Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Gift of a Friendship by Colin DuriezMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
For me, this books subtitle is misleading. The majority of the book has nothing to do with the friendship of Tolkien and Lewis. In fact, the information in the books indicates they were co-workers and writing at the same time/sounding boards at times for each other but not "friends" in that they weren't really involved in each other's lives outside of the college and writing.
So much of the book had nothing to do with the interactions between Lewis and Tolkien. There was back story on a bunch of other people - including what they thought and said and wrote about L & T and their writings. There were lengthy summaries of many of L & T's works (with spoilers included if you haven't read them). There was some philosophy and theology (and not just as related to their beliefs and/or works) thrown in.
The book's structure was lacking as well. It was confusingly organized at times, despite there being dates on the chapter headings. Some places there were a ton of dates and others none at all. Even within those dates, the author jumped back and forth and all around. It had a lot of redundancies as well.
You don't even get any "friendship" information unti around Chapter 5 (page count in the 80's). That in addition to all the randomness had me skimming pages at a time. So much skimming I almost feel bad marking it as "read."
If you're looking for a wonderful book covering the friendship between these two great authors, keep looking. And then come back and comment when you've found one so I can check it out. :)
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