Sean Bala reviewed The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
Review of 'The Great Divorce' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
In "The Great Divorce," C.S. Lewis creates an excellent allegory of heaven and hell for the modern day. Deceptively thin, it is a text worth reading deliberately and meditatively. The story follows a narrator in hell catching a bus that takes the denizens of hell to heaven. I love the way that Lewis describes hell - a dreary place always at twilight where people attempt to live as far as possible from each other. The people on the journey are those still wrapped up in their intellects, sins, vices, and petty foibles. The bus is open to all but very few actually make the journey to the bus stand to get there. Once in heaven, the narrator and others struggle with the hyper reality of the place. Most of the book consists of encounters witnessed by the narrator between those from hell speaking to the spirits in heaven. Those encounters …
In "The Great Divorce," C.S. Lewis creates an excellent allegory of heaven and hell for the modern day. Deceptively thin, it is a text worth reading deliberately and meditatively. The story follows a narrator in hell catching a bus that takes the denizens of hell to heaven. I love the way that Lewis describes hell - a dreary place always at twilight where people attempt to live as far as possible from each other. The people on the journey are those still wrapped up in their intellects, sins, vices, and petty foibles. The bus is open to all but very few actually make the journey to the bus stand to get there. Once in heaven, the narrator and others struggle with the hyper reality of the place. Most of the book consists of encounters witnessed by the narrator between those from hell speaking to the spirits in heaven. Those encounters give credence to the idea that hell is not locked from the outside but from the inside.