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Rating: 
Summary: Yay! Finally something new!
Review: . . .written by one of Joy Davidman's sons (and CS Lewis's stepson).This is not a book primarily about CS Lewis. It is not a book primarily about Joy Davidman. Those who pick up this volume looking for a "biography" will be disappointed. Rather, the book is a painful exploration of the trials and tribulations of a young man faced with: 1) abuse by a violent father (whom he still loved) 2) the controversial marriage of his mother to a prominent public figure (whom he also loved, despite a sometimes difficult relationship) 3) the illness and death of his mother (1960) 4) the illness and death of his stepfather (1963) 5) the illness and suicide of his father (1964) 6) the normal "angst" of the growing-up years. Considered from this perspective, I suspect that the book was a form of catharsis for Douglas; a sort of "coming-to-grips" with years of pain and uncertainty. This sort of "from the heart" revealatory book will NOT suit all tastes (as is evident from the tenor of some of the other reviews). But taken for what it is, the book provides valuable insight into the Lewis "family".
Rating:
Summary: An honest recollection, full of angst and grief. . .
Review: . . .written by one of Joy Davidman's sons (and CS Lewis's stepson). This is not a book primarily about CS Lewis. It is not a book primarily about Joy Davidman. Those who pick up this volume looking for a "biography" will be disappointed. Rather, the book is a painful exploration of the trials and tribulations of a young man faced with: 1) abuse by a violent father (whom he still loved) 2) the controversial marriage of his mother to a prominent public figure (whom he also loved, despite a sometimes difficult relationship) 3) the illness and death of his mother (1960) 4) the illness and death of his stepfather (1963) 5) the illness and suicide of his father (1964) 6) the normal "angst" of the growing-up years. Considered from this perspective, I suspect that the book was a form of catharsis for Douglas; a sort of "coming-to-grips" with years of pain and uncertainty. This sort of "from the heart" revealatory book will NOT suit all tastes (as is evident from the tenor of some of the other reviews). But taken for what it is, the book provides valuable insight into the Lewis "family".
Rating: 
Summary: Nice but not great
Review: First I must say that I am a bit put off with reviews suggesting that this wonderful book is, to paraphrase, too much about Doug Gresham and not enough about C.S. Lewis. If you'll read the subtitle, it clearly indicates that this is a book about Doug's childhood with his mother and step-father. Taking this book for what it is, and what I believe it was intended to be, I feel I am able to see through the eyes of a young Doug Gresham, as well as an older Doug (who wrote this much later in life), and get a lot closer to a "true" image of Lewis. This book allows me to see a perspective of Lewis that no other author could possibly offer. I know that when my own father died almost two years ago, the glowing eulogy given was truly wonderful, but only touched on the essence of the man I knew my father to be. I feel that with this book, readers are offered a glimpse of Lewis that no one other than Doug could offer, and not yet another glowing eulogy offered by many other authors, nor a misguided critique offered by many writers who never even met the man. Additionally, Doug is quite a gifted writer, and this is evident of his accounts of Lewis' life throughout the book. And I would also add that over the past several years, Doug has become someone I consider to be a good friend as well, and I can tell you without any hesitation, he is one of the most direct and honest people I know. If I want the truth, read this book.
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Summary: "Lenten Lands": A Biography of Douglas Gresham's Life
Review: From the heart of Doug Gresham comes a lovingly wrought memoir which provides the reader with a rare glimpse of CS Lewis, the lifelong bachelor, as he welcomes, then ministers to a dear friend and her family - then falls in love, and becomes a remarkably wonderful Instant Father! Moments of shared pain, hope, triumph, and grief have formed an eternal bond between Jack and his "younger stepson..." which strengthened Douglas through further losses, and which continues to this day. A friend suggested I read LENTEN LANDS, while I was still smarting after reading Lewis' "A GRIEF OBSERVED." I will forever recommend both of these books to all Lewis readers!
Rating: 
Summary: Douglas Gresham's autobiography
Review: Lenten Lands is the autobiography of Douglas Gresham, the stepson of the famous writer, C. S. Lewis. Gresham was eight years old when his mother took him and his brother to England to meet C.S. "Jack" Lewis. In time, she and Jack married and lived in his picturesque cottage called "The Kilns" in Oxford, with his brother, Warnie. Gresham's mother suffered with cancer and died when Douglas was fifteen. Lewis was devastated by her death and died three years later. Warnie Lewis died ten years later. By this time, Gresham was married and living in Australia.
The problem with this book is that Douglas Gresham did nothing in his own life to warrant an autobiography. He grew to love C. S. Lewis in the ten years he knew him, but he was away at school the entire time. His descriptions of Lewis are vague because he never spent enough time with him to know him well.
The subtitle of this book - "My childhood with Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis" - is misleading, because he has little to say about them. He is the main subject of the book, and he led an uneventful life. The book should have ended with Jack's death, but goes on at length about Gresham's adult life. Fans of C. S. Lewis who hope to gain insight into the man will be disappointed. This book is about Douglas Gresham.
Rating:
Summary: A decade with C.S. Lewis, up close and personal.
