In Beyond Narnia, a documentary about the author C.S. Lewis, there were many connections to his novel The Great Divorce. One of the most prominent links was the death of his wife, Joy. While the book was published in 1945, and she died in 1960, it's still eerily similar.
One character was distraught that God had taken her son, Michael, away from her on Earth. She was so heartbroken that she decided she didn't believe in that God-- she believed in a "God of love." She got stuck in the first stage of grief, and never moved past the tragedy that had struck her.
Lewis himself started doubting his religion when his wife died. He wondered what kind of God would take away his Joy. But, instead of staying in the first stage of grief like the character, he moved past it and reconnected with the church and his ideas of religion.
Since the book was written before his wife died, you could also compare the character to his father. After his mother died when Lewis was little, his father got stuck. He could not escape his grief and care for his two sons, so he sent them off to boarding school. This, along with the grief that he, too, was facing, shaped who he was.
Another comparison was the one character who, throughout his life, didn't necessarily believe in God-- but, towards the end, he turned to religion. This character could be compared to Lewis himself, who was Atheist during his younger life, but turned to religion as he aged.
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