An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle

An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

You might try to read this after the fourth Wrinkle in Time book, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, but you should really read this after A House Like a Lotus (the O'Keefe series #3), which takes place chronologically right before An Acceptable Time and is somewhat necessary to understanding who Polly and Zach are. In a House Like a Lotus, Calvin and Meg are about 41 years old and have 7 children, of whom Polly is the oldest (16 years old). Polly goes on a trip to Athens during Spring session or maybe summer, where she meets a total creeper guy, Zachary, who is in his 20s.

An Acceptable Time takes place the following autumn, and it has a similar adventure as in A Swiftly Tilting Planet with the Christian themes of Many Waters. It's a pretty straight adventure story with no personal growth for any of the characters or anything else worth remarking upon. At the end, we are to believe that Zachary might experience personal growth but only after the book is over- we witness none of it.

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A House Like a Lotus by Madeleine L'Engle

A House Like a Lotus by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Some light spoilers ahead, but I tried to refrain from really telling anything.

First, this book is not for kids unless you're prepared to discuss sex, consent, and people taking advantage of teens.

As background, Calvin and Meg are 41 years old now, and move back to the US for Calvin's job. They settle on another island, this time in South Carolina. Their 7 children are a little older now: Polly (16 years old), Charles (14), Sandy "Zan" (12?), Den (10?), Peggy (8), Johnny (6), and Rosie (4).

While the whole family is mentioned, this story is mostly about Polly's "coming of age." She makes friends with a bunch of much older people in South Carolina: Maxine and Ursula who are in their 50s, and a medical intern Renny that she's dating. He's the absolute worst person in this book in my opinion, but Polly doesn't seem to notice. Max encourages her to take a trip to Athens, where she meets a total creeper guy Zachary in his 20s. He's the second or third worst person in this book. Again Polly doesn't seem to notice. Instead she focuses on being mad at Max for basically no reason at all. The story flashes back and forth between her town in South Carolina and Athens.

There are a lot of issues with this book, the biggest is that it is SO MELODRAMATIC. Maybe that's perfect for teenage girls? Another problem is the super high number of creepy characters willing to hit on 16-year-old Polly. Polly is tall, but she makes it clear that she does not look like an adult, so it's not an innocent mistake. Given that this was written in the 1980s we can't blame culture for this disaster. Another issue is that a whole bunch of new characters are introduced about 70% of the way through the book. Nope, sorry, I can't care about new people this late in the game.

Nonetheless, if I grade it on a curve, it's the best in O'Keefe series, and maybe one of the better in the bigger Kairos series (which is the 8 books in the Time quintet + O'Keefe series). There are references to great books, and there are a few deep thoughts.

More of a spoiler: Netson's Disease is fictional but I'm not sure why, as there are plenty of parasites that injure the heart. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/americans-may-be-more-at-risk-from-deadly-heart-parasite-than-realized/

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Dragons in the Waters by Madeleine L'Engle

Dragons in the Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Action-mystery-fantasy about a new character Simon on a freight ship to Latin America. Poly and her brother Charles are also there, but the story isn't really about them.

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The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle

The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle


Technically this isn't part of the A Wrinkle in Time series. But it has the O'Keefe-Murry family in it, and chronologically, this falls right after A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time #4), and about two more O'Keefe Family books before An Acceptable Time (Time #5, but also O'Keefe Family #4).

Spoiler alert: Even though the whole point of the book is that a new character Adam Edington is going to work for Calvin O'Keefe, Adam doesn't make it to the lab until about 40% of the book. When he does, he still doesn't get to work, but goes swimming with dolphins. Then a little bit of the starfish excitment, then more blah blah blah.

Also, Calvin and Meg, who are about 37 years old, have had 7 children by now. Poly (12 years old), Charles (10), Sandy (8?), Dennis (6?), Peggy (4), Johnny (2), baby Rosie a.k.a. Mary. Holy cow.

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Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle

Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the fourth book in the Wrinkle in Time series, though it's actually more well-written story than the first three books. Chronologically it takes place between book 2 and 3. When I read this as a child I gave it three stars- possibly because I was bored by it or because it focused on Sandy and Dennis instead of Meg and Charles. As an adult, my biggest objection is that it's a bit misogynistic. My secondary objection is that there's not any point in this adventure either for Sandy and Dennis or in the bigger scheme of the Wrinkle in Times Series.

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A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wish I had written notes on what I thought of this book when I read it as a kid. I didn't so these are just my thoughts from my adult-rereading. It skips ahead about 10 years, and Charles Wallace is 15 now and Meg is married and pregnant. It seems a bit different than the others in that the challenge is overcome indirectly by altering the course of a family history in one place over time. This one has more legitimate time travel than the first two. However, the magical creature involved, a unicorn, is decidedly less cool than the multi-eyed dragon thing in A Wind in the Door (#2). The story is generally more adult and has a lot more structure. I recommend jotting down the family tree as you read though because the genealogy gets very confusing.

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Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't care for the title of the book. It would be better named The Hole in the Sky, The Nothingness, The Wind in the Trees, or um, The Sick Mitochondria? Haha, okay the last one is bad, but at least then I could remember what the book is about when I see it on my shelf.

I gave this 3 stars as an adult, but to be fair I gave it 4 stars in my reading journal when I was a kid.

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A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first read this book when I was a kid - probably when I was 12. I made my way through the other books in the series as well, so I know I loved it. As an adult, I saw the movie and it ruined the story for me. But having sufficiently forgotten the movie now, I read the book again and I found that it mostly stands up.

Also, I googled the word "tesseract" and I enjoy the crazy internet rabbit hole it takes you down: geometry, architecture, religion, science.

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