I had read A Wrinkle In Time as a kid. I vaguely remembered how the children used mathematics to resist mind control. The name Auntie Beast sounded familiar; and of course I remembered the five dimensions and the whole wrinkle/tesseract description. But I must have been too young for it, because my major recollection was that it was hard to follow. (It's not!)
What I didn't remember was Meg's anger at her father--which so makes it a coming-of-age book. A big part of the business of growing up is figuring out that your parents can't fix everything with a band-aid or a kiss. It makes you mad at the time. Only later--if you're lucky--you find out that just because a person doesn't have magic powers doesn't mean they don't have powers. And that failing isn't the same thing as giving up Maybe your parent can't stop bad things from happening, but they can help clean up the mess...and make it better next time around.
Another thing that I totally glossed over was the occasional mention of God. The big 'G' God. How odd to find it cropping up in a science fiction book, even one written in 1959. And especially in a book that is saying that the loss of free will is the greatest of all evils. Thank heavens it's not a religious book and it doesn't take the matter a step further, as most religious people seem to do--free will is a gift from God but you'll only be happy when you choose to surrender your free will to God's will. Such a koan!
So, that's my take on A Wrinkle In Time--a fun book with some really cool images in it, one nicely rounded main character, and a message I enjoyed hearing: Alike and equal are not the same.
And don't you got to love a mentor who sends you off into battle with the most powerful gift of all?
I give you your faults.
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