A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Since the movie has come out, I decided to re-read A Wrinkle in Time. It's been so many years since I read it, I honestly did not remember the details.

Did you remember (or know) that the first sentence is "It was a dark and stormy night."? I did not, and, of course, it reminded me of Snoopy.

According to Wikipedia, "L'Engle biographer Leonard Marcus notes that 'With a wink to the reader, she chose for the opening line of A Wrinkle in Time, her most audaciously original work of fiction, that hoariest of cliches ... L'Engle herself was certainly aware of old warhorse's literary provenance as ... Edward Bulwer-Lytton's much maligned much parodied repository of Victorian purple prose, Paul Clifford. While discussing the importance of establishing the tone of voice at the beginning of fiction, Judy Morris notes that L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time opens with 'Snoopy's signature phrase.'"

Good beginning. And, unlike Snoopy, L'Engle did have a good second sentence -- and all the sentences thereafter. I like it that she started her book with a "wink" to Snoopy.

When the children tesseract to the planet (I assume it's a planet) Camazotz, as they walk through the town, it reminds of "Stepford Wives" -- people doing all the same thing at the same time, mindlessly controlled by one mind.

I like the characters and the story. When they find Meg and Charles' father, what a fateful sentence it is when it says, "She had found her father, and he had not made everything all right." That is a blow -- when we realize that grown-ups don't have all the answers, that they can't always keep you safe.

I found the discussion of freedom within rules interesting. Mrs. Whatsit talks about the sonnet, 14 lines in iambic pentameter, but within that form, "the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants." I've heard this before. I'm still not sure what to think of it. What is the "strict form" of our lives? Being born, living, and dying? Or is it all the things that happen to us over which we have no control? Maybe it's like my Dad used to emphasize - you can only control what you do. I guess that's how we "say" what we want -- by how we respond to what happens to us.

And love wins.