海角大神

I don鈥檛 always read introductions to books, but Charlotte Jones Voiklis prefaces this collection by remembering her 9-year-old self poking through her grandmother鈥檚 manuscripts in the Ivory Tower 鈥� the family鈥檚 name for her grandmother鈥檚 study above a garage in an 18th-century farmhouse. That scene took me right back to the opening, on 鈥渁 dark and stormy night,鈥� in another old house, of that haunting book, 鈥淎 Wrinkle in Time.鈥� No coincidence: The grandmother in question was Madeleine L鈥橢ngle. Her granddaughter went on, after L鈥橢ngle鈥檚 death in 2007, to gather those manuscripts into 鈥淭he Moment of Tenderness.鈥�

鈥淎 Wrinkle in Time鈥� explains that speedy space travel to a distant galaxy is just a matter of hopping over a temporal fold. This story collection rocketed me back to my own young-reader encounter with L鈥橢ngle鈥檚 work. It wasn鈥檛 just that I kept spying elements that appear in the 1963 Newbery Award-winning novel, such as the problem of glasses and romance in the story 鈥淭he Foreign Agent,鈥� or scriptural assurance in outer space in 鈥淎 Sign for a Sparrow.鈥� It was more that I could watch the development of a writer, and this made both books and their author more real to me. 鈥淎 great deal in these stories is autobiographical, especially in those that carefully observe an intense emotional crisis,鈥� Voiklis writes. (Incidentally, Voiklis and her sister L茅na Roy wrote 鈥淏ecoming Madeleine: A Biography of the Author of 鈥楢 Wrinkle in Time鈥� by Her Granddaughters,鈥� for middle-grade readers.)

As the title hints, the crises happen in moments. Some seem clumsily subtle; others are just bleak. 鈥淓very life has a turning point,鈥� a hopeful actress tells us in 鈥淥ne Day in Spring.鈥� In 鈥淢adame, Or...鈥� a brother has a moment of horror at his little sister鈥檚 living situation. In 鈥淪ummer Camp鈥� a camper and a counselor are both victims of adolescent cruelty, but the camper doesn鈥檛 get beyond self-pity. L鈥橢ngle holds her characters to moral account for their actions. In 鈥淢adame, Or鈥︹�� and 鈥淪ummer Camp,鈥� they make the wrong ones. Sometimes a well-observed moment seems too slight, but L鈥橢ngle鈥檚 refusal to tie things up with an easy resolution, and the possibility that she lived aspects of these stories, attests to her courage as a writer and a person.

The two best stories take place in Mt. George, Vermont. In 鈥淭he Moment of Tenderness,鈥� a married woman falls in love with the local doctor. It鈥檚 restrained, romantic, and memorable. 鈥淭he Foreigners,鈥� about an obnoxious family who moves to Vermont from New York, told by a storekeeper who hears all the gossip, is like a small novel. It ends on a note of edgy grace: 鈥淏ut where, after we have made the great decision to leave the security of childhood and move on into the vastness of maturity, does anybody ever feel completely at home?鈥�

L鈥橢ngle鈥檚 stories in 鈥淭he Moment of Tenderness鈥� often leave you with a question. But the book 鈥淎 Wrinkle in Time鈥� felt like home to many a nerdy child. Rereading it after seeing what else L鈥橢ngle could do was a revelation. 鈥淚t was a dark and stormy night,鈥� was exactly the right first sentence. It never occurred to me as a child what confidence it took to breathe life into a cliche. As an adult, I loved the fact that cool, basketball player Calvin already saw dorky, glasses-and-braces-wearing Meg鈥檚 true beauty in Chapter 3. L鈥橢ngle seems to dust off her hands, then she briskly dispatches the two along with Charles Wallace, Meg鈥檚 genius little brother, through time and space to battle a dark force and rescue their physicist-hero dad. To past and present me, it all makes perfect sense.

Voiklis says editors asked L鈥橢ngle if 鈥淎 Wrinkle in Time鈥� was for children or for adults, to which she replied, 鈥淚t鈥檚 for people!鈥� Her stories of human failures, successes, yearnings, and troubles all have a strong moral compass, even if the characters don鈥檛. Reading them showed me the depth and texture that eventually found its way into 鈥淎 Wrinkle in Time.鈥� And 鈥淭he Moment of Tenderness鈥� is graced with the tenderness with which the author鈥檚 granddaughter read her work.

Read a Q&A with听Charlotte Jones Voiklis, granddaugher of Madeleine L鈥橢ngle, here.听