An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Had quite an odd moment with this novel.  I reached a point in the story where a Bible quote is discussed.  Immediately after my morning read, I watched the funeral for George H. W. Bush where the exact same Bible quote was read.  I have never had reading so relevant to my life.  It was a very eerie day.  But it really highlighted the beauty of Madeleine L'Engle to me.

To the book itself...  

Polly, the oldest child of Meg and Calvin, is sent to the Murrys farm for the summer to help her education.  There she runs into a fellow she met on a random beach on a vacation in Greece--which is just down right odd.  I know the world is a small place, but it just felt forced in the book.


Not only does she run into such an unusual suspect, but she also manages to walk herself right through a tesseract to ancient America.  (Remember those people we read about in ASTP?  They're kind of back.)

While I did not like the premise one bit, the book is certainly filled with excellent drama.  This is a book about death that triggers some serious philosophical debate.  Because it is about death, it is also very much a book about life.  

Polly is presented with challenges that mean the difference between childhood and adulthood.  I respect L'Engle presenting growing up as maturing, not overly flamboyant rebelling.  The young adult genre could stand to remember that.

This was not my favorite in the "Time Quintet," but I see the series as more of a thematic collection--the concept of spirituality inside science.  (Sometimes this novel isn't even boxed in the set.)

You can really read them in whichever order you please because the story lines are unique and finite.  But as I stated above, this is a thematic series, and reading them in published order builds the themes and ideas.  The characters aren't the main point.  Something that no longer seems done in today's writing.

Overall, I think the series is worth more than its individual parts, but I feel An Acceptable Time is well worth the time reading.