L'Engle: a primer for the adult
May. 27th, 2013 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnThis post is for ollipop, who asked where to start with reading L'Engle.
...It depends!
For the remainder of this post, I'll use L'Engle's terms of kairos (the Murry/O'Keefe books) and chronos (the Austin books), and connection books (books that aren't focused on the O'Keefes or Austins, okay, I can't remember if this is exactly what she called them, whatever).
Kids' books: I would recommend an adult not starting with the original kairos quartet (Wrinkle in Time, Wind in the Door, Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters) unless you've already read them as a child, in which case rereading is totally cool and encouraged. These books are weird. Really awesome, but weird. The first one, for example, involves an angel-centaur who quotes Isaiah as well as an evil giant brain. Really. As a kid it didn't even occur to me to be weirded out by this, but an adult probably would be.
There's also a fifth book, An Acceptable Time, which I don't like as much. However, it may still be worth reading -- but it would be good to read A Ring of Endless Light and A House Like a Lotus first (see YA books).
The other kids book L'Engle wrote that I highly recommend is the chronos book Meet the Austins, which is a delightful little family book. This is definitely a lighthearted book for children (well, mostly; there is a death offscreen), written from the POV of a child, so as long as you don't go in expecting a lot of depth you should be good. This isn't required to read the other chronos books, but because of its more simplistic nature I'd recommend reading it before the other chronos books instead of after -- and if you do read it afterwards, realize that it's a kids book. (I read it in opposite order, and was disappointed.)
YA books: This is actually where I'd recommend starting for maximum impact as an adult (or, of course, a YA).
Chronos books: The Moon by Night is good solid teen travelogue/angst "What does the universe mean?" YA; good if you like that sort of thing (and in my opinion L'Engle does it really well -- I adore this book), skippable if you don't. If you do read it, it would be best to read it before Ring of Endless Light, although not required.
A Ring of Endless Light is the first Chronos book I read and the best one, in my opinion -- it's about death and the struggle to make meaning of death and life, and is wonderful. Highly recommended. From the POV of a 16-year-old, so, you know, be warned. Also you may want to read Arm of the Starfish before this one, so you know what's up with Adam, but if you choke on that one go ahead and read this one. I'm pretty sure I read this before either Starfish or Moon, myself. (ETA 9-23-14:luzula reminds me that Ring has sentient dolphins. In general I would caution you that L'Engle's science is extremely horrible. She had a very... umm... unscientific view of science.)
Kairos books: A House Like a Lotus, which should be read after Ring -- about Meg and Calvin's oldest daughter as a teenager, was a formative book for me because it was one of the few, maybe the only, mainstream book I read (Mercedes Lackey doesn't count) that depicted a positive, loving, realistic romantic relationship between two women, and the only one that made the important point that flaws in the people involved in such relationships are exactly that: flaws in people, not flaws in the lifestyle. I love this book. But of course today such a message would probably not hit a YA like a ton of bricks, like this one did me. So keep that in mind. It's also about dealing with disastrous events and putting people on pedestals and trust and love and betrayal and forgiveness and AAAAH, I love this book, one of the reasons this post took so long was that I had to go back and reread it. I also must say that the Greece-workshop subplot in the last third of the book doesn't really grab me, and in fact I usually skim right by it (I am also sort of realizing that I have an embarrassment squick).
And Both Were Young is a bit of an outlier, one of the "connector" books, about Phillipa (Flip) Hunter (who has a cameo in Severed Wasp but otherwise as far as I know doesn't show up in any other L'Engle) going to boarding school. It's not the best book ever? BUT BOARDING SCHOOL BOOK YES, y'know? I love this one. I eat up boarding school books.
YA-books-that-aren't-really: By this I mean that I don't think these are best read as an adolescent, although they feature adolescents.
The Young Unicorns, a Chronos book (and a thriller), I reviewed here. I really like this one now, although it does display distinct signs of being written in the 60's.
The Small Rain: This is a book about the childhood/adolescence of Katherine Forrester, who gets a sequel in A Severed Wasp. It was L'Engle's first book, but it's better than a lot of the ones she wrote after this. I really like this one. It's flawed, it's clearly not perfect, but it's good, you can see that she's a good writer. And it's nice to read this one before you read Severed Wasp, which I totally recommend.
