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A review by dkatreads
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
4.0
3.5 Lovely story, grounded with some of the most profound reflections on the human heart and it’s capacity for sin and love I’ve ever read.
In a lot of ways, this novel is brilliant and I really enjoyed it. But Lewis is brilliant in other novels too, and, in my opinion, to a greater degree and with better development of story.
The vignettes that drive this one are each groundbreaking and imaginative and spoke to a depth of wisdom I don't have in the slightest, but at the same time they felt cheap, like he wasn’t sure how to weave each nugget of reflection and wisdom into a whole. It just went from scene to scene. There wasn’t much story to feel invested in. I know what Clive is capable of, and one of his novels is in my top three of all time—this one just left me wanting more.
In that way, this rating speaks less to how much I enjoyed it, and more to how much more I wanted from it, and how much more I feel like it could be. I’d still recommend the hell (or heaven?) out of it though.
I’m also willing to concede that growing up in evangelicalism, maybe I’m just too acquainted with these metaphors already, so they didn’t feel as novel. Hard to say.
In a lot of ways, this novel is brilliant and I really enjoyed it. But Lewis is brilliant in other novels too, and, in my opinion, to a greater degree and with better development of story.
The vignettes that drive this one are each groundbreaking and imaginative and spoke to a depth of wisdom I don't have in the slightest, but at the same time they felt cheap, like he wasn’t sure how to weave each nugget of reflection and wisdom into a whole. It just went from scene to scene. There wasn’t much story to feel invested in. I know what Clive is capable of, and one of his novels is in my top three of all time—this one just left me wanting more.
In that way, this rating speaks less to how much I enjoyed it, and more to how much more I wanted from it, and how much more I feel like it could be. I’d still recommend the hell (or heaven?) out of it though.
I’m also willing to concede that growing up in evangelicalism, maybe I’m just too acquainted with these metaphors already, so they didn’t feel as novel. Hard to say.