A Circle of Quiet
When I finished Gilead, I noted that it was the rare book that took a long time to read because it had so much much to say that I couldn't take it all in at once. I wasn't kidding, those books are rare, but somehow I managed to pull it twice in a row because the very next book I read was A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle, which is the first of four non-fiction memoirs called The Crosswick Journals.
L'Engle is most famous for A Wrinkle in Time, which I vaguely recall reading as a child along with a few of her other books, most notably Many Waters. M owned this book because her friend Amber loves it and gave her a copy. I read it as I keep moving through M's collection. It's a memoir that simultaneously tells about L'Engle's life, her writing style and her philosophy while being engrossing at all times.
I marked several quotes with post-it notes (I never highlight books or write in them), but as I look through it now a good month after finishing it I see that most of them express ideas I've had before. The real money quote is, of course, about memory. I shall type it out here, hopefully with few transcription errors (italics in original).
...to forget is a form of suicide; my past is part of what makes the present Madeline and must not be denied or rejected or forgotten.
Far too many people misunderstand what putting away childish things means, and think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old or a thirteen-year-old or a twenty-three-year-old means being grownup. When I'm with these people I, like the kids, feel that if this is what it means to be a grownup, then I don't ever want to be one.
Instead of which, if I can retain a child's awareness and joy, and be fifty-one, then I will really learn what it means to be grownup. I still have a long ways to go.
And now I have to track down the three follow ups.
L'Engle is most famous for A Wrinkle in Time, which I vaguely recall reading as a child along with a few of her other books, most notably Many Waters. M owned this book because her friend Amber loves it and gave her a copy. I read it as I keep moving through M's collection. It's a memoir that simultaneously tells about L'Engle's life, her writing style and her philosophy while being engrossing at all times.
I marked several quotes with post-it notes (I never highlight books or write in them), but as I look through it now a good month after finishing it I see that most of them express ideas I've had before. The real money quote is, of course, about memory. I shall type it out here, hopefully with few transcription errors (italics in original).
...to forget is a form of suicide; my past is part of what makes the present Madeline and must not be denied or rejected or forgotten.
Far too many people misunderstand what putting away childish things means, and think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old or a thirteen-year-old or a twenty-three-year-old means being grownup. When I'm with these people I, like the kids, feel that if this is what it means to be a grownup, then I don't ever want to be one.
Instead of which, if I can retain a child's awareness and joy, and be fifty-one, then I will really learn what it means to be grownup. I still have a long ways to go.
And now I have to track down the three follow ups.