A Circle of Quiet

Madeleine L'Engle's style is partly refreshingly naive, and partly irritatingly self-consciously naive. She says several times that people have told her she has a habit of saying obvious things in a very serious manner, as though it were new. That is a very true statement. And yet, as she writes for YA, those obvious things probably are new to them. This book, however, is for adults; it's a collection of her thoughts during one summer in the seventies when she was probably in the height of her writing. It's a fantastic insight into a very interesting person, and the limitations of her being an interesting person but not a genius and not perfect. She's persisted, she's done a lot, writing heaps of books as well as raising a family, and doing a good job of that; but in some places I feel like she's put a barrier around the edges of her mind, and that barrier is her Christianity. She butts against it - not doubting the concepts, but trying to reach beyond what she sees as fog to something clearer - but she refuses to actually break down the wall and really seek the truth. Because she likes the sturdiness of the fence, maybe, and all the people standing inside it. Well, there's an extended metaphor which is very L'Engle like, probably says nothing much at all. Good book if you like her works and you'd like an insight into her character; it wouldn't make much sense otherwise.