While I am generally opposed to reading fantasy as a genre, a surprising number of my favorite young adult books are classified as such. I'm not sure why this might be, although I have a hunch. There is something pure and unadorned about children's literature. A good children's writer understands that kids don't fall for gimmicks or fancy gymnastics. They want a story, and they know exactly what a story should involve. Before we mature and start to see life as full of gray areas and loopholes, we know that stories should invariably contain heroes who take on great personal risk to save the world, whether that means the actual world or simply the hero's own reputation in gym class. Big or small in scope, all stories have these elements, and there is usually some true love in there, too, and some kind of party at the end. As kids, we are closer to understanding the way things were originally intended to be, before grown-up disillusionment takes over. So kids don't have patience for heroes and villains that are too alike morally, or for uncomplicated quests, or for the brave knight who is ultimately rejected by the fair maiden. None of these things are truth; they are simply adult interpretations of reality. And this is why I love young adult literature, because it reminds me of what I've forgotten. Perhaps, then, that is also the explanation for why I like young adult fantasy so much more than adult. It is simple, fixed, and good always triumphs over evil.
Reading Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series was more of a challenge than I anticipated. I thought it would take me maybe a week and a half; instead, it took almost twice that. I had read the first book in college as part of my children't lit class, and thought it was fantastic. It's the story of a bunch of outcasts, Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin, who have to travel through time and space to rescue Mr. Murry from imprisonment on a planet where uniformity rules and no one is allowed to be different. The book contains all the elements of classic children's fantasy: heroes who are somehow much more powerful in the world of magic than they are in the ordinary one, sage guides who offer advice and then disappear when the danger is greatest, institutional bad guys (aided by a vague "Darkness") who threaten to destroy not only the main characters but the world as we know it, and a last-minute rescue anchored by the ability of the heroes to love sacrificially. An immensely satisfying read.
The rest of the series, which I had not read before, were not at all what I expected. The other fantasy series I love (namely The Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter books) are epic, each book containing their own stories, but a larger story arcing from beginning to end. There are clear good guys, clear bad guys, and an ongoing battle between the two that comes to a head at the end of the last book. Then, of course, the big party follows. This is an archetype I like, because I think it is reflective of that childlike understanding of the world so many of us have lost. The Wrinkle in Time series, however, is very different. Each book is truly a story unto itself, and the only things that seem to tie them together are the facts that the main characters of each book are related to those of the others, and that time and space travel somehow factor in to the plot of each book. Other than that, they might as well have been from different series altogether.
This is not entirely displeasing. L'Engle is a gifted storyteller, and her narratives have enough suspense and drama to keep most readers engaged. (Though, it should be noted, her vocabulary and awareness of sequence are beyond today's middle school reader. These books probably can't be read independently by anyone younger than high school.) I especially enjoyed the third book, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, for the way L'Engle deftly connected characters from various time periods and gradually brought them closer and closer to a climax in which all of time felt at stake. Also good was the fourth, Many Waters, which brough two characters back in time to the Middle East of Noah's flood. All of the characters from that story are present, along with a dozen others, and they all fit together so well I had to use my Bible to verify which ones were fictional. Their lives are fleshed out brilliantly, and the impending flood that looms over the whole story gives it a lot of weight.
Less enjoyable was the fifth book, An Acceptable Time. While it is the most mature thematically, and there are some thoughtful meditations on love and God and sacrifice, I couldn't fully come in to the story because the characters were poorly drawn. L'Engle's language tends to be a bit old-fashioned as it is, and in the mouths of this particular set of characters, it's not believable. One of the central relationships of the story was so far-fetched to me that I ultimately wasn't willing to suspend disbelief for the time travel like I was in the other books. It makes no sense why these characters want to spend any time together. This book was also a disappointment because I wanted it to have the climactic ending that the last book of a fantasy series is supposed to have. Since the books in the series weren't well-connected, this wasn't possible, and so it ended like all the other books, with a resolution for its own problem. This wouldn't be bad for a stand-alone book, but I've come to accept that children's fantasy series will pull all the threads together at the end.
My least favorite was the second book, A Wind in the Door, mostly because it was so confusing that it barely left an impression. I can only vaguely remember what it was about. All of the books involve science, but usually L'Engle manages to make it accessible to a reader who understands basic scientific principles. Even the particle physics in Many Waters weren't entirely beyond my reach, but Wind's biology definitely was. I had no concept of what was real science and what was invented, so I lost my way early on in the story, and the science is very integral to an understanding of the plot, so I lost that too.
Overall I think Madeleine L'Engle deserves her status as one of our most treasured children's writers. She understood something about storytelling that has been lost in literature, and I especially value her for the way that she ties faith and art together effortlessly. If I, as a writer, could ever do the same by half, I think I'd feel accomplished. And this series has much to recommend itself, especially the titles that I mentioned. It wasn't exactly what I hoped it would be, though, and so I wish I hadn't expected anything at all. I got a little smarter reading these books, but they didn't bring quite the satisfaction I wanted them to.
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