A Ring of Endless Light: Amazon.ca: Madeleine L'Engle: Books

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Review

“With customary grace and firm control of an intricate plot, L’Engle has created another irresistible novel about familiar characters, the Austin family. Vicky, 16, narrates the climactic events with Grandfather Eaton on a New England island, where he is living his last days.”—Publishers Weekly

“L’Engle has the magic storytelling gift that makes it a pleasure to lose yourself in her spell.”—Newsweek

“L’Engle writes eloquently about death and life with provocative passages that linger in the thoughts of the perceptive.”—Booklist, Starred Review

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Book Description

Vicky Austin is filled with strong feelings as she stands near Commander Rodney's grave while her grandfather, who himself is dying of cancer, recites the funeral service. Watching his condition deteriorate as the summer passes on beautiful Seven Bay Island is almost more than Vicky can bear. To complicate things, she finds herself the center of attention for three very different boys: Leo is an old friend wanting comfort and longing for romance; Zachary, whose attempted suicide inadvertently caused the Commander's death, is attractive and sophisticated but desperately troubled; and Adam, her older brother's friend, offers her a wonderful chance to assist in his experiments with dophins but treats her as a young girl just when she's ready to feel most grown-up.

Called upon to be dependable, stable, and wise, Vicky is exhilarated but often overwhemed. Forces of darkness and light, tragedy and joy, hover about her, and at times she doesn't know whcih will prevail.

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Customer Reviews

179 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.8 out of 5 stars (179 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifuly Written Book, April 21 2004

By

C. Gilbert (Aiken, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Ring of Endless Light (Paperback)

I first read this book when I was in middle school, and recently re-read it for a 400-level college course on children's literature. When I read this book for the first time, I wasn't overly enthralled with it, but I loved Vicky and felt the pain that she was going through with all the death around her.

When I re-read this book, I was astonished at how moving it was. The writing style is superb and the language is like poetry. The pace of the book, while it may be a little slow to younger readers, truly makes you lose yourself in the story. I believe this is a must-read for any age.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars L'Engle at her finest!, Sep 22 2003

By

Nina M. Osier (Randolph, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Ring of Endless Light (Mass Market Paperback)

Vicky Austin knows that this will be her last summer on Seven Bay Island with her beloved grandfather, because the scholarly retired clergyman is dying of a fast-moving form of leukemia. 15-year-old Vicky stands on the dividing line between childhood and adulthood. As a budding poet, she promises to retain childhood's heightened and sometimes painful sensitivities even after she crosses that border. That's a bond she shares with her grandfather, but not with the rest of her loving yet far more scientifically inclined family.

Complicating this already trying time for Vicky are three young men. Leo, a lifelong friend of her family, wants more from her than the companionship and sympathy she is ready to offer him. Zachary, a severely troubled and wealthy youth who was her first real boyfriend, follows her to Seven Bay Island and alternately charms and frightens her with attentions that her family would prefer she didn't accept. And Adam, her older brother John's friend from MIT, assumes an important place in her life when he discovers that Vicky's extraordinary (and unexpected, and unexplained) ability to communicate with dolphins can transform his summer project at the Island's oceanographic research station.

While Vicky's romantic and other feelings for this trio are central to the story, this is not a conventional tale of young love in which the girl's choice of suitor is the whole point. Vicky Austin is a complete person, and not about to treat romance at age 15 as the be-all and end-all of her life so far; nor as the defining influence on her future. Until now she has been something of a misfit, with her physician father and scientifically inclined older brother and younger sister tech-talking over her head. This summer, finally, "dreamy Vicky" who often slips away to write verses comes into her own. Which, as so often happens in real life, can only occur as she is tested by life. And by death, and by her responses to both.

L'Engle at her finest! Although I'm of grandmotherly years now, "A Wrinkle in Time" was among my own girlhood's defining books. I must now go out and find the rest of the Austin books. This writer's works have something to offer any reader, not just youthful ones.

--Nina M. Osier, author of "Love, Jimmy: A Maine Veteran's Longest Battle"

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5.0 out of 5 stars a lyrical, beautiful story, July 1 2004

By

emily-bronte "emily-bronte" - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Ring of Endless Light (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is unquestionably my favourite in the Austin series. The other books in the series are The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas, Meet the Austins, The Anti-Muffins, The Moon by Night, The Young Unicorns, and Troubling a Star. A Ring of Endless Light contains some of my favourite poetry, as well as being written in clear, natural, effortless prose. The issues it deals with, such as faith, life and death, and the nature of God, are never oversimplified, and there is a refreshing absence of a narrow, didactic viewpoint. This book clearly deserved its Newbery Honor Book status. Ever since I finished reading this book, I have wanted to swim with a dolphin, and was encouraged to read Henry Vaughan's poetry for the first time.

One thing I really wish is that Disney hadn't ruined this story by turning it into a 'save the dolphins' teen flick, totally changing the themes and content of the story. If you have seen the t.v series please read the book as well before making up your mind about the story.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars WARNING WARNING WARNING
DO NOT I repeat DO NOT read this book if you are NOT a girl under 16 years old. I am a 35 year old man and I read this book and thought it was a parody but it isn't. Read more

Published on May 13 2004 by Mr Money-Bags

5.0 out of 5 stars This is my Favourite Book!!!!
This is my favourite book (hence the title). I have read it 3 times already and it never losses its wonderfullness. Read more

Published on Mar 19 2004 by Amy Elle