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I glanced at the book "Becoming Mrs. Lewis" by Patti Callahan. At the beginning, there's a quote from the Chronicles of Narnia. But...here it is.

To defeat the darkness out there, you must defeat the darkness in yourself.
Aslan, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis.


Not only did this author use a quote from the movies and attribute it to the books, she didn't even get the character who said it right! You'd think if an author were really interested in Lewis, they'd be a little more careful. I wasn't that interested in the book anyway but that misquote right off the bat really turned me off of it.

This is worth sending to William O'Flaherty, whose collected misquotes - supposedly by Lewis.

He's on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/techwilliam

This is worth sending to William O'Flaherty, whose collected misquotes - supposedly by Lewis.

I suspect someone has already shown it to him. Or if they haven't yet, they will soon.

I wasn't really planning to read the book, Johobbit. I'm not that interested in biographies or romance novels. But I'm a fan of Till We Have Faces which was dedicated to Joy Davidman. So when I happened on the book in a bookstore, I thought I'd glance at it. I was in a hurry though so I only read a couple of pages.

It'd be interesting to see if the book talks about Till We Have Faces and any connections between her life and it. I hope you enjoy the book. Or if you don't, I hope you can enjoy making fun of it. Feel free to do so on this forum so I can join you.

It's a deal.

I have no interest in romance novels, but biography is my favourite genre. However, this seems much more like the former, from the brief glance I have had. And it is written in 1st person, which I usually don't enjoy.

I'll keep an eye open for any references to Till We Have Faces.

I must admit I am not going into reading it with a very positive impression.

johobbit wrote:;))
I must admit I am not going into reading it with a very positive impression.

Did you read it? Thoughts? Someone said I should get it but we thought it was an actual biography. I did not even look at it yet.

I flipped through it at Hobby Lobby this weekend. (The misquote at the beginning made me remember this thread.) Mind you, I didn't read it thoroughly, but what I did see made me think it was a little... forced. Callahan was basically trying to fictionalize Jack and Joy's relationship, with a lot of made-up dialogue interjected between paraphrases of Lewis quotes. Their letters were there, but I wasn't sure if they were real ones or not. One or two sounded like passages from Mere Christianity. But that could just be because Lewis was the author of both the letters and the book.
Overall my impression was somewhat negative. But maybe you'll like it anyway.

Wow, that is some misquote. You would think writer's would try to get their facts straight before they publish. Or at least their editors would try and do some research, they are editors after all. I'm curious to know what the book is about. I didn't ever hear of it. Though I don't know if I'd actually pay money for it, with a misquote like that it doesn't sound very promising.

If you ever get around to reading it, Jo, please share what you thought. (If that's not asking too much)

And it's amazing how much poor C.S. Lewis gets misquoted

I suppose I should say that the main character is supposed to be Joy Davidman, not C. S. Lewis. So it would have been worse if they misquoted her.

If the author called her Joy Davidman, that wasn't correct, as she was still Joy Gresham.

We've been talking to the publisher. This misquote will be removed from the 2020 paperback edition.

That's good to hear; were they doing it anyway, or did you persuade them?

I agree, good to hear!

On the topic of Becoming Mrs Lewis, I was wondering, has anyone here read it? I read a favourable review of it online and was intrigued, but I'm wondering whether it would be worth the read — it could be a wonderful imagined insight into a truly great relationship, or a load of invented tosh, or anything in between, after all.

If any NarniaWebbers have read it, what did you think, and would you recommend it to others?

Right, I've decided to take the plunge and read Becoming Mrs Lewis for myself — I've bought the 2019 HarperCollins paperback (published in the UK), and guess what, as far as I can see, it doesn't include that misquote! The only quote in the front of it is from J.R.R. Tolkien's On Fairy-Stories, and all the quotes at the beginnings of chapters seem to be from Joy's own poems (presumably accurately quoted).

As I haven't come across anyone else here who's read it, I'll be happy to give a review (there's a discussion thread for books we've read in The Spare Oom, isn't there?) — don't know yet whether it's one to be recommended or to be avoided like the plague, but there's only one way to find out...