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A review by leviofmichigan
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle
5.0
Wow. Okay.
First, a couple negatives: this is a raw book; she says what she wants to. She even mentions a curse word and alludes to one in another passage. Most books would get very critical reviews from me for this kind of content, but somehow she can do it, and it doesn't feel cheap.
Second, I loved 97% of this book. Her wisdom, her humility, her stories; they all blend and create something awesome. I shared quotes with so many friends, I think they all knew (three times over) that I was reading this book.
Here are some of those quotes. You must read the whole book.
[Note to self: read this again in a couple years.]
"The idea that an icon must not look like the person it portrays used to bother me. But my husband is an actor; there are many times when he has to be away, on an out-of-town tryout of a play, for instance. And I have found that the longer we have been married, and the more deeply I love him, the less I "see" him visually. "Close your eyes," I'm in the habit of telling my students of all ages, "and think about the person you love most in the world. Do you really see him visually? Or don't you see on a much deeper level? It's lots easier to visualize people we don't know very well." - page 18 (after reading this, I put my finger in as a temporary bookmark, laid the book down, and revelled in the thought that someone had this feeling before me)
"During the long drag of years before our youngest child went to school, my love for my family and my need to write were in acute conflict. The problem was really that I put two things first. My husband and children came first. So did my writing. Bump." - page 19
"If a writer says he doesn't care whether he is published or not, I don't believe him. I care. Undoubtedly I care too much. But we do not write for ourselves alone. I write about what concerns me, and I want to share my concerns. I want what I write to be read. Every rejection slip--and you could paper my walls with my rejection slips--was like the rejection of me, myself, and certainly my amour-propre. I learned all kinds of essential lessons during those years of rejection, and I'm glad to have had them, but I wouldn't want to have to go through them again." - page 20
"I really and truly believe in God with all kinds of doubts. But I base my life on this belief." - page 63
"I break the rules of punctuation over and over again, but before you may break a rule you must know what it is, and exactly why you're breaking it." - page 64
"When someone comes in to me when I'm deep in writing, I have a moment of frightening transition when I don't know where I am, and then I have to leave the "real" world of my story for what often seems the less real world, the daily, dearly loved world of husband and children and household chores." - page 89
L'Engle talks of a time when teens and young adults came into the library where she worked to ask questions about life and love. "They really don't want me to answer their questions, nor should I. If I have not already answered them ontologically, nothing I say is going to make any sense. Where I can be of use is in being willing to listen while they spread their problem out between us; they can then see it themselves in better perspective.
But over the years two questions of mine have evolved which make sense to me.
I ask the boy or girl how work is going: Are you functioning at a better level than usual? Do you find that you are getting more work done in less time? If you are, then I think that you can trust this love. If you find that you can't work well, that you're functioning under par, then I think something may be wrong."
"The other question I ask my "children" is: what about your relations with the rest of the world? It's all right in the very beginning for you to be the only two people in the world, but ached that your ability to love should become greater and greater. If you find that you love lots more people than you ever did before, then I think that you can trust this love. If you find that you need to be exclusive, that you don't like being around other people, then I think that something may be wrong." - pages 109 & 110
"Integrity, like humility, is a quality which vanishes the moment we are conscious of it in ourselves. We see it only in others." - page 130
"Why are we so afraid of silence? Teenagers cannot study without their records...Grownups are as bad if not worse, we turn on the TV or the radio the minute we come into the house or start the car." - page 134
"I am still every age that I have been. Because I was once a child I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be. Because I was once a rebellious student, there is and always will be in me the student crying out for reform. This does not mean that I ought to be trapped or enclosed in any of these ages, the perpetual student, the delayed adolescent, the childish adult, but that they are in me to be drawn on; to forget is a form of suicide; my past is part of what makes the present Madeleine 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 13-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 grown-up, 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 way to go."
First, a couple negatives: this is a raw book; she says what she wants to. She even mentions a curse word and alludes to one in another passage. Most books would get very critical reviews from me for this kind of content, but somehow she can do it, and it doesn't feel cheap.
Second, I loved 97% of this book. Her wisdom, her humility, her stories; they all blend and create something awesome. I shared quotes with so many friends, I think they all knew (three times over) that I was reading this book.
Here are some of those quotes. You must read the whole book.
[Note to self: read this again in a couple years.]
"The idea that an icon must not look like the person it portrays used to bother me. But my husband is an actor; there are many times when he has to be away, on an out-of-town tryout of a play, for instance. And I have found that the longer we have been married, and the more deeply I love him, the less I "see" him visually. "Close your eyes," I'm in the habit of telling my students of all ages, "and think about the person you love most in the world. Do you really see him visually? Or don't you see on a much deeper level? It's lots easier to visualize people we don't know very well." - page 18 (after reading this, I put my finger in as a temporary bookmark, laid the book down, and revelled in the thought that someone had this feeling before me)
"During the long drag of years before our youngest child went to school, my love for my family and my need to write were in acute conflict. The problem was really that I put two things first. My husband and children came first. So did my writing. Bump." - page 19
"If a writer says he doesn't care whether he is published or not, I don't believe him. I care. Undoubtedly I care too much. But we do not write for ourselves alone. I write about what concerns me, and I want to share my concerns. I want what I write to be read. Every rejection slip--and you could paper my walls with my rejection slips--was like the rejection of me, myself, and certainly my amour-propre. I learned all kinds of essential lessons during those years of rejection, and I'm glad to have had them, but I wouldn't want to have to go through them again." - page 20
"I really and truly believe in God with all kinds of doubts. But I base my life on this belief." - page 63
"I break the rules of punctuation over and over again, but before you may break a rule you must know what it is, and exactly why you're breaking it." - page 64
"When someone comes in to me when I'm deep in writing, I have a moment of frightening transition when I don't know where I am, and then I have to leave the "real" world of my story for what often seems the less real world, the daily, dearly loved world of husband and children and household chores." - page 89
L'Engle talks of a time when teens and young adults came into the library where she worked to ask questions about life and love. "They really don't want me to answer their questions, nor should I. If I have not already answered them ontologically, nothing I say is going to make any sense. Where I can be of use is in being willing to listen while they spread their problem out between us; they can then see it themselves in better perspective.
But over the years two questions of mine have evolved which make sense to me.
I ask the boy or girl how work is going: Are you functioning at a better level than usual? Do you find that you are getting more work done in less time? If you are, then I think that you can trust this love. If you find that you can't work well, that you're functioning under par, then I think something may be wrong."
"The other question I ask my "children" is: what about your relations with the rest of the world? It's all right in the very beginning for you to be the only two people in the world, but ached that your ability to love should become greater and greater. If you find that you love lots more people than you ever did before, then I think that you can trust this love. If you find that you need to be exclusive, that you don't like being around other people, then I think that something may be wrong." - pages 109 & 110
"Integrity, like humility, is a quality which vanishes the moment we are conscious of it in ourselves. We see it only in others." - page 130
"Why are we so afraid of silence? Teenagers cannot study without their records...Grownups are as bad if not worse, we turn on the TV or the radio the minute we come into the house or start the car." - page 134
"I am still every age that I have been. Because I was once a child I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be. Because I was once a rebellious student, there is and always will be in me the student crying out for reform. This does not mean that I ought to be trapped or enclosed in any of these ages, the perpetual student, the delayed adolescent, the childish adult, but that they are in me to be drawn on; to forget is a form of suicide; my past is part of what makes the present Madeleine 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 13-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 grown-up, 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 way to go."