Un raccourci dans le temps by madeleine l/engle

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 25,2025

“I don't understand it any more than you do, but one thing I've learned is that you don't have to understand things for them to be.”

This is one of the most outstanding books I ever read in my entire life. I can't believe it took me so long to pick it up. I am so glad this is a series, because just 200 pages of this is definitely not enough. This book is a cosmic dance of colour and poetry, a song made of angels and by angels, a psychedelic trip into imagination, humanity, and the mystery of God. The author hugs your whole self into a multicoloured blanket of words which tickle all your senses like a 5-star restaurant dinner. The only thought left in my mind after I finished reading it was "I just can't wait to read this again".

It starts off in such a simple, ordinary way: "It was a dark, stormy night", and then proceeds to catapult the reader into a plot so complex it just can't be described (no, really: I tried my best to describe what this book is about to my friends, but I just can't). The characters, the creatures, the incredibly rich imagination, made this read both incredibly whimsical and absolutely believable. Not to mention the lovable characters, the creepy enemies and the adorable protagonist. And the creatures... Oh, the creatures! I can't believe this is a children's book. But then again, so is Harry Potter!!

Anyway, why are you still here? Stop reading my silly review and pick up this book!!!!!!!!!!

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SAGEOFTHE6PACK

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 25,2025

Reread this, one of the great children's classics of all time, via books on tape on the road through the American west this early fall, with L'Engle herself, RIP, reading it! A real treat to hear her voice with her own magic words. A book she tells us almost didn't make it to print because the publishing industry couldn't figure how to categorize it… they thought it was too deep for kids, etc. Great book, must read.

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NVHp

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 25,2025

What can I say about a book that is hailed as one of the greatest pieces of fiction of all time? Nothing. I really can't. I will not disrespect this book by saying anything negative about it. I think my opinions about this book may have changed over the years, but that by no means makes this a poor read. Instead of being critical about the book, I am going to celebrate it with some of my favorite quotes from this book:

“Like and equal are not the same thing at all.”
(No wonder this book is considered to be allegorical! Definitely some political innuendo there..)

“Have you ever tried to get to your feet with a sprained dignity?”

“A book, too, can be a star, “explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,” a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.

“If we knew ahead of time what was going to happen we’d be—we’d be like the people on Camazotz, with no lives of our own, with everything all planned and done for us.”

And for my absolute favorite quote:

“Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. - Mrs. Whatsit”

This book is a masterpiece. However, it simply didn't resonate with my older self as it had with my younger self. With that said, I can still recognize this for what it was: A book ahead of its time that was extremely controversial. It has seen much success and has been exulted by fans everywhere.

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SwishTheWitch

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 25,2025

I expected to really like this book. Its won several awards, and over the years I've always heard generally good things about it.

So what happened?

Truthfully, it's hard to pinpoint exactly. To explain in broad strokes, I just never connected with the story. There seemed to be little, if any, internal logic to the events that happen. There is no reason why the children are burdened with such a delicate "life or death" task that they could easily screw up. There's no reason why they are "helped" until the very end, where they are suddenly supposed to be able to solve some hokey battle of wits to survive and rescue someone.

The characters are almost as unlikable as the thin plot. Meg, the oldest child, complains incessantly and is scared the whole time. Her little brother, Charles Wallace, is interesting because of his strange ability to feel what someone's thinking, but it's never explained why he is like this. He seems way too precocious for his age, even for someone with his ability. Calvin, the random kid thrown into the story for seemingly no reason at all, has zero personality and exists solely to hold Meg's hand every time she's scared (which is all the time) and to boost her fragile ego with a few compliments.

Like a lot of young adult fiction, A Wrinkle in Time falls into the trap of pitting an absolute "good" versus an absolute "evil." However, even this cosmic battle of good and evil is poorly defined. Examples of people who are fighting the "good" fight, according to the story, are Jesus, Buddah, and Gandhi. The "bad" is represented by a dark cloud and an extra-dimensional being called "It" who controls an entire planet of people like some 1950's cartoon version of a brainwashing socialistic dictatorship. I found it strange that the most evil thing that entire galaxies are fighting against does not desire chaos, power, or bloodshed, but a passive mind control through which its victims sacrifice individuality for equality. Wow, that's...so...evil? It's like reading Red Scare propaganda from the 1950's.

