The Summer of the GreatGrandmother, Madeleine LEngle
The Summer of the GreatGrandmother, Madeleine LEngle
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The Summer of the Great-Grandmother

Author: Madeleine L'Engle

Narrator: Pamela Almand

Unabridged: 6 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 01/23/2018

Synopsis

A poignant meditation on the bonds between mothers and daughters—and the inescapable effects of time—from the author of A Wrinkle in Time.In the second memoir of her Crosswicks Journals, Madeleine L’Engle chronicles a season of extremes. Four generations of family have gathered at Crosswicks, her Connecticut farmhouse, to care for L’Engle’s ninety-year-old mother. As summer days fade to sleepless nights, her mother’s health rapidly declines and her once astute mind slips into senility. With poignant honesty, L’Engle describes the gifts and graces, as well as the painful emotional cost, of caring for the one who once cared for you.As she spends her days with a mother who barely resembles the competent and vigorous woman who bore and raised her, L’Engle delves into her memories, reflecting on the lives of the strong women in her family’s history. Evoking both personal experiences and universal themes, The Summer of the Great-Grandmother takes an unflinching look at diminishment and death, all the while celebrating the wonder of life.

About Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L’Engle, the popular author of many books for children and adults, interspersed her writing and teaching career with raising three children, maintaining an apartment in New York and a farmhouse of charming confusion which is called “Crosswicks.”

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cindy on July 16, 2018

Life is a fugue. Our lives and memories overlap and run into one another. Perhaps, if I had not spent 20 days this summer at a hospice house this book would only have 4 stars but for me this is the summer of the great grandfather and not a word was wasted. Five whole stars worth of words. And then t......more

Goodreads review by ladydusk on January 24, 2020

Own. Much to consider. What is the essence of a person, the ousia? A wonderful follow-up to A Circle of Quiet. L'Engle wrestles with life, death, identity, and the soul. I particularly loved the section of her mother's ancestry and the stories of the people in her family tree. I loved their informal......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on April 05, 2014

I had read other books my Madeleine like Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, but this book sounded entirely different. I don't remember now where I heard about it. I think it was mentioned in another book I was reading. Nevertheless, it was wonderful. My greatest take away was how important it i......more

Goodreads review by Blair on March 06, 2017

I love Madeleine L'Engle's YA fiction and have for over 20 years. I've read several of her novels for the first time as an adult and thought they were wonderful (The Joys of Love and A Ring of Endless Light, for example). This was the first nonfiction book I've read by her, and while it is full of m......more

Goodreads review by Ruth on January 06, 2022

I'm reading The Crosswick Journals all out of order, and of the ones I've read so far, this one touches least on L'Engle's writing life. She does, however, detail much of her family's specific backstory (particularly as related to the family matriarchs), and once again, I kept being surprised every......more

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