Witch in the Wardrobe

 Quite a clever title, I thought. Connotations of 'in the closet'. I was partly drawn to read this book by the suggestion in the question in the blurb: "Was C.S. Lewis a Secret Mage?" I could well understand where that came from. CS Lewis did keep company with an eclectic mix of people including some who were interested in 'esoteric' religion in the mid 20th century. And among them some Christians who were interested in the way that some Christian spiritual themes had parallels in esoteric speculations and thinking and of course people whose interests related to story-telling and ancient stories which often involve magic and strange creatures. Bear in mind too that Lewis had an idea about myth becoming incarnate in Jesus and indeed to the bold idea that the cross is the 'deep magic' (a phrase from The Magician's Nephew as well as the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, I  think) of the universe. But of course this preparedness to do what the apostle Paul did is not shared by some more uptight versions of Christianity. Paul was prepared to borrow terms from the wider religious and spiritual culture of his times, -so was the author of the fourth gospel, come to that. By contrast there are Christians whose go-to place in such cases, is to suspicion and heresy hunting. Usually without giving any attempt to understand what is really meant and what is actually going on with other people's world-views. The dialogue in the book goes over some of this ground as characters explain their different positions at various points.

And it is this fracture in mainly USAmican evangelicalism that the novel uses to drive plot and tension. On the one hand, those who are comfortable that Lewis was an orthodox Christian (albeit one who was somewhat high church -though many don't really notice that) who had a helpful approach to imagination, apologetics and faith. On the other hand, there are those who are deeply suspicious of anything that even hints at the occult.

From the explainer I saw: "When a mysterious document suggesting C.S. Lewis had occult connections surfaces in Belfast, it triggers a deadly chain of events that brings together an unlikely duo: a former IRA sniper seeking revenge and a Christian college professor guarding his faith." So it is easy to grasp how the suggestion of proof of membership of an occult society (making him a "witch") would be a big blow to the reputation and marketability of CS Lewis.

 The plot moves fairly briskly and is engaging. I would say that this is a plot-driven story. And I quite liked the way that against a very sectarian background of both Northern Ireland on the one hand and on the other of deep differences in the Christian world of North America, there was some degree of learning to work together and to begin to understand that the religiously other might not be as bad as they're cracked up to be. The parallel between Irish sectarian violence and the latent violence portrayed of 'christian' militias in north America was not lost on this reader. For me this is the most uncomfortable part -being confronted with the way that too many people bearing the label 'Christian' are ready to resort to force of arms to defend their faith Even against other Christians -the apostles and church fathers and mothers would spin in their graves.

Personally, I sometimes felt that some of the characters were portrayed speaking in ways I didn't always find convincing: unlikely vocabulary or turns of phrase. I also felt that I didn't really get to know the characters properly -the plot and length of the novel didn't give me enough time to get to know them. That said, I did feel for the central characters and their tragedies as they unfold and was happy to see some bitter-sweet resolution.

An oddity in this book: Rather than C.S. Lewis, the typesetting consistentely has "C.    S. Lewis" -at least in the edition I had to view.  I kept wondering whether this was significant, -maybe there'd be an explanation later in the story. There wasn't. There was also something intriguing going on with some of the names. Notably for me, Simon Magister whose name seemed to nod towards Simon Magus and Magister itself has been a title used by occultists of higher grades or statuses of magician. I wondered whether this was merely a co-incidence or would have some other significance. It was almost Dickension a name, I thought. But Simon remained far from a Simon Magus or some sort of covert occultist which his name had made me suspect he might be at first.

"... Controversial aspects of C.S. Lewis’s legacy are also ingeniously woven into the story." (Lasse Heimdal, general secretary, Kirkens SOS) I guess I'd say that it's more than woven-in -it's the central hinge of the story. It's interesting because there's enough of a hook there to tie in the struggle for influence between over-anxious heterophobic evangelicals on the one hand and a commercially sensitive USAm' ican publishing industry on the other.

“The strongest element of this narrative is how seriously it takes books—there is something thrilling about the idea that books, and their interpretations, can be matters of life and death.” —Kirkus Review   -That's true; it's central and probably this is a fair point of comparison with Dan Brown where it's religious documents at stake that could shift the way people think about things. I think I prefer my thrillers to be a little more this side of the believable. I didn't quite believe UNIKORN or even the booksellers' cartel, in the end. Though it is this close to believability [indicates small distance between thumb and forefinger].

L.D. Wenzel’s Website
L.D. Wenzel Interview on The Author Show
A Witch in the Wardrobe YouTube character shorts

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