MEET THE AUSTINS

In my read-all the-Madeleine-L’Engle-books project, I have now left the familiar shores of the Time Quartet and run up against the rocky shoals of the Austin books, which I was never able to get through as a child. I gave Meet the Austins at least two or three tries, but always found it mundane in comparison to the adventures of the brilliant, unconventional, magical Murrys. I still do, honestly: this is just a straightforward, ordinary, old-fashioned family story, remarkable mainly in its intelligent and sensitive writing that manages to be wholesome and spiritually inclined without getting very saccharine or preachy (though at times I did think the Austins seemed ever-so-slightly smug). I was able to appreciate it more as an adult, but I still don’t have the same passionate love for Vicky that I do for Meg. Hopefully that will change in the later books when more stuff starts happening.