L'Engle kills the tone of this story by peppering the narrative with strange, out-of-place declarations of Christian belief. For a story that seems largely secular, the odd Bible quotes and religious one-sidedness felt out of place. In a world where an unseen God can murder all of humanity with a flood and wind up on the "good" list, while an egalitarian dictator who asserts its will without killing anyone is on the "evil" list, sign me up for the latter.

I could never get into this story. There were okay bits here and there, but nothing cohesive enough to matter. At least it was refreshing to read a YA book where the parents aren't dead. Most of the time it seems a kid can't have any fun in literature unless their parents have kicked the bucket.

Maybe I would have enjoyed this book more as a child, but as an adult who has read a lot of fiction, this felt like it was slapped together without and real meaning or direction.

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T-RapGod

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 25,2025

Wow! I never imagine to read this book for the first time when I’m in my 40s. For years I let the book get lost in my chubby TBR that keeps growing at each day. Probably it stuck with piles of books and I wouldn’t remember to read it if Ted Lasso wouldn’t give this book to Roy Kent! If a book can heal one of the grumpiest fictional characters’ soul, it may surely help me, too. At least that’s what I thought before I started.

Overall: I loved the classic theme: three children’s teaming up for fighting against evil darkness threatening the universe.

I liked how 13 years old Meg portrayed and little, enigmatic brother Charles. As their fellow schoolmate Calvin joins them with the guidance of their weird neighbors with weirder names Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, Mrs. Witch, two children’s search for missing father turns into a visit to fifth dimension to confront with the universal threat!

Yeap, I enjoyed it a lot and I’m so happy to skip the movie adaptations! I wish I read it sooner but better late than never!

Here are my favorite quotes:

“Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. - Mrs. Whatsit”

“We can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts.”

“The only way to cope with something deadly serious is to try to treat it a little lightly “

“A book, too, can be a star, “explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,” a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”

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Eatpeener1234

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 25,2025

This was one of my very favorite books as a child. Loved it so much.

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iorime

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 25,2025

First off, I was super excited to find out that I owned this book.
Second, I really wanted to read A Wrinkle in Time because of the movie trailer.
Third, n Chris Pinen is the dad in the movie.
Fourth, CHRIS FUCKING PINE is in the god damn movie.
Fifth, I am in love with Chris Pine.

Okay, so A Wrinkle in Time is a super quick read. I mean it's like what... less than 300 pages?!? It took me less than an hour to read it and type out my buddy read comments. I loved everything about this book - even though I was confused in some parts.

I don't want to spoil a whole bunch about this book because honestly this book should be read by everyone on this planet. It was just that good. However, I will mention that I didn't like IT. IT is evil. IT is not the clown from Stephen King's book.

I could totally see myself rereading this book over and over again. It just blended everything together really well. Plus, I love happy endings!

Now I'll just patiently wait for the movie to come out!

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spyrocoot

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 25,2025

Madeleine L'Engle is a Christian writer, more so even than C. S. Lewis in my opinion. However, while the influence of Christian Theology (and in later books, biblical history) is woven throughly through out all the books in this series, it is not offensive to non-Christian readers. I am one of those.

To be completely honest, when my mother first read me this when I was about 7 years old, I was totally oblivious to the influence L'Engle's faith has on her writing. It wasn't until I was twelve or thirteen, when I read the entire series several times over, that it became obvious to me.

But I digress. What really makes this book (and others in the series) has nothing directly to do with the writer's faith. It has to do with the different types of non-sexual love found between family, friends, society, and the individual. I know, big thing for a Children's novel, but it generally is shown rather then told thereby allowing young children to learn by example.

Going back to the faith thing for half a second, it's like a large parable for how the New Testament (Protestant Christian, any how) advises people to form relationships and maintain them. We are to love and respect our parents, even when the world doesn't. Meg believes in and loves her father, even though he has some odd theories and has been missing for years. We are to care after our siblings regardless of personal quibbles, again like Meg and her brothers. WE are to show compassion for our neighbors despite what other members of our society think (See Calvin's friendship with Meg and Charles) and To care for them even though it might mean personal risk, as in some of the later scenes. Over all, it demonstrates a non-sexual love as one of the most powerful forces in the Universe. And this is a moral lesson that every faith can embrace.

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Time Quintet #1

Un raccourci dans le temps

madeleine l/engle

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