Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage (The Crosswicks Journal, Book 4)

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Summary: Exquisite, true tale of the complications of sharing lives
Review: In creating a portrait of her life with Hugh Franklin (yes, of the soap opera), Ms. L'Engle employs a device she also uses in her fiction: cutting back and forth between timesso that the reader is at once engaged in their courtship, inher mourning as she watches her husband die, in the bustle of their extraordinary lives. One engages in all of these at once, knowing the outcomes, suspense is not the point. When Hugh does eventually die, you have been involved in the best and worst of the marriage and feel itscentrality in the author's life. Even after multiple readings, this chapter is good for a cathartic sob. Part of the remarkable grip this book has on me is the humility of the author. She is unimpressed by her Newbery Award and tremendouscontribution to American letters, unimpressed by herhusband's fame as a television star. She is impressed, however, by their ability to share a life, to give themselvesto a family, and to balance those with maintaining theirindividuality and ensuring that each of them pursued their dreams. Her priorities are clear, and without ever being strident or judgmental, this work is a gentle reminder of what is important

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Summary: The truth about true partnership
Review: It is a credit to the lucid prose of Madeleine L'Engle that even as she relates the story of her marriage in a very specific historical period (New York theater in the 1940's), the message is timeless and beautiful. This book has an uncommon spirituality and such a breathtaking grasp on human connections, that it is an appropriate gift for anyone in the midst of a loving, intense partnership or for anyone who has felt such ties to another person and has been forever changed. I give this to all my best friends who are getting married or simply pondering what it is to love someone else. Absolutely lovely, memorable.

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Summary: A beautiful, touching account of marriage.
Review: M. L'engle writes so candidly about her feelings and her experiences that at first you feel like an eavesdropper. That doesn't last long. I soon found myself feeling extremely grateful for her willingness to share what was probably the toughest time in her life. This book illustrates what love is all about. And also how marriage, above all things, is a beautiful, spiritual, sacrifice of self.

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Summary: An intensely personal look at families, marriage and cancer.
Review: Madeleine L'Engle once again lets her readers into her own personal struggles, and details her faith and grief during her husband's fight with cancer. There is a strong similarity between "Two-Part Invention" and C.S. Lewis' "A Grief Observed" and this book also describes the triumph of faith and love. In a time when terminal illness is a common denominator for many families, this book is a touching testimony to strength of resolve and the real love possible in marriage. For anyone who is a frequent L'Engle reader, this book gives great insight into her personal journey.

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Summary: An intensely personal look at families, marriage and cancer.
Review: Madeleine L'Engle once again lets her readers into her own personal struggles, and details her faith and grief duringher husband's fight with cancer. There is a strong similarity between "Two-Part Invention" and C.S. Lewis' "A Grief Observed" and this book also describes the triumph of faith and love. In a time when terminal illness is a common denominator for many families, this book is a touching testimony to strength of resolve and the real love possible in marriage. For anyone who is a frequent L'Engle reader, this book gives great insight into her personal journey.

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Summary: A heart-breaking, triumphant story of courtship & marriage
Review: This book has become one of the ones that I re-read regularly. (I also lend it out regularly, which has become something of a problem--it never comes back to me!) Madeleine L'Engle's story of her courtship and marriage to Hugh Grant is one that everyone contemplating marriage--or divorce--should read slowly and carefully. Nothing is absent from this chronicle: not love, nor pain, nor laughter, nor sorrow, nor failure, nor triumph, nor doubt, nor faith,. Would that we could all treasure the moments of our lives as does Ms. L'Engle, and understand them as the gifts they are, as she clearly does!

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Summary: A wonderful gift I have passed along
Review: This book was given to me as part of a wedding gift. I read it on my honeymoon, and though it is heartbreaking, even more so it is inspirational. I have since given a copy as a wedding or engagement gift to all of my friends when they get married. I have reread it each year of my marraige, and find it only gets better with age.

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Summary: Quietly beautiful and inspiring
Review: This book, along with C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed, are two of the best books ever written about love and loss. L'Engle's characteristic style of inspired wanderings brings you back gently and eventually to her main discussion of her courtship and 40-year marriage, and to the inevitable and tragic ending thereof. While certainly saddening, this book is not about wallowing in grief, but is a celebration of the non-traditional (in many ways) life that she and Hugh built together, and how the strength and love of their relationship rippled outward to affect all they came in contact with: children, god-children, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances.

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Summary: Quietly beautiful and inpsiring
Review: This book, along with C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed, are two of the best books ever written about love and loss. L'Engle's characteristic style of inspired wanderings brings you back gently and eventually to her main discussion of her courtship and 40-year marriage, and to the inevitable and tragic ending thereof. While certainly saddening, this book is not about wallowing in grief, but is a celebration of the non-traditional (in many ways) life that she and Hugh built together, and how the strength and love of their relationship rippled outward to affect all they came in contact with: children, god-children, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances.

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Summary: Wonderful
Review: Two-Part Invention was wonderful. Madeleine L'Engle talks about her 40 year marriage in retrospect - while dealing with the imminent death of her husband after a long struggle with illness. It is moving and profound and inspiring - not depressing at all, despite the sad subject matter. I appreciated that she talked about her craft - and the struggle between being a good wife and mother and being a writer. I'm far from a "writer" but I understand her plight - finding a balance between her vocation as a mother and wife and her avocation as a writer while still doing it all. I think anyone who has a passion for art or writing or any sort of creation and has struggled with that creative urge in the face of their other responsibilities will understand. Wonderful.