Joy

May 11, 2015
If not for Joy Davidman’s marriage to C.S. Lewis, it’s unlikely that anyone would be reading a book about her. Nevertheless, debut author Santamaria does her best to fill in Davidman’s scattered life, starting with her days as a student at Hunter College in the early 1930s; her infatuation with the Communist Party and poems supporting the cause; her first marriage, to author William Lindsey Gresham, in 1942; and the birth of their two sons. The marriage was rocky, with Davidman dissatisfied with life as a conventional housewife and Gresham struggling with alcoholism. The couple dallied with Dianetics before Joy, already interested in C.S. Lewis’s writing, became smitten with him after the two began corresponding. As her marriage dissolved, she left for England hoping to start a relationship with Lewis. Joy succeeded, divorcing Gresham in 1954 and marrying Lewis in 1956. Though Santamaria describes their relationship as “blissfully happy,” some details indicate that Lewis may have been more ambivalent (he buried their wedding announcement in the Christmas Eve edition of the Times, where few would notice it). Readers enchanted with the version of Davidman and Lewis’s romance presented in the film Shadowlands may be disappointed that the facts don’t fully support what Santamaria calls “one of the 20th century’s greatest love stories.” B&w insert. Agent: Sarah Burnes, the Gernert Company.

May 15, 2015
A woman's quest for faith and love. In this impressive debut biography, Santamaria traces the life of Helen Joy Davidman (1915-1960), a woman who likely would be a historical footnote if not for her marriage to the noted writer C.S. Lewis. In the 1993 film Shadowlands, director Richard Attenborough portrayed their love affair. Poet, essayist, critic, and novelist, Davidman was a rebellious, abrasive, precociously intelligent woman with no social skills: "She'd look at you intensely and ask inappropriately intimate questions out of the blue," one acquaintance recalled. It's no wonder that she felt herself an outsider, even as a child. Her parents, secular Jewish immigrants, prized education and pushed her to excel. She became a teacher but hated it. In 1938, searching for a community with like-minded political views-and also hoping to meet men-Davidman joined the Communist Party. While she participated in meetings and social events, she devoted herself to her true vocation: writing. She won a Yale Younger Poets Award, contributed to the Marxist journal New Masses as well as other venues, and even went to Hollywood to write screenplays. By 1946, she and her husband, William Gresham, became deeply disillusioned with Marxism and gave up their Communist Party membership. Joy shifted her focus to religion, first thinking she would "become a good Jew," then enthusiastically embracing L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics. But suddenly she discovered C.S. Lewis, whose writings on Christianity she found compelling. She wrote to him and soon fell obsessively in love, traveling to England with the aim of marrying him. Her marriage to Gresham, roiled by his alcoholism and infidelities, ended in divorce. Although Lewis first bristled, he warmed to her attentions and was devastated when, months after their marriage, Joy was diagnosed with bone cancer. With access to unpublished documents and family papers, Santamaria has fashioned a compelling narrative, remaining cleareyed about her subject's many personal failings.

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2015
C. S. Lewis' biographers view Joy Davidman (191560) as having deliberately captured as well as captivated him. Although Santamaria is never hostile, her candid presentation doesn't dispel the desperate-schemer image. Indeed, Davidman seems to have been chronically desperate. Possessed of a virtually eidetic memory for writing, she was a contrary young woman who countered her parents' middle-class attitudes by embracing communism. She won a Yale Younger Poets award, parlayed that into six months in Hollywood, and married a fellow leftie writer. With him she had two sons, traded Marxism for Christianity and then Dianetics, and drank and spent too much. She ran away to England to meet the sf novelist and Christian apologist she adored for his writing. Lewis initially resisted, but she prevailed and, after diagnosis with irreversible cancer, married him and inspired his last novel and the classic reflection, A Grief Observed (1961). Santamaria makes no case for Davidman's scant literary accomplishments but uses her letters and unpublished, journal-like sonnets to try to sympathize with the pathetic, crass woman who somehow blessed Lewis' life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2015

Santamaria's debut is sure to get attention from C.S. Lewis scholars and fans. Written for a general audience, this is the first full biography of Joy Davidman (1915-60), wife of C.S. Lewis (1898-1963). During her research, Santamaria accessed never-before-seen material held by the family. Starting with Joy's childhood in a middle-class Bronx neighborhood, the narrative traces her lonely school years, the development of her writing career, and her romance with the Communist Party. We learn of her marriage to writer William Lindsay Gresham, the birth of their children, their financial problems, interest in Dianetics, and conversion to Christianity, and the slow dissolution of their union. Readers discover that Joy's correspondence and eventual marriage to Lewis began as a deliberate seduction. Her flaws and mistakes are presented sympathetically but without excuses. VERDICT Fans of Lewis and the movie Shadowlands, a dramatized version of his life with Joy, may be disappointed by the lack of romance and shocked by how calculating she was. However, those who want to know the real Davidman will discover a woman in search of purpose and meaning who finally finds it in the faith and person of Lewis. [See Prepub Alert, 2/9/15.]--Stefanie Hollmichel, Univ. of St. Thomas Law Lib., Minneapolis

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2015

A poet busy in New York literary circles in the 1930s-1940s, a frequent contributor to the Communist publication New Masses, born Jewish in the Bronx but an atheist who turned to Dianetics, Joy Davidson does not seem the type to become the wife and spiritual partner of renowned Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. But after converting to Christianity and sailing to England in 1952 to meet the man whose works had so influenced her, Davidson became an integral part of his life. Love, marriage, and deep intellectual friendship; Santamaria's first book, six years in the making, and the first big biography of Davidson.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.