The Summer of the Great-
Grandmother (Crosswicks Journal,
Book 2) by Madeleine Lengle
A Summer Of Contemplation
This journal offers a loving and poignant portrait of LEngles mother in old
age that is more about living than dying.
Personal Review: The Summer of the Great-Grandmother
(Crosswicks Journal, Book 2) by Madeleine Lengle
Madeleine L'Engle has long been one of my favorite authors so
encountering the mind behind the fiction in her Crosswicks journals has
been a privilege and a joy. "The Summer of the Great-Grandmother" is a
meandering account of L'Engle's family history as she grapples with the
unraveling of her mother's mind. As someone who has witnessed loved
ones deteriorate in the same manner, portions of L'Engle's tale can be
heartbreaking, but knowing that she asked the same questions is affirming
and refreshing.

L'Engle begins her account with the changes that she has noticed in her
mother who has come for her annual summer stay at Crosswicks. She is
suffering from artherosclerosis and needs constant care, fears the
unknown and unnameable, and is no longer the mother that L'Engle knew.
L'Engle openly shares the joyous times - the memories of the fabulous life
that her mother lived - alongside the difficult times - wondering if it's wrong
to want her mother to die so she does not have to suffer. All the while, the
reader sees L'Engle's struggle to reconcile her faith and reason, to know
what is right concering honoring a loved one as they die, to come to terms
with the births that come along with dying.
"The Summer of the Great-Grandmother" is a book that will offer solace for
anyone who has experienced something similar or is all too familiar with
death. Other reviewers have taken umbrage that L'Engle is preachy or
revisionist; perhaps they are forgetting this is a private journal she made
public, her emotions and opinions made bare not in an effort to instruct or
coerce, but to offer insight and possibly some hope. Her family had more
than its share of remarkable stories, but then it is no wonder that L'Engle
herself would lead such an amazing life. It makes one wonder what the
end was like for her, a woman who has touched so many lives through her
writing, whose words will forever live on and enchant.
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