Sheldon Vanauken's The Little Lost Marion and Other Mercies is a collection of essays composed during different periods of the author's life. It begins with an epilogue (so to speak) of A Severe Mercy and Under the Mercy with the history and then the discovery of Marion, Davy's daughter who had been put up for adoption. I liken this to a delightfully unexpected dessert after the full-bodied, rich entrees of A Severe Mercy and Under the Mercy: for those longing for more, this is right welcome. In this essay as well as others, Vanauken explores several topics concerning current issues and events. His reasoning and logic disallows complacency; he will not let the reader go "brain-dead" on the issue. Two essays which necessitate reading by a larger audience are "The Iron Law of Home" and "Officers and Gentlemen at the Citadel." He gives a refreshingly different perspective than most of today's thinkers and writers. Vanauken also includes many of his yachting essays from the times he and Davy spent sailing; interesting articles but confusing for me having no experience in that arena. In the foreword Mr. Simmons mentions the necessity of the "conversion of heart and intellect both." Mr. Vanauken displays such conversion and by chance will assist such conversion as well.

A Severe Mercy is a masterfully crafted autobiography and the story of an intensely deep love relationship, a profound introspective on their path to finding God, and the utimate bereavement the author experiences as his thirty-something wife dies of a terminal illness.

Along the way, their paths cross with C.S. Lewis; personal correspondence with him peppers the book, as does a collection of superb poems written by Vanauken. It explores complex theological, philosophical and aesthetic issues with deep insight and profoundly sharp perspective. I can't recommend it highly enough, it's truly one if the best books I've ever read - a work of art which crosses many dimensions.

Practically speaking, A Severe Mercy explores a number of crucial life issues with breathtaking clarity. First, the second chapter, "The Shining Barrier" distills more insight into the true workings of a wonderful marriage relationship than a dozen garden-variety relationship books from the self-help section of a bookstore. Anyone who wants to understand why their romance has cooled off after five or ten or twenty years of marriage (including myself) could use this chapter alone as a manual for re-kindling the fire.

Secondly, it explores the nature of a difficult spiritual journey in a most articulate way - the emotional, philosophical, theological and personal implications of the claims of Jesus Christ. This book is not in any way a Bible-thumping promo for Christianity; rather it examines the claims of Christ and their implications from logical, historical, aesthetic and personal viewpoints -- in a way that no thinking person can easily dismiss.

I gave this book to friends of mine, a highly educated married professional couple, before they went on a camping trip. They were struggling mightily to reconcile Christianity with their modern worldview and the book was instrumental in helping them accomplish a breakthrough.

Third, it delves into the difficult interior world of a person who is bereft of the love of his life and who must feel the sorrow and loss and yet go on.

A Severe Mercy plumbs the depths of all of these issues via beautiful prose, expertly crafted perspective, and provocative poetry. Highly recommended.

After several readings of this book over the past few years, I can conclude without any hesitation that it is the most moving and unforgettable memoir I've ever read. It is relevant to note that all 29 of the other ... reviewers (at the time of my own writing) rate it a solid 5 stars... it really deserves a sixth. Not only for it's amazing true content, but for the beautiful way in which the author lays it all out. This book will literally captivate your imagination, sweep you away, and tug you towards a deeper understanding of the depths of "inloveness" (a Vanauken term) possible in God-ordained marriage.

Sheldon and Jean Vanauken were living the dream of togetherness that most people only.... well, DREAM about... until they came face to face with the fact that perhaps "perpetual springtime is not allowed." Those words were from their personal friend, the Oxford don C.S. Lewis and addressed to Sheldon as he tried to make sense of his overwhelming grief.

This is the story of a profound love between two people... a love that has its genesis, consummation, and terminus in heavenly places. If your eyes are dry all the way through this book... well, never mind... they won't be.

After putting it off for several years, I finally read A Severe Mercy, between Maunday Thursday and Easter Sunday, 1999. With Christ's Passion, Death, and Resurrection as the background, along with my wife's yearning to leave our Lutheran exile and join the Roman Catholic Church, I cried my way through the book, simply unable to restrain tears of hurt, joy, compassion, sorrow, and very strong empathy. These tears were also shed in the context of Little Lost Marion, Vanauken's story of finding the child Davy had at age 14, and which she put up for adoption, not aborting. Sheldon and Davy never had children, a pre Christian decision a Christian Vanauken came to regret.

Then it hit me. The power of the book doesn't lie primarily in the story of grief and lost love, as poignant and beautiful as it is. Rather, if we stop with Sheldon and Davy's love for each other, we will miss Vanauken's major point: Davy's death as God's "severe mercy" to keep Sheldon in God's love. Davy's death allowed God to destroy the 'shining barrier" of their love, kill that idol, and reclaim Vanauken for himself. Mercy, indeed, if you can handle it, and Vanauken, in God's grace did. Perfect Lenten and Holy Week reading! But also a perfect book to help Christians understand the lengths to which God will go to keep his children and to see that in the great hurts and disappointments of life, God's severe mercy is frequently at work.

