she can't be the woman he wants. 

But...I was disappointed to read in the author's note that none of the "quoted" letters were real because none of the letters between these two have survived. Absolutely everything is from Callahan's imagination. And as good as her research into the lives of these two people is, it's impossible to get so completely into their heads as to produce letters and thoughts and portray them as the real deal--and it's especially disconcerting to me that these ultra-personal letters and thoughts (Joy's) are completely made up. If this were straight historical fiction without real people, then that wouldn't bother me so much. But this is closer to fictionalized history--this is based on very real people and very real events and we as readers are brought into the story as if this is absolutely the way it happened. And that's not true at all. I'm not opposed to fictionalized versions of historical people and events--but rarely do authors take it upon themselves to manufacture the written works (especially of such literary people). Generally, any letters (or other written material) quoted in such work comes from actual documents. Since the correspondence between Davidman and Lewis is so central to their relationship and this book, it is very disappointing that none of it is based on the actual letters.

Overall, an interesting take on the relationship. ★★★

First line: From the very beginning it was the Great Lion who brought us together, I see that now.

Last line: With the great roar of Aslan, I ended my life with these words, whispered in truth to Jack, "I am at peace with God."