What I always remembered best about this book was the strength of the relationship between Meg and Charles Wallace. Glancing at the back cover, I noticed that inside, I had written in pencil 3-24-92. I presume that this is the day that I finished reading the book for the first time, 16 years almost to the day from this read. That would have made me 11 at the time and Nathan 3 and a half, so no doubt I thought of him as I read, and delving into it again, I couldn't help but compare. I've always felt especially close to my littlest brother, who is rather like Charles Wallace in terms of his skills as an artist. Just as Charles waited a long time to talk but started using complete sentences right away when he did, Nathan resisted drawing altogether until he was four or five, at which point he immediately started drawing in great detail.
I love how attuned the two are to each other. That scene in the kitchen is so great; Meg's wishing Charles Wallace would come upstairs to comfort her, and he's one step ahead of her, waiting for her to come downstairs and ready with a glass of warm milk. Throughout the book, their understanding of one another is so important, especially in the end, when Meg must use her love for her brother to crack through his trance. (I wonder if George Lucas is a fan of this book; there's a scene at the end of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that is strikingly similar to Meg's rescue of Charles Wallace, and now that I think of it there are shades of it in Return of the Jedi as well.)
I actually had forgotten about the twins in this book, but then they don't come into the story that much. Do they show up more later in the series? Anyway, there are so many great things about A Wrinkle in Time, but my favorite aspect has to that incredible bond between Meg and her little brother.
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I love Meg and Charles Wallace's relationship too -- in so many ways, it feels like the heart of the book! And I'm so glad you commented about it, and resonated with it because of your relationship with Nathan. Not ever having had a little brother myself (I was always the littlest, and by a lot of years) I've never been quite sure how "true" that relationship might feel.
It's funny -- one of the things I noticed upon my recent re-read of Wrinkle was that Charles didn't strike me quite as oddly this time through. When I read the book in my own childhood/adolescence, I looked upon him as a major prodigy, and of course the whole book is tinged with the fantastic on so many levels that his oddity just fits what M L'E was trying to do. Now that I'm a mom, and around kids (especially my own!) a lot more often, he still seems highly smart and unusual, but not as much as he used to. I guess all kids have that strange mix, to some degree, of total vulnerability and a seeming imperviousness to danger. They often seem older/wiser than their years one minute, and full of bravado and confidence, and then the next minute they just want to be held or cuddled or taken care of. With CW, I think it's more a matter of *degree* of difference, if that makes sense. But he definitely feels more like a "real child" to me than he used to, and not just some highly unusual child prodigy.
The fact that I had a very late-talking child also colored my reading this time through!
Curious to know...what parts of Jedi reminded you of Wrinkle? When Luke loves Darth back to himself? I hadn't thought about the connections.
And yes, the twins show up a bit more in the next two books, but they really come into their own with the fourth book in the "time quartet" -- Many Waters. I've never really felt comfortable calling it a quartet, because I knew it as a trilogy for such a long time, and I've never been sure MW really fits that closely with the other three. But it does involve time/space travel and the twins, and it's a great read in and of itself. Have you read it? They muck about with one of their Mom's experiments and end up back in pre-flood days with Noah...
I haven't read Many Waters, and didn't realize what it was about. As Noah has always been one of my favorite Biblical figures, color me intrigued!
Yes, the way Luke's love for the deeply submerged father he never knew brought Anakin back after all those years encrusted in evil... It definitely gels with what happens between Meg and Charles Wallace. The circumstances are quite different, of course, but I thought it was interesting...
Charles Wallace definitely seems removed from the norm - and he sure doesn't talk like any four-year-old I've ever known! - but he does feel authentic, and I especially love those little moments when he slips his hand into Meg's or embraces Mrs. Whatsit, and extraordinary intelligence aside, he just comes across as a very affectionate little boy who understands the need to give and receive love.
Oh, you'd really like *Many Waters*, I think. It's great fun!
And this begs the question...where do we go next? I'd still like to talk Wrinkle for a bit more...I'm sure I've got a post or two in me I'd like to write about it (maybe this coming week!). From there, do we want to move to non-fiction for a bit, or stick with fiction? And if we stick with fiction, do you want to go on and read our way through the trilogy/quartet? Have you read *Wind* and *Planet* before? I really enjoy them.
Let me know what you think!
I'm still moved every time I see Luke/Anakin at the end of Jedi, even after all these years. It just taps so many major human things... and I think it was the first time I had ever seen such an awful, inhuman villain find redemption. In his own way, Anakin is just as trapped as Charles Wallace, only it's worse because he's been trapped for so many years.
Oh yes, I can tell I'm gearing up for some more Wrinkle reflection. :-)
I've got a few posts in me too, and now that I have my own computer back after two weeks I'm itching to do some more reflections here.
I've never read the rest of the Time Trilogy/Quartet, and I'd certainly be game for that. Walking on Water is on the way from Amazon; I know the library has the other books in the Time series so it won't take me long to get the ones I don't have.
I was blown away by the ending of Jedi when I first saw it, and it might well have been my first experience with that sort of redemption of a villain too. Ever since, I'm always especially drawn to stories with elements of redemption...
Oh my! If you've never read the rest of the trilogy/quartet, I'd say let's go for it! They're such good books, and each very interesting and different in its own right. Plus I get excited at the thought of reading them with someone who has never read them before, if that makes any sense.
Maybe we should spend a bit more time talking Wrinkle (if I can just get the darn taxes done...sigh!) and then move on to Wind. Then if we want to take a fiction break at that point, and assuming your copy of Walking on Water has arrived, maybe we can toward that.
One of the nice things about the trilogy/quartet is that they do stand-alone quite well, despite sharing characters...in fact, none is really dependent on the others. And there's no sense of being left with a cliffhanger, so pausing in the middle shouldn't be a problem.
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