The Austin Family Chronicles has become one of my new favorite series over the last few weeks. I’ve wanted to read them for a long while, but I haven’t had the chance until we recently bought the audio books. Then, once I started the first book I couldn’t stop.
I am amazed by L’Engle’s ability to weave incredible stories that not only entertain, but also offer thoughtful insight at deeper, more meaningful matters. Her writing has quickly become some of my very favorite, and even her books which I have a harder time understanding/enjoying pose me with questions or concepts to mull over long after finishing them.
Meet the Austins
This book is an incredibly charming and delightful introduction to the Austins. It’s like the foundation to build all the rest of the series on. Not only is it an introduction to the family, it’s an introduction to the themes and ideas that will be explored later on in the books. It’s hard to find books that strike a balance between a fun, entertaining family life and a meaningful story line, but this book does so perfectly. I could not stop listening to it!
I think that this would be an especially delightful book to listen to as a family. The story begins with the death of an uncle, and through this event a young girl whom the Austins have never met comes to live with them. Her presence disrupts their steady life, but it forces them to come to terms with a new understanding of themselves and their relationships with each other.
The Moon by Night
In this book the Austin family takes a camping trip across the United States. This is the sort of book I would love to write myself but have always been discouraged by the lack of structure in such a story. However, L’Engle solves this problem by introducing characters who come up several times at different camp sites. While the plot itself seems a little bit far fetched if you stop and give it thought, it’s written in such a way that it doesn’t matter.
It was especially neat to read this book at an age where I’ve heard of, and even have been to, some of the places in it. But L’Engle didn’t just describe these places. She crafted a gripping and meaningful story around them while at the same time keeping every moment rich in real life details. I truly enjoyed every chapter of this book.
The Young Unicorns
While the other books in the series so far have been in first person, this one steps out to an omniscient third person narrator . It came as quite a surprise and took me some getting used to, but once I had adapted myself to it I remembered that this is the way most of L’Engle’s other books are written.
There is another way this book follows more in line with other books by L’Engle than the previous books in this series, and that is the super-natural, science fiction aspect. It was strange to switch from a cozy, family centered story to a larger, mysterious and complicated one. I still liked this book, but in a different way from the others. I almost wish it wasn’t a part of the series at all, but a separate book that merely includes the Austins as characters, so that it would be easier to appreciate the book for what it is.
A Ring of Endless Light
This book goes back to the point of view of the first two books, but though the story is closer, it doesn’t loose all of the big questions wonderings that Madeleine L’Engle tends to approach in her books. There are countless ideas and concepts (both big and seemingly small) touched on in this book, and it does take some discernment to sift through all of them. Some of the things I have to struggle over in order to believe, while others I flat out disagree with. But still others are lined with beautiful truth.
In short, this book is extraordinary. I was amazed when I finished, and am still amazed now. This is an incredible story that will open your eyes to beauty and goodness and it explores the comparisons between life and humanity, and the value of being alive in all its majesty.
(And in case you’re wondering, this book is about dolphins, which is where the picture for this post came from 😉 )
Troubling a Star
As with The Young Unicorns, this book is very plot heavy and thickly intertwined with suspicions and mysteries. I was sad to find that it lost almost all of the family aspects that had been so important in the earlier books, and though it was still told in first person, the writing left less personal somehow (though that was probably just because of the jump from ARoEL).
I will admit that this is was not my favorite book from the series, but there are things to be gained from it as well. The story itself, for example, was a little difficult to get into at first thanks to a style of foreshadowing, but that made it all the better when the story came into clarity at the end. I really admired L’Engle’s knack for vivid and bright descriptions of Antarctica, as well as her way of thinking through incredible themes and ideas (though I don’t think the were quite as thought out as her other book had been).
Final Thoughts
Over the short time since I’ve known these books, they have become one of my new favorite series. I know I’m going to come back to them many times in the future, and I can’t wait to reread the books from a greater level of maturity and view of life in a few years.
Have you read any of the Austin books before? If so, what are your thoughts?
For the Love of Stories 