Review: No true die-hard student of C.S. Lewis can pass on a reading of this book, and here's why:
Lenten Lands provides a perspective of Lewis that you can get nowhere else... the perspective of a stepson.
There are many books about Lewis the academician, Lewis the lay-theologian... Lewis the prolific author/poet... but a first-hand account of Lewis the around-the-house stepdad? Trust me, you will find THAT nowhere but here!
And it's an important perspective, this day-to-day life at the Kilns in Oxford, because many misconceptions about Lewis are cleared up in the midst of Douglas Gresham's recollections.
As other reviewers have noted, this is technically a biography of Douglas Gresham rather than of C.S. Lewis. The opening chapters are of the Gresham family in Staatsburg, New York. Then, in 1953, as a child, Douglas met Lewis for the first time in Oxford. By this time, Joy Davidman (Douglas' mother) was already acquainted with Lewis. Three years later (1956) the two were married in the Registry Office, but not before Joy's illness was already fairly advanced. The following year (1957) their vows are re-instated by the Rev. Peter Bide in Wingfield-Morris Hospital. Three years later Joy dies from cancer.
Then, three years after this, on a somber November evening while eighteen-year-old Douglas is still digesting the fact that President Kennedy has just been assassinated, he receives the news that Lewis has died.
"On that day... there was a bitter stillness about the world; for the second time in my life everything I knew, everything I held dear and the one person I loved had been swept away." I found this portion of the book to be especially moving.
The following year (1964) Douglas' birth father commits suicide.
A few final chapters tell of Douglas' own marriage and settlings in Tasmania and mainland Australia.
But the bulk of Lenten Lands consists of Douglas' decade of knowing C.S. Lewis. A very well-written book, the title being borrowed from a phrase in Joy's epitaph, written by Lewis.
As I read Lenten Lands I was reminded of something C.S. Lewis said long before ever knowing the Greshams. In his "Abolition of Man" (published 1943) he said "I myself do not enjoy the society of small children... I recognize this as a defect in myself."
Again, in a private letter to his friend Arthur Greeves (December 1935) Lewis commented "I theoretically hold that one ought to like children, but I am shy with them in practice."
Yet Douglas concludes that his decade of knowing Lewis was a "privilege"... "a gift of education and experience greater than some of us gain in a lifetime."
His statement confirms my own suspicion about Lewis... that he was a man of such inner greatness, that he proved to be good even at the things he was not good at.
Rating: 
Summary: A charming story.
Review: Unlike some reviewers, I found Lenten Lands well-written, poignant, and honest, though it dies a bit towards the end. (As auto-biographies often do -- if the author doesn't die first, like Moses.) I am not sure why some reviewers complain that Douglas chose to tell his story, even if his memories of Lewis were not as full, say, as George Sayers, and he has lived a fairly simple, even blue-color, life at times. Greshem's descriptions of growing up, the houses he lived in, taking the boat to England, London and Oxford, and the Kilns, were all interesting to me, though as a fan of Lewis I was of course anticipating scenes of his life. Greshem brings nature, his feelings, the drama of watching his mother come to love C. S. Lewis and the love returned, then her death, to life. The scene in which his dying but still fiercely defensive mother confronts a trespasser with a shotgun, C. S. Lewis standing alarmed at her side, and yells, "Get out of my line of fire, Jack!", and the scenes that follow, made me laugh for a fair chunk of an hour. I didn't expect this book to all be about Lewis; hasn't he had enough pure biographies already? I was pleased to learn much more about Joy, whom Douglas and "Jack" both greatly loved. (Having read her Smoke on the Mountain, I agree she had talent and insight -- though Douglas' claim that she was an intellectual match for Lewis should be described as filial, I think.) Lenten Lands seemed to me an honest and thoughtful story, and I found myself reading it very quickly.
Rating:
Summary: A charming story.
Review: Unlike some reviewers, I found Lenten Lands well-written, poignant, and honest, though it dies a bit towards the end. (As auto-biographies often do -- if the author doesn't die first, like Moses.) I am not sure why some reviewers complain that Douglas chose to tell his story, even if his memories of Lewis were not as full, say, as George Sayers, and he has lived a fairly simple, even blue-color, life at times. Greshem's descriptions of growing up, the houses he lived in, taking the boat to England, London and Oxford, and the Kilns, were all interesting to me, though as a fan of Lewis I was of course anticipating scenes of his life. Greshem brings nature, his feelings, the drama of watching his mother come to love C. S. Lewis and the love returned, then her death, to life. The scene in which his dying but still fiercely defensive mother confronts a trespasser with a shotgun, C. S. Lewis standing alarmed at her side, and yells, "Get out of my line of fire, Jack!", and the scenes that follow, made me laugh for a fair chunk of an hour. I didn't expect this book to all be about Lewis; hasn't he had enough pure biographies already? I was pleased to learn much more about Joy, whom Douglas and "Jack" both greatly loved. (Having read her Smoke on the Mountain, I agree she had talent and insight -- though Douglas' claim that she was an intellectual match for Lewis should be described as filial, I think.) Lenten Lands seemed to me an honest and thoughtful story, and I found myself reading it very quickly.
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