Introduction
A Wrinkle in Time, written by Madeleine L’Engle, was published on January 1st, 1962, by Ariel Books publishing company for young adult readers. It won the Newbery medal a year later in 1963. This was another book recommended to me by my mom when I was younger (that’s going to be a trend), and I have always enjoyed reading it. I wouldn’t necessarily call it one of my favorite books of all time, but it is one that I enjoy circling back to every few years or so. I did not realize until writing this review that the book was published 61 years ago, and it feels timeless to me. If you haven’t gotten the chance to read this book yet, I highly recommend doing that before continuing with this review. If you’re interested in seeing the movie adaptation that came out in 2018, I have an extra section at the bottom, The Movie, where I discuss how it compares to the book. There will be no spoilers in my Plot section, but my Thoughts and The Movie sections will contain details from the book and the film. I hope you enjoy this week’s review!
If you want to learn more about Madeline L’Engle, visit https://www.madeleinelengle.com/madeleine-lengle/!
Thank you for being so patient as these past few reviews have come out late. I just finished midterm week, so free time has been nonexistent for a while. Tomorrow's review should be up on time, and I’m hoping to get caught up these next couple of weeks. No promises!
Plot
Long after the disappearance of their father, Dr. Murphy, Meg and her brother, Charles Wallace, meet an interesting trio of women who open their eyes to the beauty and danger of the universe around them. Joined by their friend, Calvin O’Keefe, they go on a perilous journey to find and save their father from a mysterious evil. This book is told in a third person point of view from Meg’s perspective, and it is a very quick read, but well worth the time.
Thoughts
I have greatly enjoyed this book since the first time I read it, and I personally would consider it a classic. The writing style is amazing, and L’Engle did a fantastic job describing the world she built for us, and it was very easy for me to make a clear picture in my mind of what each setting and character looked and acted like. I also really liked seeing this book from Meg’s perspective because she was arguably less capable of dealing with the conflict than Charles Wallace or Calvin, but she was the hero in the end. The plot is fantastic, but some of the pacing - mostly emotional - did catch me off guard at some points. The themes were brilliantly displayed and were some of my favorite aspects of the book.
This book is relatively short, and Meg is a very emotionally volatile character. Her emotions have a tendency to change very quickly, and even though this story is told from a third person perspective, Meg’s mind is the one we get insight to. The biggest emotional shift was a slower but more impactful one, and it was when Meg finally found her father. She has the idea that her father can make anything and everything okay again, and when he can’t - when things actually get worse - she’s incredibly angry with him. It’s a complete one-eighty from everything we’ve gotten from her so far, and it feels irrational to us because we know he is doing his best under impossible circumstances. So, while the plot pacing feels good, and the emotional pacing definitely serves a purpose, my mind was sometimes left reeling from the quick and dramatic shifts in emotion.
I want to go into the physical settings next. Earth seems to be exactly the way we perceive it in real life until we get introduced to the Black Thing, and it’s explained to us that the evil on our Earth is because of this Thing that is controlled by an IT, but I‘ll come back to that. Uriel is absolutely stunning. Even in the book, I was enchanted by the description of this peaceful planet. The other peaceful planet we get to visit in this book is the planet where we meet Aunt Beast. It was described as bland and colorless, though it felt anything but because of characters introduced there. The IT has made ITs home on a planet called Camazotz. Everything on this planet seems absolutely perfect and identical. Every second of the day for every citizen of the planet is set in stone, and goodness forbid someone deviate - accidentally or purposefully. They go through a seemingly painful correction process that scares Mr. Murry so badly that he left Charles Wallace on Camazotz in order to get Meg away and save her life. This made defeating the evil in this book not a test of strength or brilliance but one of creativity and the art of an unpredictable and uncontrollable mind. That was how Charles Wallace and Calvin initially resisted IT. It was incredibly interesting to read and is different from what I’m used to.
Speaking of Charles Wallace and Calvin, I appreciate the ambiguity behind this gift they have that Meg - at least in part - lacks. For Charles Wallace, it seems to present itself as a brilliant mind and his ability to understand and predict the minds of others. It seems he can tune into anyone, but especially those he is closest with. Calvin has a wildly spot-on intuition that didn’t - I don’t think - fail them once throughout the book, as well as an ability to connect with those around him on a deep level. Even Mr. Murry had a strong enough mind to resist IT while he was held prisoner. For some reason, Meg was made differently, but L’Engle makes sure that her audience understands this is not a weakness, but a strength.
This brings me into the discussion of the themes, which are my favorite parts of this book. First, the use of mathematical and scientific principles in such a fantastical way with the tesseract was so incredibly intriguing to me. I won’t even try to explain it here because the book does an amazing job of it. Family is also an obvious theme here given that Meg consistently prioritized Charles Wallace and her father above all else. But the theme that stuck out to me the most was that of embracing your faults. Before the kids are sent to Camazots, they’re given gifts and words of advice, and Mrs. Whatsit gives Meg the gift of her faults. Meg thinks them useless at first, but they become the very thing that saves her and Charles Wallace from IT. It’s an amazing message about self-love and being unapologetically imperfect.
While Meg’s mood swings often threw me for a loop, they did make sense for her character and the situation she was in. I adored the plot, writing style, characters, and themes of this book, so I have to give this a 9.5/10.
The Movie
I saw the movie release of A Wrinkle in Time in theaters with my mom when it came out in America in 2018 (February 26th). The movie starred Storm Reid as Meg, Levi Miller as Calvin, Deric McCabe as Charles Wallace, Oprah Winfrey as Mrs. Which, Reese Witherspoon as Mrs. Whatsit, Mindy Kaling as Mrs. Who, and Chris Pine as Dr. Alex Murphy. This cast had phenomenal chemistry with one another, and the acting alone was incredible. They did a fantastic job bringing this wondrous story to life.
The movie starts with a flashback between Meg and her father, which does a good job of establishing their relationship. In the book, Meg has three biological brothers: Charles Wallace, and the twins, Sandy and Dennis. The first big change made in the movie was the removal of Sandy and Dennis and the decision to make Charles Wallace an adopted sibling to Meg. Other than this, the movie does a great job staying true to the plot. The biggest differences I found were Charles Wallace’s choice to speak publicly at school, the immediate danger and changing landscape of Camazotz, the quickness with which Charles Wallace is drawn into IT, and the ending battle against ITs power. Even though characters and scenes like Aunt Beast were omitted, there were references throughout the movie that let us know they were not forgotten. The changes and cuts made are reasonable given the time constraints and differences in story-telling ability between books and movies.
I absolutely loved the fundamentals. The set design and world building was beyond stunning, the scene with the bouncing balls on Camazotz was headache inducing in the best way. Not to mention the actors did a wonderful job bringing their characters to life. Especially Deric McCabe, who did a great job portraying Charles Wallace as his normal self and later under the power of IT. The costuming was also brilliant, especially for the Mrs. The themes also came through very clearly, particularly embracing your faults and oddities. Two of my favorite quotes in this book are from Mrs. Who, “The wound is the place where the light enters you” (Rumi), and from Mrs. Whatsit, “Such beautiful faults.” All in all, it’s a beautiful movie starring a wildly talented cast, and I would call it one of the best movie adaptations I’ve ever seen.
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