A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'EngleMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I wonder what I’d have thought if I read this a decade and a half earlier. The idea of a tesseract isn’t exactly new to me anymore (and just look at popular films like Interstellar now), but for a kid I’d imagine it’d be eye-opening… as are a lot of other developments in this book. It’s a great read for anyone young and looking to expand their imagination.
That said:
- I found the characters not really all that believable, especially Calvin; at least you could get away with calling Meg and Charles precocious or something even though that’s still stretching things a bit.
- The explicit references to Christian ideas and quotes from the Bible felt out of place; they often got mentioned in passing without much in the way of reflection or commentary in the context of the actual story, so I found them hard to appreciate here even if I might actually agree with them. Just what are they doing here?
- The final resolution was a bit too predictable. I know it’s a children’s book, but still, given all of the other scientific and philosophical ideas going on, finishing it all with some (view spoiler) is really disappointing… although ironically fitting with the narrative’s tone.
Basically some fascinating ideas at play, but I’m not so sure about their execution or if I should be giving it all a pass given the target audience. But honestly, I think children’s lit can do (and has done) better.
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