Backwards book reviews are when I revisit a book that I’ve already read. Before I read the book, I’ll write down everything I can remember about it. Afterward, I’ll write up my thoughts and see how well my memories stacked up.

If you’d like to read what I remembered of A Wrinkle in Time before I read it again, read Part I of this backwards book review. There will probably be spoilers.

Pt II: The Aftermath

What a charming book! I completely forgot that for this (intuitive) (intelligent) girl, how utterly captivating the world of A Wrinkle in Time is. It’s also funny to note what stuck with me and what did not. Memory can be a fickle creature (if you rely on it as a strictly historical record).

First of all, I must rectify the misspellings in the Backwards part of this review. It’s Madeleine L’Engle and the Murry family. That’s what I get from doing this from memory.

What I got wrong

• The snake. While the tree (it was really an apple orchard) and the stone fence did appear in the story, the snake did not. I think I was confusing Wrinkle with A Wind in the Door again.
• “I think at certain points Charles Wallace bogs them down because he’s only like 6 years old or something”. Fact check: while it’s true that Charles Wallace is only like 6 years old, that wasn’t his age that was the issue. It’s only a major plot point!
• This isn’t wrong, per se, but I completely missed the “growing up” themes of the book, that dovetail perfectly with the overt message about the importance of free will. Meg’s character development hinges on her moving from counting on someone else to save her, to reluctantly shouldering the burden that only she can bear. Interesting that I did not remember this part at all, but that it stuck out at me so obviously this time. Perhaps it’s because I’ve now gone through that transition that I can see it more clearly.

What I got right

• 2D planet. They did indeed go to a 2D planet, and I still love thinking about how it would work. I did, however, fail to remember the other interesting planets that they visited.
• The theme of humanity vs tyranny, and the importance of making decisions for yourself.
• The secondary and tertiary characters: Mrs Who, Mrs Which, and Mrs Whatsit, Meg’s mother and twin brothers.

Thoughts from the second round

This book is a simple fantasy-adventure story that dramatizes really important ideas. The edition I read has a little interview with MLE in the back, and she says that she wrote this book after reading the theory of general relativity–she wanted to explore some of the concepts in it. I quite like how she did that (caution: I haven’t read that yet) in a way that makes sense, but also in a way that incorporates it into the fabric of the greater universe. By that I mean, God is still sovereign, and there are many different variations of “creation” in that each planet has a unique sense of time and terrain that is reflected in its inhabitants.

It’s a fun adventure of ideas – the fantasy elements are firmly rooted in real life but explored to almost absurd extremes and baked into every element of the plot. This isn’t a veneer of fantasy, this is the real thing. Books like this are the kind that a father wouldn’t mind reading to his child at night.

Reading this book now, in the era of fake news, in the era where children are “elected” to go to college and come out just another rubberstamped BS or BA, in the era where CIA projects may well cause the end of the world, it feels so prescient. I feel like I can walk out of my house and feel the throbbing thrum of the mighty villainous brain at the center of the book. The themes, of choosing for yourself over letting someone choose for you, of choosing to make those difficult decisions that leave you with skin in the game (tbd), of realizing that you can’t rely on someone else to save you (or the day), these themes are essential to us if we endeavor to live for ourselves.

As far as mechanics go, the plot ends quite abruptly. As a reader, I was a little let down as there was very little resolution from all the family-level worries that undergird the story. I wanted some discussion from the Murry family about what went on and what it means. I wanted to know more about the happy reunion between Mr. Murry and his family. But as an aspiring writer, I appreciated the ending, however abrupt it may be. Everything was wrapped up, and out. There may be discussion, but it’ll be in the slow build of the next book. I suppose I recognize some of my own habits in the rhythm of the book: a long slow introduction and then a lot of activity before abruptly dropping to stillness again.

Overall

I loved this book when I was twelve and I enjoyed it as an adult as well. I won’t say that I “loved” it because it didn’t grab me as much as it did when I was the same age as the heroine. It was worth the read, both for the flights of fancy and the serious message.

Would read again.