The Great Divorce - by C.S. Lewis

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars out of 5.

This is my friend Mark's favourite novel  Although I admit it took me awhile to get into, once I finished reading it, I felt... almost satiated in my imagination and understanding of the afterlife.  In this book, you will find beautiful imagery, a glimpse into the heavenly and hellish realms, creatively imagined situations and richly described characters.

C.S. Lewis writes in the preface that he wishes with this book to "arouse factual curiosity about the details of the after-world". Even though this is a fictional story and set in the context of the afterworld, many ideas presented in it can be reflected upon, and applied to life.  For example, one of my favourite thoughts to contemplate was the idea of Hell/Purgatory/Heaven being almost inextricably linked together, where choices we make now and after death affect the course of our direction within its realms (see Love Wins by Rob Bell for another explanation on this subject).  On page 35 of The Great Divorce, the Fat Cultured Ghost asks of where he was, "What do you call it?" said he, to which the Dick Spirit replies, "We call it Hell".  The spirit goes on to say that, "though if you don't go back you may call it Purgatory".  Thus, Lewis plays with the idea that we may still choose Christ (and thus Heaven) or not (and thus Hell) even after death.

There are many barriers to reaching Heaven, even in the afterlife.  The Fat Cultured Ghost has a hard time following the Dick Spirit to heaven because he is a very intellectual man, and although "[t]hirst was made for water; inquiry for truth"(41), he prefers to stay in the constant stay of inquiring in lieu of actually wanting to be satisfied with Truth. Later on we read about the woman Ghost who was too busy fixing her mind on herself to be able to enter heaven. To shake her up and to get her thinking of something other than herself, for even a brief moment, Spirits sent a herd of unicorns her way to scare her. Despite this distraction, the moment did not seem to last long enough for her to engage in the possibility of Christ and the road to Heaven.  Some Ghosts seem to be too caught up in their own self-pitying sorrows that they reject joy.  And yet, a Spirit in the story explains that many mortals feel that no future bliss can make up for temporal suffering "not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory" (69).  I really like this idea :)

I love this book, and the thoughts it provoked while reading it. Leave a comment and let me know what you think if you read it yourself!