Once Upon a Wardrobe - Patti Callahan Henry - ★★.½

AUTHOR: Patti Callahan Henry
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PUBLICATION DATE: October 19, 2021.
RATING: 2.5 stars.


In a Nutshell: I liked parts of the book but I didn’t find it coming together in a cohesive whole. This is an outlier opinion, so please read other positive reviews before making up your mind.


Story Summary:
The story is set in 1950. Eight year old George has a weak heart and is stuck to his bed. His solace lies in books, and his latest favourite is C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”. When his loving elder sister Meg, a physics student at Somerville College in Oxford, mentions that Lewis is a tutor of English literature at nearby Magdalen College, George begs her to meet him and ask him one question: Where did Narnia come from?
What follows is a combination story, partly focussing on Meg’s and George’s bond with each other, and partly focussing on Lewis’s recounting of his earlier years to Meg as an answer to her query.

I must admit that I am not a C.S. Lewis fan as such. I have read a couple of his Narnia books and found them decent, not outstanding. So I never bothered to complete the series. But of the ones I read, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” was my favourite. So I hoped to enjoy this story better. Unfortunately, my expectations probably ended up being too high.


Where the book clicked for me:
✔ George’s character seems a bit too precocious for his age and health condition, especially given that he hasn’t ever been to school. But he is still a sweet loveable boy. The relationship between him and seventeen year old Meg was adorably sweet. (Their bond reminded me a bit of the beautiful connection shared by Auggie and Via in R.J. Palacio’s “Wonder”, one of my favourite contemporary children’s books.) A similarly protective and loving relationship is depicted between C.S. Lewis (or ‘Jack”, as he is called in the book)and his elder brother Warnie. These two sibling connections are the best part of this story.

✔ While you don't need to have read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in order to enjoy this story, having some familiarity with it will help you relish the context more. You will get to know of Aslan and the four children and Mr. Tumnus and the whole magical wardrobe a lot better though Lewis’s story.

✔ The author’s attention to historical detail is very evident in the writing. The veracity of her story gets confirmed in the ending note which is written by actor Douglas Gresham, one of Lewis’ stepsons from his marriage to Joy.

✔ The start and the end of the book rates a full 5 stars. The foundation of the story is set beautifully in the initial chapters and the changed perspective and emotional growth of the characters is evidenced by the ending.

✔ At first, I wasn’t a fan of the romantic track included in the story. I assumed it was yet another book with the mandatory teen love track to add spice to the proceedings. But I liked how Callahan didn’t incorporate the romance just for the sake of it but worked it into the main narrative reasonably and gave it a lovely purpose.

✔ This book gave me two great names to be added to my TBR. One is “Becoming Mrs. Lewis” by Patti Callahan, which I want to read after knowing more about her in the above-mentioned ending note. The second is “Phantastes” by George MacDonald, which is recommended by Lewis to Meg.


Where the book could have worked better for me:
❌ I liked the George and Meg story a lot. I also liked the Jack and Warnie story to a great extent. What I didn’t like was the blend of these two stories together. Somehow, they didn’t mesh with each other seamlessly and I felt as if I was reading two separate books with some overlapping characters. The constant and abrupt switch between narrative voices didn’t help. The book would have worked far better for me if it were just focussed on Jack and Warnie, and tried to be kind of memoir of the Narnia author’s years before his writing success.

❌ I didn’t understand Meg’s character, though I initially connected to her very strongly because she seemed as logical and practical as I am in real life. But I soon realised that she was absolutely closed to the idea of anything creative. Her mulishness to get a precise answer about the origin of Narnia seemed unrealistic. I can understand George’s wanting to know where the story sprung from, but seventeen year old Meg’s determination to find a single and specific source for an author’s imagination seemed too farfetched to accept. For someone so logical to discount anything creative as impossible seemed... well, illogical. I would have loved for her character to be written in a more balanced and realistic way.

❌ The C.S. Lewis flashback story dragged in many places and I lost my patience with it multiple times towards the middle. (but not as much as I lost my patience with Meg who simply didn’t understand what Lewis was trying to tell her.)

All in all, this book wasn’t quite what I expected. But I can see the merits in it. C.S. Lewis fans will undoubtedly enjoy this way of knowing him better through his early years. Writers who bring stories to life in their minds may find it beautiful. Narnia fans might find it enthralling. This is a sweet and sentimental story, and I guess, as long as you keep yourself focussed on those points and ignore the writing gaps and the abrupt plot development, you will enjoy the work far more than I did.

My thanks to Harper Muse and NetGalley for the ARC of “Once Upon A Wardrobe”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.