Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L’Engle is probably known best for her popular children’s chapter book, A Wrinkle in Time, (although I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult). L’Engle, however, wrote many more titles – fiction, for children, young adults and adults; poetry; and religious essays and stories. My favorite adult fiction title is The Severed Wasp, written in 1983. The Severed Wasp is the story of Katherine Forester Vigneras, a retired concert pianist who goes to live in New York City near the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

She becomes involved in the community of ministers, lay people and their families that work for and around the Cathedral – and she also becomes involved in a mystery that has one young girl deathly afraid. As Katherine gradually begins to unravel the mystery at St. John’s, we are allowed to delve into the mystery surrounding her own life and the joy and tragedy that has been a part of it.

A Severed Wasp is a fascinating portrait of a successful older woman, mixed with a measure or two of classical music, an atmosphere of spiritual inscrutability, and a mood of mystery that is both open and secretive. I highly recommend it. Meg

Other recommended books by Madeleine L’Engle
The Crosswicks Trilogy
A Circle of Quiet
The Summer of the Great Grandmother
The Irrational Season

The Wrinkle in Time Series
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet

A Small Rain, L’Engle’s earliest published work, is the first book about Katherine Forrester’s younger years. Meg