If I Had Lunch with C.S. Lewis

Short Review: I have a read a number of good books about Lewis and a lot of Lewis' work directly, including McGrath's very good biography of Lewis. But this book failed on a number of levels. First, it just didn't live up to its title or the purpose laid out in the preface, it was not about lunch with Lewis as much as it was lectures by McGrath about Lewis. This was as much biography and book report as it was anything else. And in the audiobook at least, the tone of the narrator was very condescending and ‘listen to me while I tell you all I know.' There is also a smaller, but real problem, with Lewis being sanitized here. It is always a problem with an introduction and/or evangelical biography, but this felt more like the presentation of a saint than the actual complicated Lewis.

There was good stuff here, McGrath knows a lot about Lewis. But if you have read a lot by or about Lewis, you don't need this. And if you have not, you would probably be better off reading Lewis directly and picking up one of the good biographies of Lewis. The biographies by McGrath, Sayer, Jacobs and Brown are all good options.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/lunch-with-lewis/

I think the title of the book was misleading. I was expecting something like the imaginary dialogue in “Between Heaven & Hell” but instead it was just McGrath quoting Lewis and talking about different passages. Someone new to Lewis might enjoy this book more than I did, but I would recommend they just read Lewis's words for themselves instead.