In response to my post on PRISONER OF NARNIA, two friends wrote by email. They have given me permission to quote their email here.
Sharon Gallagher, editor of Radix Magazine, wrote:
In my Radix (31:3) interview with Norman Stone, the director of the first Shadowlands, Norman is quite clear that Lewis's faith sustained him during Joy's illness and death. (Norman had talked with people who knew Lewis at the time.)
I wish that The New Yorker had given this assignment to either John Updike or Malcolm Gladwell--two of their superstars who would have handled the material with more understanding. (I've been a big fan of Gopnik's other writing and even bought his book about Living in Paris.)
Ginny Hearn wrote:
Hmmmmm. It's been many years since I read AGO, but this statement is apt to be read as "In his life, Lewis ended up in a state of uncertain personal faith . . . ", which is not accurate. I recall that this book, written in a journal-like fashion in the several months following the death of Joy, expressed CSL's understandable, terrible anguish at her loss after their brief marriage--but Lewis did NOT end up in the doubt [or unbelief in Christianity] that this statement might imply to an unbeliever looking for "comfort" in his or her doubt.