Patti Callahan Henry is already becoming known for her works, which indeed are well-admired books—full of good stories and a steadily deepening understanding of people.
But for me, all her previous books were overcome by the first book she wrote about my mother, Joy Davidman, and her marriage to C. S. Lewis, my stepfather. And this is not simply because she is a good writer (which she definitely is) but also because of the delicacy and care with which she wrote Becoming Mrs. Lewis.
For me, naturally enough, that is a very good book but also somewhat emotional for me to read. I was there, in that desperate and despairing world to which she was so carefully taking her readers. And yes, it did stretch my heart to some extent. But in her previous writings and in Becoming Mrs. Lewis, she was swimming in a calm, delicate sea.
In her new book, however, things have changed radically; she writes taking us adeptly through the storms of life that will face many of us and will move us deeply.
In Once Upon a Wardrobe, Patti smashes through the steep waves and torrents of life in ways that will leave us all astonished, searching and looking hard ahead. This is not merely a book worth reading, it is a book that will drive us through the difficulties of love and of sorrow, to struggle, gasping onward and upward, our emotions surging with us until we are brought, once again, to love.
In this amazing book Patti’s portrayal of my stepfather, C. S. Lewis, or “Jack” as he preferred to be known, comes once more to life, and he shows a very full understanding of what is needed to make us understand a little less carelessly, what the world expects of us—no, indeed, demands of us—until finally we get there! I advise you to read this book, then wait for a while and then read it again. For while it may not be Narnia, there is magic in it, and that deeply moved me.
Douglas Gresham
Stepson of C. S. Lewis