Peter Kreeft is indeed a very brave man to have tackled such a broad and seemingly unanswerable question: Why do we suffer? And where is God in all of our pain? Peter Kreeft attempts to sort through the dilemma that is involved in being human, insert God, and then explain some of our misguidedness and confusion. It's a warm book with some very nice Psalms and thoughts to reflect upon even when we aren't suffering. This book is particularly relevant after 9-11. We all need to take a moment and look through this, it's very comforting.

Peter Kreeft has written an intellectually stimulating book on something we all have to face: suffering. He does so by giving us clues from philosophy, the arts, and the Bible to the meaning of suffering. As a Catholic Christian, Kreeft finds the ultimate meaning of suffering in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. It is a book worth reading and re-reading. In my view, his most striking insight is how in literature, including the biblical story of Job, the protagonist must undergo suffering before the final triumph of good over evil. He urges us to view ourselves as protagonists in the midst of our own life stories. If good finally triumphs, as Christians believe, then the story is worthwhile, even with its inevitable suffering. Like a true philosopher, he also includes a thought-provoking chapter on why modernity can't understand suffering. This is a book that will appeal to all Christians, Catholic or non-Catholic, and to all persons searching to understand the meaning of suffering.

I would like to strongly recommend this book to all. It handles the hard question in a very sober and inspiring way and even humorously :-). Kreeft has not the role of an excathedral theologian or philosopher. No, he is a philosopher in the true sense. Majeneutics, the Socratic method of philosophical dialogue, is mixed with reflexions. The author points out and by hints lets the reader find the answer. He is a seeker, voyager and a challenger like we all. Like any good voyager he has his common sense and lot of experience as compass and ofcourse lot of professional knowledge and wisdom. Thouse of us who luck it or can not structure our life-experiences should read this humble and beautifull creation of a genius. Suffering makes sense. AMDG

What's always interesting about this book is how it serves as a litmus test for the general character of those reading it, and the unspoken gender assumptions that come from it. From a woman's perspective, this book is palatable only by those who see a woman's place in the same manner as those who espouse a conservative christian view - a woman is an object of adoration, but her place in the relationship between God, husband and wife, she is clearly to submit. To me, it is so incredibly apparent that as she has her conversion experience, she begins to fall out of love with Sheldon. Awoken to the ugliness of the world that is seen through God's eyes, Sheldon sees this as an enlightened conscience, whereas many women today may see it as 'high dissapointment' at a faith system that instead of bringing her a promised grace, tears her into a judeo-christian framework of reality that is harsh, unloving and highly sexist. Sheldon's love before and after the conversion is adult infatuation, and I find it telling that so many men view this as a compelling love story - they are unable to see past a woman as an object.

"A Severe Mercy" is so much more than a love story. Reading through this book quickly doesn't do it justice. You HAVE to take it one chapter at a time and really soak it in. Not only is he telling us how much he loved her, he is showing us how God loves and uses life to teach. I used to live in the town in which this story is told and I've spoken to many of his ex-students, they paint a picture of a man even more amazing than this book lets on. I would also highly recommend Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

If you are, ever have been, or plan to one day be in love, you must read this book. Vanauken, through correspondence with Oxford don C.S. Lewis, discovers the source of all true love. Vanauken and his life slowly discover that when Christ's love is left untapped, all other love is mere emotion. Sound foreign? Read this book.

Under the Mercy, a sequel to A Severe Mercy, is a fine mix of memoir and essays from the times discussed. Stylistically, it is less like a straightforward memoir (as A Severe Mercy was), and more like Newman's Apologia. The style is complex, and in the middle of the book the writing loses some of its quality (though the book revives for a very stirring ending). That said, the work displays a razor wit and stunning satirical ability that A Severe Mercy did not suggest Mr. Vanauken possessed. It shows a new side of Vanuken, and shows him developing as an author. The book also has Vanauken's accustomed emotional power, and if it is not quite as perfect as A Severe Mercy, it certainly has greater range in theme, tone, and style. A worthy work in its own right.

This book is a sequel to A SEVERE MERCY. It does not possess the writing unity of the first book, but is more like a collage or scrapbook. It will be interesting reading for all those who loved A SEVERE MERCY. I do not recommend reading UNDER THE MERCY, though, unless you have read A SEVERE MERCY first.

This book was Vanauken's thesis work while at Oxford, presenting a neglected and unusual viewpoint of England's position on the American Civil War. Vanauken's views on "The War Between the States" won't draw much of a following nowadays, but that doesn't mean they are incorrect or misleading. To the contrary, Vanauken forces the reader to rethink long accepted dogma about America's bloodiest conflict, and why England never entered the fray. American Civil War fans will enjoy reading this book.

Unlike the stunning book A SEVERE MERCY, Vanauken's novel GATEWAY TO HEAVEN is neither emotionally uplifting nor fascinating. It is melodrama, with most of the conversations being "overdone". Too much hype. This novel is not Vanauken's best work. Better to stick with A SEVERE MERCY.

Gateway to Heaven is a surprising, moving novel. In many ways, it reads as if one of the better Victorian novelists-- novelists of ideas, religion, romance, humor, and emotion-- were transported into the 1960s to write a book about the time. Gateway possesses some of the faults of a first novel (especially a Victorian first novel)-- occassionally it is a bit difficult to believe, and occasionally the conversations are a bit too abstract-- but its virtues in emotive power and intellectual weight far outweigh these vices. A rare piece of art.