Contemporary Literary Criticism | L'Engle, Madeleine - Elaine Moss

ELAINE MOSS

Madeleine L'Engle's Meet the Austins … deserves notice because it takes one small step towards filling the yawning spiritual gap in novels for the young. As unfashionable as covered knees, it explores, from the secure anchorage of a happy American family, the meaning of life and death. (p. 702)

Elaine Moss, in The Spectator (© 1966 by The Spectator; reprinted by permission of The Spectator), June 3, 1966.

[Meet the Austins] might perhaps be sub-titled "The Family That Never Was." Nevertheless, there is a refreshingly wholesome feeling about this New England doctor's family who weather a report of sudden death, a bicycle accident, and the disruption caused by a spoilt orphan, determined by any means to be the centre of attention. The four children and the outsider, ranging in age from about six to thirteen, are delightfully true to life, excellently observed, and the...

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