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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"I have never liked dolls. Somehow they have always frightened me a little because they are like cartoons of all that is cold and unloving and uncaring in people."
“What are you doing all alone in the dark?”
“Just looking at the rain.”
“That’s a melancholy business,”
"A nice thing about Luisa and me—we both like sandwiches for breakfast and we like cereal before we go to bed at night."
“But you’re not a child any longer,” Jacques told me.
I said, in an ice-cold voice, as cold as an outer planet, “I am a child. I do not intend to grow up.”
“But there are compensations,” Jacques said, “I promise you there are compensations.”
Also Frank was a creep.
“What are you doing all alone in the dark?”
“Just looking at the rain.”
“That’s a melancholy business,”
"A nice thing about Luisa and me—we both like sandwiches for breakfast and we like cereal before we go to bed at night."
“But you’re not a child any longer,” Jacques told me.
I said, in an ice-cold voice, as cold as an outer planet, “I am a child. I do not intend to grow up.”
“But there are compensations,” Jacques said, “I promise you there are compensations.”
Also Frank was a creep.
For some reason I ended up reading this book, originally published in 1951. It wasn't very good..the plot and the character development being sub-par. Yet I still love the author and it was while I was researching information on this book that I learned of L'Engle's death. Sigh.
i thought i had read this before as a teenager but since i had no memory of anything after the first two chapters, i think in retrospect it is more likely that i tossed it aside. all the earnest discussions of parental behavior and growing up and frank's fierce denouncements of death put me off this one. and how creepy is it that camilla's mother tries to hide her affair with jacques by saying he's there to see camilla? gross. i powered through, but this isn't one of l'engle's best.
I automatically abandon books where a character’s full name is repeatedly mentioned in dialogue. Nobody does that. Major pet peeve. So, DNF.
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
An interesting peek into YA literature in the 1960's and 1950's wealthy NYC life.
This very cerebral story of a teenaged girl growing up in Manhattan and coming to terms with her parents' shortcomings has a slow start, but is worth sticking with for all that. The writing is beautiful and thoughtful and the earnest feelings and ideas shared between Camilla and Frank are honest and true. Even if her dialogue is a bit stilted and dated I find her storytelling to be, as always, gripping. This is one of those books that I have dog-eared and underlined. I can't help it with L'Engle and I always enjoy re-reading her.
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Very thought-provoking and bittersweet. 3.5 stars.