"Thriller" books: I personally don't care for L'Engle trying to do thrillers. Here I principally mean The Arm of the Starfish, Dragons in the Waters, and Troubling a Star, the first two of which are kairos and the third of which is chronos. I dunno. They're not bad? Starfish is a good one to get revved up for Ring of Endless Light, though, because it explains a lot about Adam that maybe wouldn't be clear in Ring otherwise; and Sheila O'Malley, whose taste I really respect, really liked it (and the other thrillers). I wonder if, like Young Unicorns, if I read these again as an adult I'd really like them. So.
Adult books: ...L'Engle wrote a lot of adult books, all of which I've read, but a lot of which I wouldn't recommend. Certain Women, for example, is extremely forgettable, and in fact I have forgotten it. (I mean, I remember it was about a modern-day retelling of David and his wives... and they were all annoying and obnoxious... but that was about it.)
The one that is absolutely wonderful is A Severed Wasp, which is a sequel to Rain. You get to find out what happened to Katherine, she's the most fascinating of L'Engle's adult heroines, L'Engle has a lot to say about work and love and relationships and how all these things interact, and you get the feeling that she's thought a lot about it and is writing from a good deal of experience.
Nonfiction: I highly, HIGHLY recommend L'Engle's Crosswicks Journals (autobiographical-ish) series, A Circle of Quiet, The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, The Irrational Season, and Two-Part Invention. These can be read in any order and interspersed with any of the fiction. TPI is about L'Engle's marriage and her husband's death. SGG is about her mother. They're all fabulous.
Note that L'Engle was a Christian, if a radical one, and all her stories are told from a perspective of faith in a loving God (she doesn't beat you over the head with it, but it's definitely a clear influence of her worldview), and this is particularly true of the nonfiction and the Murry-kairos books. (The protagonist of Small Rain/Severed Wasp is not religious, nor are the O'Keefe family to my knowledge, or at least not exactly, so those would be good places to start if you'd rather not read from that worldview.)
In conclusion: all the nonfiction, Ring of Endless Light (you may want to read Arm of the Starfish and The Moon By Night first, and you definitely want to read House Like a Lotus after), and Small Rain/Severed Wasp.
And read all of Sheila O'Malley's writing on L'Engle. (Scroll down about halfway down the page to get to her book discussions.)
ollipop, who asked where to start with reading L'Engle....It depends!
For the remainder of this post, I'll use L'Engle's terms of kairos (the Murry/O'Keefe books) and chronos (the Austin books), and connection books (books that aren't focused on the O'Keefes or Austins, okay, I can't remember if this is exactly what she called them, whatever).
Kids' books: I would recommend an adult not starting with the original kairos quartet (Wrinkle in Time, Wind in the Door, Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters) unless you've already read them as a child, in which case rereading is totally cool and encouraged. These books are weird. Really awesome, but weird. The first one, for example, involves an angel-centaur who quotes Isaiah as well as an evil giant brain. Really. As a kid it didn't even occur to me to be weirded out by this, but an adult probably would be.
There's also a fifth book, An Acceptable Time, which I don't like as much. However, it may still be worth reading -- but it would be good to read A Ring of Endless Light and A House Like a Lotus first (see YA books).
The other kids book L'Engle wrote that I highly recommend is the chronos book Meet the Austins, which is a delightful little family book. This is definitely a lighthearted book for children (well, mostly; there is a death offscreen), written from the POV of a child, so as long as you don't go in expecting a lot of depth you should be good. This isn't required to read the other chronos books, but because of its more simplistic nature I'd recommend reading it before the other chronos books instead of after -- and if you do read it afterwards, realize that it's a kids book. (I read it in opposite order, and was disappointed.)
YA books: This is actually where I'd recommend starting for maximum impact as an adult (or, of course, a YA).
Chronos books: The Moon by Night is good solid teen travelogue/angst "What does the universe mean?" YA; good if you like that sort of thing (and in my opinion L'Engle does it really well -- I adore this book), skippable if you don't. If you do read it, it would be best to read it before Ring of Endless Light, although not required.
