Is Becoming Mrs. Lewis Novel Based On A True Story?

I picked up ‘Becoming Mrs Lewis’ recently. This novel, which is largely inspired by true events, follows the journey of Joy Davidman, the American poet who was married to C.S. Lewis, famous author of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’. I thought the novel was wonderful as it attempted to look at the inner workings of Davidman’s transformation from an American poet to wife of a famous British author, and how this alterated her faith in herself and her writing. Patti Callahan has done a lot of research for this novel as it is written largely from letters and conversations between the author and C.S. Lewis. These are interwoven throughout the story which has been wonderful to read. It isn’t a biography and feels more like a novel as you experience Davidman’s struggles with her faith in herself as well as her writing and love.

Yes, it is largely based on real events. However, for fictional purposes, some scenes and dialogue have been created in order to better flesh out certain scenes in which little information has been documented. I really loved this book. If you are at all interested in stories about unusual love, and or in the lives of famous authors then I highly recommend this novel. It provided a wonderful glimpse into the life of the woman who brought so much joy to C.S. Lewis in his later life. Now I really need to go back and re-read Till We Have Faces.

This book is totally based on real life. The relationship between Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis really happened. This book is sort of a history of their relationship, with lots of details that the authors made up, of course. There are some really sad parts, including the ending, which I won’t give away. What was really great about this book, however, is that it portrayed Joy Davidman as more than just the wife of C.S. Lewis. She was a writer in her own right, and received a Pulitzer nomination for her work. Of course, this is a work of fiction first and a work of history second, but it was really great to see Joy receive the recognition she deserved as a writer.

Just finished reading ‘Becoming Mrs. Lewis’ – the love story of C.S. Lewis and his dear friend Joy Davidman (writer of poems in her spare time). I had no idea that the author of ‘the screwtape letters’ had such a dramatic love life! Although the book is based on fact it does have a big dose of romance in it and I felt that some scenes were greatly exaggerated (I even recognized the place where they had a big row about poetry in the rain while C.S. Lewis was at Oxford!).

I really enjoyed how the novel portrayed Lewis in all his humanity. All his weirdness and messiness and awkwardness was just all there on the page. The religious bits are all quite important to the story, I suppose not everyone will be interested in them, but they’re an important part of the story of how two people of different faiths found each other. I was really interested to read their real letters after finishing the novel, they were so much more formal than their representations in the book, but the core of their emotions was all there. A really great read, if you liked ‘Shadowlands’ then you’ll really enjoy this. Just don’t go into it expecting a documentary.