rebekahology's review against another edition
4.0
This is a pretty interesting look at Madeleine L'Engle's life and work, and it gave me some valuable insight into her thought process and the foundation of her theology. But ultimately it just made me want to read her books, which I already wanted to do anyway. It felt like a visit to a charming rest stop on a longer journey.
pagesofpins's review against another edition
4.0
A short volume that expresses many of the things I love about Madeleine L'Engle. She insisted on being herself rather than reworking her personality to fit neat categories. She loved myth and story and family and science. She insisted that bad art cannot reflect good theology. She knew there was more to truth than provable fact. She wrote what she wanted to write. She also failed a lot of times in her life, and sometimes waved away the details or dismissed the experiences of her family.
covergirlbooks's review against another edition
2.0
When this book arrived for me at the library, I was surprised by how small a thing it is. A thin paperback, not the thick biography I had been anticipating. I will preface this by saying that I can tell there was so much work and tears in the research and writing of this book. I mostly enjoyed this book, but I still felt I came away with more information about the author than L’engle.
It’s such a fine balance to write a biography of a Christian who teaches without doing your own preaching in the text. But maybe this was perhaps because the intended audience of the book was not other Christians.
All that to say: I do appreciate a fellow Christian’s perspective on all that L’engle’s work means to them, I was just expecting many more anecdotes and excerpts about the subject herself than her impact on others.
I was inspired to put rereading her sci-fi series and pursuing some of her lesser popular works as a result of reading this book.
It’s such a fine balance to write a biography of a Christian who teaches without doing your own preaching in the text. But maybe this was perhaps because the intended audience of the book was not other Christians.
All that to say: I do appreciate a fellow Christian’s perspective on all that L’engle’s work means to them, I was just expecting many more anecdotes and excerpts about the subject herself than her impact on others.
I was inspired to put rereading her sci-fi series and pursuing some of her lesser popular works as a result of reading this book.
heatherer's review against another edition
4.0
A solid honoring of the spiritual legacy of Madeleine L’Engle and for me, a recalling of the grace she was in my life at a critical juncture in my faith. Sarah Arthur does a terrific job of capturing Madeleine with the complexity a human being deserves - beautiful and worthy of honor and flawed and broken. I’m looking forward to reading new L’Engle works and rereading a few favorites after being exposed to their richness in this book.
kendranicole28's review against another edition
4.0
Unlike many of my fellow book lovers, I did not fall in love with A Wrinkle In Time as a child, and when I finally read it as an adult, I liked but didn’t love the science fiction tale; I was much more taken with Madeleine L’Engle’s memoir A Circle of Quiet that I devoured two years ago. I had no idea that L’Engle was such a complex woman, and I was intrigued to learn more about her through this biography that examines the author’s life, work, and legacy.
Madeleine L’Engle was a complicated individual: in her lifetime, her views were generally considered too progressive for conservative Christians and too Christian for the non-religious. She held definitive views of art and literature that rarely aligned with the ideas of her fellow authors, and her imagination was so vivid that she tended to merge fact with fiction in some problematic ways. In this book, Sarah Arthur takes a look at the paradoxes seen within the author who was an icon AND an iconoclast, an advocate for truth AND story, a writer of books that celebrated religion AND art and faith AND science. Arthur makes sense of these seeming incompatibilities for L’Engle and illuminates ways that her work can inspire fellow creatives and Christians seeking integration between various parts of ourselves and our work.
Arthur does an excellent job of painting an accurate portrait of this often controversial figure—celebrating her strengths without downplaying less commendable parts of the author’s story and her work. Arthur shows us ways that L’Engle can serve as a role model and a cautionary tale. My favorite portions of the book were those that focused on L’Engle’s ability to blend her faith into her writing in ways that highlighted the truth and celebrated story in ways that could appeal to audiences of all ages and beliefs. The discussion of L’Engle’s unfortunate tendency to prioritize story over fact was enlightening, if potentially difficult for many of L’Engle’s devotees who may prefer not to read about the the writer’s shortcomings.
This was a quick listen that gave me a lot to ponder about the nature of the books we read, the stories we tell, and the gurus we choose to follow.
My Rating: 4 Stars // Book Format: Audiobook
Madeleine L’Engle was a complicated individual: in her lifetime, her views were generally considered too progressive for conservative Christians and too Christian for the non-religious. She held definitive views of art and literature that rarely aligned with the ideas of her fellow authors, and her imagination was so vivid that she tended to merge fact with fiction in some problematic ways. In this book, Sarah Arthur takes a look at the paradoxes seen within the author who was an icon AND an iconoclast, an advocate for truth AND story, a writer of books that celebrated religion AND art and faith AND science. Arthur makes sense of these seeming incompatibilities for L’Engle and illuminates ways that her work can inspire fellow creatives and Christians seeking integration between various parts of ourselves and our work.
Arthur does an excellent job of painting an accurate portrait of this often controversial figure—celebrating her strengths without downplaying less commendable parts of the author’s story and her work. Arthur shows us ways that L’Engle can serve as a role model and a cautionary tale. My favorite portions of the book were those that focused on L’Engle’s ability to blend her faith into her writing in ways that highlighted the truth and celebrated story in ways that could appeal to audiences of all ages and beliefs. The discussion of L’Engle’s unfortunate tendency to prioritize story over fact was enlightening, if potentially difficult for many of L’Engle’s devotees who may prefer not to read about the the writer’s shortcomings.
This was a quick listen that gave me a lot to ponder about the nature of the books we read, the stories we tell, and the gurus we choose to follow.
My Rating: 4 Stars // Book Format: Audiobook
alisse's review against another edition
5.0
“Madeleine showed us how to rejoice in the smallest atom, the farthest galaxy, all the amazing works of our creator—and also to rejoice in the creative tasks God has given us to do.”
