Biographies of the famed author of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Ransom [or Space] Trilogy, and many nonfiction classics seem a dime a dozen. This biography, however, sounds like an original offering, which reviewer Louis Markos says avoids the two extremes of other Lewis biographers.

In the world of C. S. Lewis biography there are two extremes. On the one hand is hagiography. Lewis was a saint who could do no wrong; any strange views or questionable behaviors must be swept under the rug. […] On the other hand is psychoanalysis. Lewis was a deeply flawed man whose faith in Christ can be “accounted” for by sociological and psychological factors. […] Somewhere in the middle lies George Sayer’s Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis (1988, 1994). […] Alister McGrath’s C. S. Lewis—A Life follows in the course set by Sayer.

Among the elements Markos’s review touches on: the evidently supportable suggestion by C. S. Lewis—A Life author Alister McGrath and Lewis actually converted to Christianity a year later than most biographers suggest he did.

Read the rest at The Gospel Coalition’s book review.¹