Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
This journal shares fruitful reflections on life and career prompted by the author's visit to her personal place of retreat near her country home.
Customer Reviews:
Why didn't I read this book sooner?
Customer Rating:
Madeleine L'Engle has delighted me with her writing ever since I was a little girl whose librarian introduced her to A Wrinkle in Time. What a joy to read the author's account of how that classic came to be written, and her trials in getting it published! Woven in with L'Engle's stories of life at her beloved country home, the reader finds in this book two closely related themes: the author's personal philosophy, and what it means to write.
So now I can add to Stephen King's wonderful On Writing another volume to recommend whenever a would-be author asks for useful advice on the craft. Why did it take me so long to catch up with this marvelous read?
A Lovely Memoir
Customer Rating:
The first in a series of books written at Madeleine's summer home at Crosswicks, this is a gentle tale---a sweet but gutsy recollection written in Madeleine's own inimical style.
Highly recommended reading
Customer Rating:
This book was outstanding. It is by no means a theology book, but it contains a lot of informal theology. It is basically the author's story of how one tackles the task of creative writing. Actually, it comes not so much from techniques learned, but from learning how to be in touch with who one is.
Cherished Conversations
Customer Rating:
A long time fan of Madeleine L'Engle, I have only recently taken to reading her autobiographical works. "A Circle of Quiet" may have been written in the 1970s, but it is every bit as relevant today as it was when L'Engle first recorded her thoughts and questions. Reading her reminiscenses and insights is almost just as good as having a one-on-one conversation with the author.
In "A Circle of Quiet", L'Engle traverses vast territory including the inspiration and necessity of writing, to questions that have plagued her about faith and God. She is intelligent in her answers and able to recognize her own failings. For such a talented writer, it is amazing that L'Engle endured years of rejection. No one wanted to take a chance on stories that couldn't be categorized. While some may see L'Engle as only a children's author, she is dead-on in her insistence that there is no separation between what makes a book a good children's or adult's book. The fictional stories of imagination should appeal to all ages if they are open to discover the truths that they seek.
L'Engle smartly covers so-called taboo issues and the effect that the changing nature of education and language has played on America's youth. "A Circle of Quiet" is truly a wonderful conversation with a cherished friend. Peppered with analogies of her own life and those of her friends and community, she tries to find a light in the darkness that surrounds all of us. In the end, she succeeds.
A Book of Life
Customer Rating:
I bought A Circle of Quiet for $2 AUD at a local library and it's blessed me beyond all thinking. I agree with the reviewer below; what makes this book so tremblingly wonderful is what Madeleine L'Engle doesn't say as much as what she does. Written only a few years after the 'summer of love' COQ is both counter-cultural and counter-counter-cultural, which is to say old-fashioned. ML was about 50 when she wrote the book and the text sparkles with hard won wisdom and subversive insights but again, its what ML refuses to say that makes this work so powerful and ever-ripe. I can't believe COQ came into my hands so... providentially but it did. Beautifully written it's a work that covers a whole lot of territory: Domestic (un)bliss, raising children, being an agnostic Christian, food, sex, the counter-culture, art, education vs propaganda, creativity, friendship, the self, God, death, writing, solitude, listening, talking, reading, music, love (there's no mention of cricket, but that's OK), small town life, nature, big city life, when not to answer someone elses Big Question (always refuse) - you get the picture. Even if you have to steal a copy, get a hold of this tome and eat it!
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