cover image C. S. Lewis Companion and Guide

C. S. Lewis Companion and Guide

Walter Hooper. HarperOne, $40 (940pp) ISBN 978-0-06-063879-5

What more can be said about C.S. Lewis who, though dead for over 30 years, still figures prominently on religion bestseller lists, provides grist for graduate theses and fuels not a few acrimonious debates? No new revelations are forthcoming from Hooper, Lewis's secretary during the summer before his death. Rather, he has assembled available information, arranging it chronologically, alphabetically and topically in this introduction to Lewis's life and times. Section one is a straightforward biography rife with references to Lewis's writings and to the explanatory entries in the three sections that follow: ""Who's Who,"" mini-biographies of Lewis's most formative friends and associates; ""What's What,"" definitions and place descriptions; and ""Key Ideas,"" summaries of Lewis's attitudes toward subjects as diverse as quiddity and pagan Christs. The entries in the last three sections are too few and too long to serve as a complete Lewis encyclopedia, but many are fascinating essays in their own right. (May)