As with most books by Madeleine L'Engle, this one is exceptionally well written. The story is well thought-through and its characters, at least its main characters, are well written and memorable.
So, for a quick summary of the plot: Polly is spending some time with her grandparents. Her friend, Zachary happens to be living in nearby Hartford and drives down in his fancy car to spend some time with her. Clearly, Zachary is in love with Polly. She's not quite sure if she feels the same way about him yet. Meanwhile, family friend Bishop Nason Colubra has discovered a time gate that allows access to three thousand years in the past.
This is where I get really annoyed with the story. Okay, a time gate; I generally like stories like that. But this one is really weird. Well, the time gate itself isn't so weird as the reaction of the people around it.
Bishop Colubra has been going through the time gate for quite some time, long enough to teach English to a few of the natives living in pre-columbus America, but he hasn't told anyone about it because he knows they won't believe him. But after Polly goes through the time gate by mistake, Bishop Colubra and Polly decide to tell the others--Colubra's sister, Louise, a medical doctor; and Polly's grandparents, the Doctors Murry.
They get a series of reactions that would have been comical if they hadn't been written so ridiculously. First, Polly's grandfather: his first reaction is disbelief. He thinks they are just pulling his leg, making a joke. When it becomes clear that they aren't telling a joke, he stubbornly refuses to believe them. Eventually, he is presented with enough evidence to convince him and he changes his mind, albeit reluctantly. Later he admits that he was more upset that the time gate opened on his property and someone else discovered it than he was disbelieving. Okay, my problem with this is that Dr. Murry is an astrophysicist or something like that, he traveled to a distant solar system in A Wrinkle in Time by going through a time gate--except in that book it was called a tesseract. So it seems completely crazy for him to not believe that one could possibly open up on his property. As for his being upset about someone else discovering it--well, he wasn't looking for one, he hardly ever left his house, he just sat around gloating that he knew more about physics than Bishop Colubra. Furthermore, in all the previous books in this series featuring Dr. Murry, he is a very humble gentleman, one who wouldn't be upset that someone else made a discovery in his field, one who would be happy for Bishop Colubra making this discovery. And he would be eager to explore it, find out where it goes, why it's there and how it works. Instead, in this book, he doesn't believe in it, and then he's afraid of it and makes Polly a prisoner in his house so that she won't explore it. That just seems a little ridiculous to me. Especially considering that it's a huge break from the character I was introduced to in earlier books.
Polly's grandmother is also a scientist. She studies micro-organisms or something. In fact, she's so smart, she does her experiments in her mind (could this be an early sign of senility?). When she finally gets convinced that the time gate does exist, she wants to bury all evidence of it, put it out of her mind, and forget about it, hoping that it will somehow go away as a result. And she forbids Polly going anywhere near it.
These are the same two characters who, in previous books, sent their own children through time: In Many Waters their twin children Sandy and Denys are sent through time to the prehistorical past as a result of a mistake in one of their parents' experiments. In A Wrinkle in Time, their children, Meg and Charles Wallace and one of their classmates travels through a tesseract to rescue their father, trapped in a distant solar system. In A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Charles Wallace goes back in time and changes the past in order to resolve a problem in the present. So why on earth do they suddenly have a problem with tampering with a time gate?
Bishop Colubra's sister, Louise's reaction I can somewhat understand. She is a doctor and a scientist but she doesn't have the experience with space and time travel that the Drs. Murry have. Nevertheless, she is quite mean about her disbelief.
In fact, all three of these skeptics treat Bishop Colubra like a child after he tells them about the time gate. They disregard all his opinions and input into any discussion on any subject and constantly pooh-pooh him. They constantly put down his driving and his trustworthiness. So it's kind of funny that, when he isn't around, they praise his faith and knowledge of theology and scripture.
So, as you can see, I was pretty annoyed by this book. And besides, it was way too long.
