The story begins with John as a young boy. As he starts to taste life and experience different things, he begins asking questions. These questions lead him to examine himself and what he believes. It is interesting how Lewis deftly shows how we go from only believing what our parent's tell us to forming our own personal view of the world around us. Well, John ultimately gets to the point that he moves beyond rote belief in his parent's philosophy, to a point that he is compelled to figure out what he believes and to get his own questions answered. This leads John on a long journey that takes him far from his hometown. Along the way he meets up with a menagerie of characters who represent different world views, different systems of theology, and different schools of thought. John learns from each of these interactions and slowly comes to his own understanding.
I enjoyed my time with this book. There were several sections that were a bit of a tough slog because the philosophies that Lewis was writing about have long since gone the way of the dodo. Without any knowledge of the system that he was discussing, I could not fully appreciate the interaction. However, this was a worthwhile read for any Lewis fan. I might even tackle the Bunyan original at some point on my own literary journey.