A Ring of Endless Light is the first Chronos book I read and the best one, in my opinion -- it's about death and the struggle to make meaning of death and life, and is wonderful. Highly recommended. From the POV of a 16-year-old, so, you know, be warned. Also you may want to read Arm of the Starfish before this one, so you know what's up with Adam, but if you choke on that one go ahead and read this one. I'm pretty sure I read this before either Starfish or Moon, myself. (ETA 9-23-14:
luzula reminds me that Ring has sentient dolphins. In general I would caution you that L'Engle's science is extremely horrible. She had a very... umm... unscientific view of science.)Kairos books: A House Like a Lotus, which should be read after Ring -- about Meg and Calvin's oldest daughter as a teenager, was a formative book for me because it was one of the few, maybe the only, mainstream book I read (Mercedes Lackey doesn't count) that depicted a positive, loving, realistic romantic relationship between two women, and the only one that made the important point that flaws in the people involved in such relationships are exactly that: flaws in people, not flaws in the lifestyle. I love this book. But of course today such a message would probably not hit a YA like a ton of bricks, like this one did me. So keep that in mind. It's also about dealing with disastrous events and putting people on pedestals and trust and love and betrayal and forgiveness and AAAAH, I love this book, one of the reasons this post took so long was that I had to go back and reread it. I also must say that the Greece-workshop subplot in the last third of the book doesn't really grab me, and in fact I usually skim right by it (I am also sort of realizing that I have an embarrassment squick).
And Both Were Young is a bit of an outlier, one of the "connector" books, about Phillipa (Flip) Hunter (who has a cameo in Severed Wasp but otherwise as far as I know doesn't show up in any other L'Engle) going to boarding school. It's not the best book ever? BUT BOARDING SCHOOL BOOK YES, y'know? I love this one. I eat up boarding school books.
YA-books-that-aren't-really: By this I mean that I don't think these are best read as an adolescent, although they feature adolescents.
The Young Unicorns, a Chronos book (and a thriller), I reviewed here. I really like this one now, although it does display distinct signs of being written in the 60's.
The Small Rain: This is a book about the childhood/adolescence of Katherine Forrester, who gets a sequel in A Severed Wasp. It was L'Engle's first book, but it's better than a lot of the ones she wrote after this. I really like this one. It's flawed, it's clearly not perfect, but it's good, you can see that she's a good writer. And it's nice to read this one before you read Severed Wasp, which I totally recommend.
"Thriller" books: I personally don't care for L'Engle trying to do thrillers. Here I principally mean The Arm of the Starfish, Dragons in the Waters, and Troubling a Star, the first two of which are kairos and the third of which is chronos. I dunno. They're not bad? Starfish is a good one to get revved up for Ring of Endless Light, though, because it explains a lot about Adam that maybe wouldn't be clear in Ring otherwise; and Sheila O'Malley, whose taste I really respect, really liked it (and the other thrillers). I wonder if, like Young Unicorns, if I read these again as an adult I'd really like them. So.
Adult books: ...L'Engle wrote a lot of adult books, all of which I've read, but a lot of which I wouldn't recommend. Certain Women, for example, is extremely forgettable, and in fact I have forgotten it. (I mean, I remember it was about a modern-day retelling of David and his wives... and they were all annoying and obnoxious... but that was about it.)
The one that is absolutely wonderful is A Severed Wasp, which is a sequel to Rain. You get to find out what happened to Katherine, she's the most fascinating of L'Engle's adult heroines, L'Engle has a lot to say about work and love and relationships and how all these things interact, and you get the feeling that she's thought a lot about it and is writing from a good deal of experience.
Nonfiction: I highly, HIGHLY recommend L'Engle's Crosswicks Journals (autobiographical-ish) series, A Circle of Quiet, The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, The Irrational Season, and Two-Part Invention. These can be read in any order and interspersed with any of the fiction. TPI is about L'Engle's marriage and her husband's death. SGG is about her mother. They're all fabulous.
Note that L'Engle was a Christian, if a radical one, and all her stories are told from a perspective of faith in a loving God (she doesn't beat you over the head with it, but it's definitely a clear influence of her worldview), and this is particularly true of the nonfiction and the Murry-kairos books. (The protagonist of Small Rain/Severed Wasp is not religious, nor are the O'Keefe family to my knowledge, or at least not exactly, so those would be good places to start if you'd rather not read from that worldview.)
In conclusion: all the nonfiction, Ring of Endless Light (you may want to read Arm of the Starfish and The Moon By Night first, and you definitely want to read House Like a Lotus after), and Small Rain/Severed Wasp.
And read all of Sheila O'Malley's writing on L'Engle. (Scroll down about halfway down the page to get to her book discussions.)
