A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

So I've just finished A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, and I wasn't so sure that I would write a review of it. Mostly because I didn't grow up reading anything by L'Engle. After finishing the book I had this huge feeling that had I read it when I was younger, it would have changed the way I was arranged inside. That said, I am still impressed by this book.

Initially, I thought it was going to be a fantasy story. And there are definite elements of fantasy, but I totally see it as more Science Fiction. In an interview with L'Engle at the back of my edition (which also features a complete transcript of L'Engle's acceptance speech for her Newbery Award), she mentions reading about Einstein's theory of time and space, and it gave her the idea for tesseracts and space travel. I really, cerebrally, appreciated her explanantion, with pictures, of how Meg and crew could travel across the galaxy and visit other planets. I loved the placement and stark horror of CENTRAL central intelligence. All of the SciFi stuff was very cool and intelligently used.

I loved the character of Charles Wallace. I loved that he used his full name throughout. He was extremely intelligent but also very empathic and compassionate. I liked that L'Engle made Charles Wallace such an ambiguous and unique character. He's like a little miracle person, and I loved that he was in Meg's life. She was a little too hot-headed for me. Especially when she is so disappointed in her father near the end. She was such an arbiter of fairness throughout that I was annoyed when she judged her dad so harshly. And he was all like "Uh, I was trapped in a column of nothingness for a long time, cut me some slack" (not a direct quote--although that would have been hilarious).

I also thought that it ended a little abruptly. I would have liked a little more of a showdown, a Crossroads air-guitar reckoning. But, there are some very insightful and impactful observations about life, the living of it, light, dark and all the rest in this book that I will remember.
I'm afraid that this review, which is more of a whispy musing, won't do the book justice for those who grew up reading A Wrinkle in Time. If I had use for a tesseract it would be to deliver this book to my younger me.

I would also like to pass this book on to anyone who would like it. It's a beautiful edition with a forward by Anna Quindlen, an interview with L'Engle and a transcript of her Newbery speech. This little draw is open to anyone regardless of location; I will mail it out to you. I'll be using the random.org true random number generator, which I learned about through For the love of all that is written blog, to determine the winner. So please just leave your name and e-mail and consider yourself in the draw!

Mandy

You may also like:
Review of The Wand in the Word (interviews with Fantasy writers including L'Engle)