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A review by veniasum
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
5.0
I wish there were a sixth star for this book.
A friend loaned it to me (I had read the first two in the Space Trilogy but didn't own the last) and I stayed up until 3:45 AM reading (making some effort of will to put it down at the end of every chapter and failing).
A few things I loved:
1. Lewis has a rare ability to write apocalyptic fiction that bumps up against normal life in an utterly believable way. The blending of mundane and fantastic is....it's wow. I watched it happen and in his hands it seems easy, but I've seen it attempted and fall miserably flat.
2. The technique of jumping back and forth between two or more narrative threads is common, but I've never seen it done so well. The multiple threads in this story don't just complement each other as narrative, but on the level of character and theme. And there wasn't one I was annoyed to go back to because they were all so good.
3. Lewis writes about the transcendent in the context of story in a way that isn't stilted, mushy, or awkward — it's exhilarating. It's clear that he enjoyed writing this story immensely, and felt at home with it, rather than preaching an external moralistic tale.
4. Lewis' depiction of evil is intensely real. As a result, it is horrifying and ugly. The preaching is visual, gut-wrenching, heart-reaching. Similarly, the conversions are completely convincing, because the characters themselves are well-drawn, and the externals which they recognize are equally well-drawn.
A friend loaned it to me (I had read the first two in the Space Trilogy but didn't own the last) and I stayed up until 3:45 AM reading (making some effort of will to put it down at the end of every chapter and failing).
A few things I loved:
1. Lewis has a rare ability to write apocalyptic fiction that bumps up against normal life in an utterly believable way. The blending of mundane and fantastic is....it's wow. I watched it happen and in his hands it seems easy, but I've seen it attempted and fall miserably flat.
2. The technique of jumping back and forth between two or more narrative threads is common, but I've never seen it done so well. The multiple threads in this story don't just complement each other as narrative, but on the level of character and theme. And there wasn't one I was annoyed to go back to because they were all so good.
3. Lewis writes about the transcendent in the context of story in a way that isn't stilted, mushy, or awkward — it's exhilarating. It's clear that he enjoyed writing this story immensely, and felt at home with it, rather than preaching an external moralistic tale.
4. Lewis' depiction of evil is intensely real. As a result, it is horrifying and ugly. The preaching is visual, gut-wrenching, heart-reaching. Similarly, the conversions are completely convincing, because the characters themselves are well-drawn, and the externals which they recognize are equally well-drawn.