The Man Behind Narnia

By: A. N. Wilson

Narrated by: James Warrior

Length: 3 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

It looks like a wardrobe, but open it up and it leads you back into a world of childhood - of fantasy. Lewis, now famed the world over as a children's author and religious apologist, was a university Professor who kept his private life a doggedly guarded secret. Living exclusively in the world of men, his life was really dominated by women - by his mother, whose death when he was a child scarred his whole life; by Jane Moore, with whom he lived for 33 years; and by Joy Davidman, the American he married. The mystery of Lewis is deep. He was a man who professed to be ruled by his head, but was manifestly governed by his heart.

In The Man Behind Narnia, A.N. Wilson, who wrote Lewis' full-length biography over 20 years ago, returns to the theme - having made a television documentary about Lewis and his work. He opens the wardrobe and finds many demons - some are Lewis', and some are his own. A.N. Wilson is the author of over forty books - 20 novels, biographies of C.S. Lewis, Tolstoy, and John Milton, a three-part history of the last 100 years, and stories for children.

©2013 A.N. Wilson (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Ambiguous and entertaining

For the most part, I really enjoyed this audio book and the new information I learned about C.S. Lewis from it. I think the writer deliberately makes it hard to know if he "chooses a side" in any argument, let alone which side he chooses. He is apparently open minded and interested in telling the truth even if it's disturbing. All well and good. Entertaining and insightful without a clear message or punchline. Narration is slow and careful but easy to listen to and enjoyable.

Author has a strong distaste for C.S. Lewis

I listened for 15 min and it was awful. Don't waste your time if you have any appreciation for CS Lewis.

This book isn’t about Lewis—it’s about Wilson.

This is the foulest, thinnest, and most self-absorbed bit of flotsam I have ever seen passed off as a biography. Wilson spends the entire first chapter of what is really a very short book talking not about Lewis, but about his own sad and sordid life.

He then trots out a lot of half-formed attempts at literary criticism, grumbles about his midlife crisis and tepid vacillations between atheism and pseudo-faith, hazy musings about his own experiences filming a documentary about Lewis, and sketchy details about Lewis’s life all previously documented in other, better sources, and then seasons the resulting stew with a sprinkling of highly speculative character assassination.

It’s a mess, and easily the worst book about Lewis I have ever read. Steer clear of this one and listen instead to George Sayer’s Jack.

Reader BEWARE

Any additional comments?

The author has nothing but contempt for C.S. Lewis! The author is anti-Christian. He writes this book from that bias.

Wilson is having an identity crisis...

Wilson is having an identity crisis in which he is obsessed with Lewis, and puts way too much thought and time into comparing himself to him, putting fault on an him for his own actions and attempting to analyze him in every way possible.
The saddest part of it all is that the man he is so completely infatuated with and whom he has spent so much of his time, energy, and sanity over had already passed before this started!
Yet, he imagines that he has ruined his life overall. He even goes on to write this book and discredit said man in every way possible! IT'S A VERY PATHETICALLY LONG RANT FROM AN OBVIOUSLY DEKUSIONAL MAN WHO NEEDED MORE THERAPY THAN PROBABLY POSSIBLE!
Don't waste even a minute of your time on this sad a** B.S.! lol

Nauseating

Would you try another book from A.N. Wilson and/or James Warrior?

I find this book as nauseating as this author found Narnia. A waste of money.

Would you ever listen to anything by A.N. Wilson again?

Never.

Would you be willing to try another one of James Warrior’s performances?

No.

What character would you cut from The Man Behind Narnia?

The author’s opinions.

Any additional comments?

Complete waste of time and money.