So writes Sarah Arthur in this beautiful look at Madeleine L’Engle’s life, including the professional, creative, and the deeply personal. She doesn’t stray from the not so pretty parts of L’Engle’s life, but in doing so she makes this literary (and faith) giant all the more real and tangible for readers. Including reflections from a who’s who of religious publishing was a treat for me personally—like many, I’ve always felt like Madeleine was a friend (given all her many books), but there are many other friends in these pages, too. I’ll be coming back to many snippets from this book again and again.
So writes Sarah Arthur in this beautiful look at Madeleine L’Engle’s life, including the professional, creative, and the deeply personal. She doesn’t stray from the not so pretty parts of L’Engle’s life, but in doing so she makes this literary (and faith) giant all the more real and tangible for readers. Including reflections from a who’s who of religious publishing was a treat for me personally—like many, I’ve always felt like Madeleine was a friend (given all her many books), but there are many other friends in these pages, too. I’ll be coming back to many snippets from this book again and again.
becmatho's review against another edition
4.0
This was an extremely balanced and lovely insight into Madeline LeEngle’s work, influence and personhood. I am inspired to read more of her non fiction and grateful for a legacy well left. This is a really well written work and kept my attention completely - I rarely read biographies of any kind but was very happily surprised at its well rounded approach.
cydneydaniel's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book.
If you’re familiar with Madeleine L’Engle at all, you know how special she was. This book explores her spiritual legacy, and how she paved the way not only for Christian writers and artists to come after her, but for all of us struggling to find the space between “both/and” with our faith and interactions with others.
I came to Madeleine later than many other people on my life who love her. My in-laws encouraged me to pick up A Wrinkle in Time, and I read all five books on the series in less than 2 weeks. I was enamored and obsessed, and of course I wanted to know everything I could about Madeleine.
This book just felt like a conversation about a deeply joyful, curious, flawed, wonderful human being. It doesn’t shy away from her failures and shortcomings, and it is careful not to idolize her or make her seem like she had all the answers. She didn’t. But she lived gloriously, faithfully, and without fear of asking questions.
I learned so much from this short autobiography, and I’m always learning from Madeleine’s life. I can’t wait to share this with others, and hopefully revisit one day.
Quotes that I'm still thinking about:
"Meanwhile, technology in the service of science shows no signs of slowing down: artificial intelligence being "trained," even now, to do everything from drive our cars to diagnose our illnesses. An idol in the making, perhaps, and what is far too quickly idolized can be demonized- or worse yet, weaponized. By that light, holding faith and science together, as we move into the future, is a key Christian practice that we dare not miss or ignore. If I am not training my children in the kind of humility and wisdom that recognizes both the dangers and gifts of human knowledge, then I'm failing to equip them in faithful discernment." pg 118 (in the context of embracing both science and faith)
"The place I have grief around Madeleine is that there's still this idea that she didn't do anything wrong. That other people were too sensitive. That they needed to get over it because it was in the service of almighty art, of the almighty story, of the almighty thing that was being created. But I don't think that anything we create trumps the people whom we love and who love us. We don't get to stomp all over their humanity in service of some mythic humanity. Learning how to hold that tension will be the work of a lifetime." pg 165. (Quote by Sarah Bessey)
"Madeleine taught us that we don't abandon spiritual habits just because we're in a season of struggle and doubt. We keep attending to those practices, day in and day out. This is not the same as legalism, in which we obey certain commands in some misguided attempt to be on God's good side. Instead, it requires deep humility to trust... God has promised to show up in the middle of these daily habits." pg 190
If you’re familiar with Madeleine L’Engle at all, you know how special she was. This book explores her spiritual legacy, and how she paved the way not only for Christian writers and artists to come after her, but for all of us struggling to find the space between “both/and” with our faith and interactions with others.
I came to Madeleine later than many other people on my life who love her. My in-laws encouraged me to pick up A Wrinkle in Time, and I read all five books on the series in less than 2 weeks. I was enamored and obsessed, and of course I wanted to know everything I could about Madeleine.
This book just felt like a conversation about a deeply joyful, curious, flawed, wonderful human being. It doesn’t shy away from her failures and shortcomings, and it is careful not to idolize her or make her seem like she had all the answers. She didn’t. But she lived gloriously, faithfully, and without fear of asking questions.
I learned so much from this short autobiography, and I’m always learning from Madeleine’s life. I can’t wait to share this with others, and hopefully revisit one day.
Quotes that I'm still thinking about:
"Meanwhile, technology in the service of science shows no signs of slowing down: artificial intelligence being "trained," even now, to do everything from drive our cars to diagnose our illnesses. An idol in the making, perhaps, and what is far too quickly idolized can be demonized- or worse yet, weaponized. By that light, holding faith and science together, as we move into the future, is a key Christian practice that we dare not miss or ignore. If I am not training my children in the kind of humility and wisdom that recognizes both the dangers and gifts of human knowledge, then I'm failing to equip them in faithful discernment." pg 118 (in the context of embracing both science and faith)
"The place I have grief around Madeleine is that there's still this idea that she didn't do anything wrong. That other people were too sensitive. That they needed to get over it because it was in the service of almighty art, of the almighty story, of the almighty thing that was being created. But I don't think that anything we create trumps the people whom we love and who love us. We don't get to stomp all over their humanity in service of some mythic humanity. Learning how to hold that tension will be the work of a lifetime." pg 165. (Quote by Sarah Bessey)
"Madeleine taught us that we don't abandon spiritual habits just because we're in a season of struggle and doubt. We keep attending to those practices, day in and day out. This is not the same as legalism, in which we obey certain commands in some misguided attempt to be on God's good side. Instead, it requires deep humility to trust... God has promised to show up in the middle of these daily habits." pg 190