A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L’Engle
- Pages: 245
- ISBN: 0312367546
- Link: Goodreads
- Format: Paperback
- Published on: May 1st 1962 (first published November 30th 1961)
Meg Murry’s story begins one dark and stormy night with a knock at the door. Meg’s father has been gone for some time and nobody knows where he has gone. It’s up to Meg, her brother Charles Wallace and their friend Calvin O’Keefe to find Mr. Murry and bring him home. With a little help from three witches, we learn about the fifth dimension and a concept called tesseract (which is like a wrinkle in time).
Review
Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time falls into the category of book I wish I had read as a kid but didn’t. I really could’ve benefitted from characters like Meg or Charles Wallace. People outside the Murry family believe that neither Meg nor Charles Wallace are very smart. While this doesn’t bother Charles Wallace much, Meg often believes this of herself. The reality is that both Meg and her youngest brother are quite smart; it’s just that people outside the immediate family don’t recognize their talents.
Meg is at the age in which she thinks that her father can solve all of her problems. She gets picked on in school, the principle hates her, the small town gossips about he family behind their back. Meg assumes that her father is some sort of super hero: all he has to do is reappear and everything will be resolved. Of course, this isn’t the case. When Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin finally find Mr. Murry, Meg quickly learns her father is as human as she is. Meg finds herself incredibly disappointed that her father can’t actually fix everything.
What I like about A Wrinkle in Time is that L’Engle has written characters that have both strengths and weaknesses. Much like people in the real world, the characters that inhabit L’Engle novel are good at some things but not others, their lives aren’t perfect and they have things they’re afraid of. They need to work together, to learn from each other in order to solve problems. Each character has something valuable to bring to the table along with their faults.