Book Review: The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Dwelling on the true, good, and beautiful, and delighting in the impermanence of sorrow, despair, and jealousy.
Here is joy that cannot be shaken. Our light can swallow up your darkness: but your darkness cannot now infect our light. — The Great Divorce, pg 57
The Great Divorce is Lewis’ exploration of heaven and hell and the individual human experience of each, and it is perhaps one of the most thought-provoking books I’ve read this year.
One of the loveliest things Lewis achieves in this book is that is he is able to portray sincere, true goodness in an interesting, captivating way. This is such a difficult feat. We relate so much more easily to broken, sinful, imperfect characters, and we seek this out in much of our fiction: Whether lovers who miscommunicate, superheroes with major weaknesses, or wicked villains with a marginal-but-hopeful chance for redemption, we seek out stories of brokenness because we see ourselves in them. Eugene Peterson makes this point in his book Run with the Horses: A Quest for Life at Its Best:
It is enormously difficult to portray goodness in an attractive way; it is much easier to make a scoundrel interesting. All of us have so much more experience in sin than in goodness that a writer has far more imaginative material to work with in presenting a bad character than a good person.
And yet, amazingly, this is one of the best things Lewis captures in The Great Divorce. In chapter 12, he introduces a character named Sarah Smith who has completely captivated my imagination.
To set the stage for her appearance, Lewis contrasts the reality and permanence of heaven and those residing there with the minuscule and insubstantial nature of hell and those residing there.
As the narrator explores heaven as someone who does not quite belong there yet, he observes various interactions where characters experience or reject redemption, or the opportunity to become fully themselves: each provided with an opportunity to become the most himself he can, beyond what he could ever fathom in his own mind.
The narrator paints his vision of heaven with such substance that it is a bit painful to the one not ready for it. It takes time to adjust to the reality of heaven, and many of the characters who have the opportunity to remain in heaven choose to leave because it is uncomfortable both physically and emotionally. Apart from being more real than they can handle, it also requires a certain surrender of emotional and relational baggage that many cling to all too willingly.
Enter Sarah Smith, who radiates truth and beauty and goodness in such a way that she is celebrated amongst heaven’s inhabitants, though she was hardly noticed on Earth. As they sing of her, one of my favorite lines from the whole book spills forth from their lips (pg 57):
The Happy Trinity is her home: nothing can trouble her joy.
My eyes filled with tears at the first reading of this scene. Lewis captures a kind of security in Sarah found only in Christ himself.
I happened to read this chapter during a particularly difficult day when I found myself anxious about my future, my friends, and the direction of my life. And then, like a sweet gift, this line landed in my lap. Could I be like Sarah? Can what is said of her maybe one day be said of me as well?
If you choose to read this book after reading my review, I would be very curious to know two things: 1) Is there a character from hell you particularly identified with? Who and why? 2) Is there a character in heaven you aspire to be more like? Who and why?
You have the capacity to choose heaven. This fictional exploration from Lewis points to a very real choice you have in your own day to day life. Jesus Christ has offered you this free gift of eternal life, and it is up to you whether or not to choose it. The choice is simple, but it is costly (pg 2):
If we insist on keeping Hell (or even Earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.
Heaven is worth it.
*A brief note: Heaven and hell as depicted in The Great Divorce are not literal or biblical. Theologically, I think Lewis would even disagree with the way he has portrayed it. Read this book as it was intended: as a work of fiction, not an attempt at a true description of either heaven or hell, or how individuals end up in either place.