A Wrinkle In Time is
an old book. And old book with which I only recently came into contact with(my
family not being the type to gift books on birthdays). And it’s fantasy.And a
children’s book. All the more reason to love it!
The one major challenge that fantasy fiction writers have to face is making sure that their story always connects with the readers...too much reality and it’s not fantasy any more And too much imagination and it’d probably sound like one of my dreams...over the top crazy.
The one major challenge that fantasy fiction writers have to face is making sure that their story always connects with the readers...too much reality and it’s not fantasy any more And too much imagination and it’d probably sound like one of my dreams...over the top crazy.
But
Madeleine L'Engle (fantastically fitting name for a fantasy writer no?!)
manages to mix moral values with enough science fiction and fun to make this a
really good read.
Now for
the story,
Meg Murry (myopic, occasionally stubborn) daughter of a missing scientist is a general
outcast at school(with some mocking kids and dumb teachers...you know how they
look from a persecuted child’s viewpoint, which was surprising since the book
is in third person).But she’s not alone, she has a younger brother, Charles
Wallace(he’s called Charles only occasionally) who’s a social outcast as
well...most people think that the two of them are dumb but it turns out they're
actually geniuses.
She also
has a beautiful scientist mother and a set of twin siblings who are pretty
socially successful (and hence, uninteresting and unimportant to the story).
Meg is
great at math and Charles Wallace can read minds (this stuff is not stated in a
clear-cut way...but then nothing in the whole book is. Much like the foggy Mrs
Which)
Speaking
of whom, Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, Mrs Which (haha...witch) are three beings disguised
as humans from another world whom Charles Wallace befriends.
And on a
dark stormy night (the first worlds of the novel... ain't that great!), the trio
whisks them away along with Calvin(school star and proposed romantic angle) to
find their lost father without much preamble.
Thus
begins the science fiction segment of the story with the planet-hopping and
tessering (the fifth dimension after time...much like apparating, only between
different worlds and much more painful)
According
to the trio, Meg’s father is off fighting Evil (or the Black Thing or the
IT...different names, same meaning...you choose) like many other great men
before. This evil is a terrible shadow that overtakes people’s minds in the
guise of offering them freedom. Freedom from thinking. Freedom from making any
decisions. And thus turning everyone into mindless drones (simultaneous
movements, illusion-food...basically a boring lifestyle).
The kids
are tessered into the IT’s central centre ... Where Charles Wallace is captured
when he opposes the IT (which turns out to be a giant brain...Harry Potter déjà
vu anyone??)...and thus begins the final battle...
Do they
find their father?
Does
Charles Wallace stay alive?
Does
everything get back to normal?
Do they
manage to destroy the IT (I first thought this stood for Information
Technology...you know in the Technology-is-evil way)
You have
to read A Wrinkle in Time to find out.
There
are some lovely quotes( a lot of them quoted from other books and people) in the book which make up for some of the fuzziness (or
possibly I was being impatient).
“I do not know everything; still many things I understand.”
“If you aren't unhappy sometimes you don’t know how to be happy.”
But in the end,it's a nice read. You’ll want to give this
to your geeky nieces or nephew as a birthday gift (and then read it yourself
when you visit them later!).
The only
complaint I have is the lack of humour, I'm not calling it a serious saga but
there were some potentially funny moments which could have been.
A three
point fiver(but for a kid...a definite 5)!
Book Specifications:
Original Title A Wrinkle in Time
Author Madeleine L’Engle
Published 1973 by Yearling (first published 1962)
ISBN 0440498058 (ISBN13: 9780440498056)
Literary Awards Newbery Medal (1963), Sequoyah Book Award (1965)
Series Time #1
Paperback, 238 pages
Sounds a very interesting read :) Very lovely cover design too, and if you say a child might rate it a 5, I think I might too ;) I jump into my imagination when I read children's books and fantasy fictions. Makes the story come alive then, don't u feel, Tal? :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know about you reading like a kid but I do know your reviews are lively at any rate!:)
ReplyDelete