This was a Christmas gift from a friend from New York. While I had read L'Engele's A Wrinkle in Time and perhaps its sequel, it's been many years and I was interested in her adult novels. This was good, but I didn't consider it great. The story of Katherine, a concert pianist, as she looks back on her life from her position as a newly retired person. She has returned "home", though she really hasn't lived there in many years. She connects with an old friend, Felix, who was the Diocesan Bishop of New York (Episcopalian) and is now also retired. The book investigates her life as a wife, a mother, a pianist, one flashback at a time.

While there was much I liked about it, there were parts I found impossible to suspend disbelief enough to go along with. In particular, it bothered me that everyone she met *immediately* treated her as a mother-confessor-dispenser of wisdom. And that regardless of the terrible things she had been through, there was no residue of anger or resentment. And I also found her husband's desire to have children, regardless of any personal cost to her of the way they would need to be conceived (I don't want to say more, because I don't want to spoil anything for new readers) absolutely awful.

I liked it. I didn't love it.

This is the sequel to “A Small Rain”. Katherine comes back to New York, in hopes of retirement from her life as a concert pianist. She struggles initially to settle in, and is surprised to have contact with a friend from the past, one she never expected to enter the religious life, is now a former bishop. He asks her to give a benefit concert; after initial rejection she accepts and we see how she begins to form a new chapter of her life. Over the course of the book, her life story is revealed, with her and her husband’s harrowing prisoner of war experiences in WWII and her curious path to family. Much of her enigmatic behavior has remained, but other parts of her personality have strengthened including her ability to create bonds with others. There is an underlying mystery/threat within the story that draws the plot forward. You can see the author’s maturity in the 40 years between the two books.

Beautifully written

Based on characters whose relationships span four decades, Wasp is both informative and lyrical, time-bound and timeless. Its messages- for there are many - center on history lessons and lessons about finding one’s faith despite either failed previous attempts or fierce rejection of same.

Enthralling, compelling, rooted firmly in possibility, Wasp has earned a favorite status for this reader.

This was a tough one for me to get through because the story has so much tragedy. The book is divided into a few sections, so I often set it aside to read another book before returning to the next section. I really liked some of the writing and themes - I think the quote about the severed wasp is very compelling, but it’s a book that will take awhile to digest. I can say you don’t need to have read L’Engle’s other works with crossover characters to enjoy this novel. Maybe skip this one if you’re not in the mood for religious themes (role of the church in a community, confession, guilt/forgiveness).

I made the mistake of reading the second book in the series first, but it works well as a stand-alone. I think one of Engle's greatest strengths is her ability to engage the reader emotionally. I could definitely identify with Catherine, who despite her own problems, both past and present, seems to attract people who need someone to listen, to acknowledge their existence, and maybe to offer a bit of wise advice. As a musician, she excels at restoring harmony. The mysterious phone calls and vandalism add a bit more tension to the story, and I found myself trying to figure out who was responsible.

This book was tacky to say the least. And Katherine Vigneras, the protagonist, became too much of a saint to remain credible. I am disappointed.

Much of the material discussed is not pleasant. Also, I don't agree completely with the theology that comes out in the book. However, she knows how to put a story together, and you can tell that she has put a lot of her self into her characters (you can tell that the author knows how to play the piano, has given birth, loved, experienced the pain of death, etc.).

With 30 pages left I still had no idea how it would end. I eventually got answers but I despised the way things were(n’t) resolved.

Ever since I was in divinity school I have heard about L'Engle's books. I've managed to track down a few at the library, not necessarily the really theological ones. Such was the case with the present book. I picked it up because it seemed to deal with a couple of themes/images/locales that appealed to me: classical music, a cathedral and church-y people, etc. I'm not sure if it's because the book is older than much of what I read (copyright early 1980's) or if I just am not all that drawn into L'Engle's material: I found this outing only ho-hum.

The premise was interesting enough: a retired piano recitalist moves to NYC, re-meets an old friend, and gets invited to perform a benefit recital, and thereby gets drawn into the orbit of a vast cathedral and the attendant members of the cathedral staff and their families. (We even have a sub-plot related to the young cathedral organist!)

There is plenty to draw from in terms of possibly appealing plot elements: an old romantic flame who happens to be an ecclesiastical Lothario; some of the methods of preparing for a piano concert; a little bit of cathedral architecture and staff intrigue; South American occult religion; the Holocaust; and a little bit of pop psychology.

I think it's that last that aspect left me liking the book less than I might have. I finally decided the novel was somewhat like a Susan Howatch novel in terms of being a quasi-theological-psychological novel, but not nearly as compelling nor as in depth. Too, the romantic possibilities, hetero- and homosexual, were treated only superficially. Like her stuff or not, at least with Howatch one is brought into the epicenter of theological intrigue and romantic entanglements. With this book by L'Engle it is as though the author is just a little too prim is not quite prepared to go as far as the plot might allow.

So, meh. The whole concert thing could have had more life, along with piano and organ music in the cathedral. The relationship between the protagonist and the retired bishop who is her friend, and his referred-to but not really explored risque younger years could have borne a whole lot more probing. Then there is the whole weird thing between the protagonist and her impotent husband and his desire for her to find someone with whom to have "his" child: there was room for so much more.

As it is, there's plenty to arouse one's curiosity, and plenty left only partially explored.

For my thoughts on this, please see my review of The Small Rain.

Somehow, this book was both mesmerizing and infuriatingly slow. But I have loved Madeleine L’Engle’s books that are directed at a young adult audience and want to go through and read more of her books in the next year. I did enjoy the main character’s perspective and commentary on getting older.

This is a sequel to The Small Rain. Katherine is now an elderly woman, widowed, with grandchildren. She has retired from concert touring and returns to her house in New York City, where she rents some rooms to others. Those that figure in the story are a doctor, Mimi Oppenheimer, and a young couple in the basement apartment. Felix, whom she knew well in her youth and who figures largely in The Small Rain, is now an Episcopalian bishop; he draws her into the group of people who live in the Close at the cathedral of St. John the Divine. He also convinces her to give a charity concert toward collecting money for the ongoing restoration of the cathedral. As the story of her involvement with all these people continues, bits and pieces of her past life are given us: her marriage, her incarceration in France during WWII, and her children. It is impossible to describe the story without giving away spoilers, so I recommend you read it for yourself - it is excellent and very well-written. It helps to have read The Small Rain, the story of her youth, but is probably not absolutely necessary. I was entranced by this book.