I've had a somewhat ambivalent reaction to this book, which some friends have praised highly, reading it over and over, and others have regarded with extreme skepticism, even derision (usually in those who can't stand C.S. Lewis).

The beginning is a description of a passionate love affair so all-consuming that it reads claustrophobic, even obsessive. Though the author describes how he and his wife "Davy" came gradually to Christianity through letters to and from C.S. Lewis, it reads to me as if his primary focus of worship was his wife, who unfortunately died far too young.

Then he faced the bitter struggle to make sense of his grief within his new faith, and Lewis was of crucial importance here--a poignant fact considering how he was to go through his own love and loss of a dear wife in his own turn. But there is no evidence that Lewis and Joy Davidman were quite as obsessive. I hesitate to say that the presence of Davidman's children (whom Lewis adopted as enthusiastically as he had Maureen, the daughter of the problematical "Minto"), which forces even the most passionate couples to think about others outside themselves, was the difference, as Vanauken and his perfect Davy professed to have the perfect life without kids.

There is nothing to be said for or against anyone's decision whether or not to have kids, only that parenthood seems to generate a paradigm shift that is not always seen in those who chose an offspring-free road. In any case this particular book, and the conclusion that Vanauken comes to, I think raises some questions that people can fruitfully discuss.