So, for a quick summary of the plot: Polly is spending some time with her grandparents. Her friend, Zachary happens to be living in nearby Hartford and drives down in his fancy car to spend some time with her. Clearly, Zachary is in love with Polly. She's not quite sure if she feels the same way about him yet. Meanwhile, family friend Bishop Nason Colubra has discovered a time gate that allows access to three thousand years in the past.
This is where I get really annoyed with the story. Okay, a time gate; I generally like stories like that. But this one is really weird. Well, the time gate itself isn't so weird as the reaction of the people around it.
Bishop Colubra has been going through the time gate for quite some time, long enough to teach English to a few of the natives living in pre-columbus America, but he hasn't told anyone about it because he knows they won't believe him. But after Polly goes through the time gate by mistake, Bishop Colubra and Polly decide to tell the others--Colubra's sister, Louise, a medical doctor; and Polly's grandparents, the Doctors Murry.
They get a series of reactions that would have been comical if they hadn't been written so ridiculously. First, Polly's grandfather: his first reaction is disbelief. He thinks they are just pulling his leg, making a joke. When it becomes clear that they aren't telling a joke, he stubbornly refuses to believe them. Eventually, he is presented with enough evidence to convince him and he changes his mind, albeit reluctantly. Later he admits that he was more upset that the time gate opened on his property and someone else discovered it than he was disbelieving. Okay, my problem with this is that Dr. Murry is an astrophysicist or something like that, he traveled to a distant solar system in A Wrinkle in Time by going through a time gate--except in that book it was called a tesseract. So it seems completely crazy for him to not believe that one could possibly open up on his property. As for his being upset about someone else discovering it--well, he wasn't looking for one, he hardly ever left his house, he just sat around gloating that he knew more about physics than Bishop Colubra. Furthermore, in all the previous books in this series featuring Dr. Murry, he is a very humble gentleman, one who wouldn't be upset that someone else made a discovery in his field, one who would be happy for Bishop Colubra making this discovery. And he would be eager to explore it, find out where it goes, why it's there and how it works. Instead, in this book, he doesn't believe in it, and then he's afraid of it and makes Polly a prisoner in his house so that she won't explore it. That just seems a little ridiculous to me. Especially considering that it's a huge break from the character I was introduced to in earlier books.
Polly's grandmother is also a scientist. She studies micro-organisms or something. In fact, she's so smart, she does her experiments in her mind (could this be an early sign of senility?). When she finally gets convinced that the time gate does exist, she wants to bury all evidence of it, put it out of her mind, and forget about it, hoping that it will somehow go away as a result. And she forbids Polly going anywhere near it.
These are the same two characters who, in previous books, sent their own children through time: In Many Waters their twin children Sandy and Denys are sent through time to the prehistorical past as a result of a mistake in one of their parents' experiments. In A Wrinkle in Time, their children, Meg and Charles Wallace and one of their classmates travels through a tesseract to rescue their father, trapped in a distant solar system. In A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Charles Wallace goes back in time and changes the past in order to resolve a problem in the present. So why on earth do they suddenly have a problem with tampering with a time gate?
Bishop Colubra's sister, Louise's reaction I can somewhat understand. She is a doctor and a scientist but she doesn't have the experience with space and time travel that the Drs. Murry have. Nevertheless, she is quite mean about her disbelief.
In fact, all three of these skeptics treat Bishop Colubra like a child after he tells them about the time gate. They disregard all his opinions and input into any discussion on any subject and constantly pooh-pooh him. They constantly put down his driving and his trustworthiness. So it's kind of funny that, when he isn't around, they praise his faith and knowledge of theology and scripture.
So, as you can see, I was pretty annoyed by this book. And besides, it was way too long.
baby, i totally get what you mean by the book being annoying. i found it wasn't nearly as well written as most of her books - seriously, every time i read one like this, i think it must've been written by a ghost writer who just can't imitate l'engle's style.
ReplyDeleteand the murrys were so out of character in this one.
i love you.