Post
by miniver » Thu Aug 29, 2013 3:35 am
It's hard for me to remember now that when I first read LB, it was not one of my favorites. (PC, HHB, and SC were.) Part of my reluctance was the Susan passage, which was very distressing to me as I had liked Susan so much in the other stories.
As Sir William says, it was on later readings that everything came together for me and I could understand the true power of the story. Through the years it became one of the books I love best. I remember waking up on nights when things were tough to deal with in my life and reading through parts of it at 3 A.M., and gaining sustenance from it. When you think about it, it's an extraordinary plot for an author to create for a book for young readers. This is not because there is death in it. Many of the children's classics feature deaths of favorite characters--for example, Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. But Lewis ended an entire world and began everything again. And he did it without seeming static and didactic. Even more astonishing, these were his first books for children. There was no learning curve.
Like Ajnos, LB always gives me the good shivers. The great thing about this book is that as one grows older, its impact does not diminish. Indeed, its effect increases. At least, that's what I've found.