Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

Robin’s Rave Reviews – Christmas 2021 Edition

Lucy wanders into a wardrobe and walks out into the wintery forest of Narnia. Here, at the lamppost, a faun named Mr. Tumnus invites her to tea.

Does this bring back fond memories of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Then check out Once Upon a Wardrobe coming out tomorrow, Oct. 19, 2021. Patti Callahan dives into the early life of C. S. Lewis through her new fictional story.

The world knows Lewis as the author of the Narnia series (starting with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and many others. Callahan’s interest in C. S. Lewis and his wife Joy Davidman led her to research and write her 2018 book, Becoming Mrs. Lewis. (Click link to go to my book review.) Callahan returns to her expert knowledge of C. S. Lewis’ life in her new book, Once Upon a Wardrobe. Lewis fans will enjoy learning more about his early life – of family, boarding schools, college, and military service. Through this new novel, Callahan questions where an author’s idea comes from, the same question I’m sure many of us have had.

Once Upon a Wardrobe

Shortly after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’s release, it captivates George, a young boy with a terminal heart condition. Megs, his sister studying physics at Oxford, would do anything to make George’s life better. When George wants Megs to ask Mr. Lewis where Narnia came from, she musters up the courage to approach the famous author. Lewis doesn’t give her a straight answer. Instead, he tells Megs stories about his life. Soon she is visiting C. S. (Jack) and his brother (Warnie) regularly, each time listening to stories to report back to her brother. Although there are shadows of potential connections in Jack’s experiences, can even the author pinpoint where his creative idea came from?

Callahan brilliantly weaves the fiction (of George and Megs) with the facts (of Jack and Warnie). She creates such a magical connection between Lewis, Megs, and George, readers will begin believing Megs really talked to Jack. Once Upon a Wardrobe challenges us to wonder at the spark of creativity, open our minds to both the logical and the fanciful, and see how the power of a story can transform us.

*Note: You will have a better reading experience if you’ve read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from the Narnia series at some point in your life, but it isn’t absolutely necessary.

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Thank you to Netgalley for providing an advance reader copy of Once Upon a Wardrobe. The opinions are my own.

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April 15, 2021

Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan

Patti Callahan (also Patti Callahan Henry), writer of women’s fiction and historical fiction, is known for books such as Becoming Mrs. Lewis, about the love of C.S. Lewis, as well as Losing the Moon, And Then I Found You, The Bookshop at Water’s End and many more. Patti’s newest is an amazing story about the sinking of the steamship Pulaski, nicknamed the Titanic of the South, in her newest historical fiction Surviving Savannah.

Told in dual timelines, readers experience the sinking of a luxury ship, the Pulaski, through the eyes of passengers from the Longstreet family as well as a modern day researcher.

Thirteen members of the Longstreet family (based on the real-life Gazaway Bugg Lamar family) board the ship transporting approximately 190 people. Travelers, seeking relief from the hot, humid Savannah summer, expect an easy trip sailing from Savannah to Baltimore with only one night on sea. No one foresees a simple mistake that causes one of the copper steam boilers to explode turning this into a real-life struggle for survival story.

Switching to a modern timeline, historian Everly Winthrop, is asked to curate a museum exhibition of the salvaged artifacts from the Pulaski shipwreck. Everly wants to create a display worthy of the people who lost their lives and the families forever changed by the tragedy. Wanting the exhibit to feel personal, she researches old letters and books to connect real lives to the finds coming from the research vessel at the wreck site. Uncovering these stories also helps her work through a personal loss.

Patti, the author, began researching the sinking of the Pulaski to see if she wanted to write historical fiction based on the event. She knew it was meant to be when the actual 1838 shipwreck was discovered only weeks after she began her research. She chose to give these passengers a voice from a nearly forgotten, almost two hundred-year-old story. Finding written survivor documentation of the event and interviewing the wreckage recovery team helped Patti create authentic situations for fictionalized characters based on real people. Patti’s story began unfolding on the page concurrent with the real-life recovery of artifacts from the bottom of the sea. She has stated in numerous articles that the timing gave her “chill bumps.”

Patti’s novel follows survivors on the days directly following the sinking as they are being pushed beyond human limits to get to safety. Patti also goes beyond the rescue of some of the passengers to explore how surviving affects the rest of their lives. How do survivors survive being survivors? What will they do with the life they’ve been given? How does Savannah survive losing so many of their elite citizens? How do people move on after their world has been suddenly changed?

Surviving Savannah is a read worth your time.

October 23, 2019

Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan

If you are a fan of C.S. Lewis, you need to pick up Patti Callahan’s book Becoming Mrs. Lewis. This historical fiction is based on many interviews and loads of research which enables Callahan to bring Joy Davidman’s experiences to life as she develops a long-term relationship with Lewis.

I have read books by CS (Jack) Lewis (The Narnia books and The ScrewTape Letters, for example) and by JRR Tolkien (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series), but years ago when I found out they were friends, I was enchanted by the thought. These two giants in the literary world hung out together. They were in a writing group together called The Inklings. And as the story goes, Tolkien helped lead Lewis to faith in Christ. After this, Lewis began to weave Christian themes and undertones into his writing. It has fascinated me for years how these two men could write such brilliant, fantastical stories with Christian themes and symbolism that has been and continues to be loved by both the secular and Christian worlds. Lewis is well known for his theological and philosophical writings, as well.

Although Becoming Mrs. Lewis mentions Tolkien and The Inklings, it is really the story of Joy Davidman. As a person with a similar conversion story as Lewis, she began writing letters to him. She also felt a literary connection to him since she was a published poet. Struggling in an abusive marriage and new to the Christian life, Joy sought counsel from Lewis. Her letters from America traveled across the ocean to Lewis at Oxford and he wrote back, gradually leading to a long-term pen-pal friendship.

Over many years Lewis continued to give her advice and encouragement, but he always kept his integrity. This life-long bachelor kept his feelings in check, only allowing his love to be philia (friendship/brotherly love). After many years when Joy’s circumstances changed and Lewis had the support of the Church of England, only then did he allow his feelings of eros (romantic love) to surface and they were married. For years there was a clear line he never crossed, often leaving Joy to wonder if the love she felt was only one-sided.

I applaud Patti Callahan’s success in writing this book. The amount of research she did truly made these two people come alive again. The love and respect readers have for Lewis will only be reinforced by seeing his continual integrity and kindness. As for Joy, we see a woman who endured many struggles with strength and courage during a time when society did not see a woman’s value. Additionally, we see how Lewis valued her and was influenced by her. Readers will realize that she greatly impacted Lewis to become the man we cherish today.

If this sounds like your kind of story, pick up a copy of Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan.