Christina Cann

Our first exercise in this Pennwriters class was about flawed characters, which made me think of one of the best (and yes, flawed) characters I’ve ever known: Meg Murray.

From the beginning of the book, Meg is grumpy, jealous, and prone to getting into fights with her classmates. Yet she obviously adores her family, particularly her mother and younger brother Charles Wallace, and she desperately wants her father to come home. In the book’s climactic scene (spoiler alert if you haven’t read it!), her good, true heart helps her triumph over the evil of IT. I think she’s one of the best characters ever.

The supporting characters are wonderful in this book, too. Who doesn’t love Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which? They have some of the funniest lines in the book, and they’re caught stealing sheets, of all things. Calvin isn’t the typical teenage dreamboat, but he suits Meg just fine and serves as a balance for her personality and characteristics.

This book, of course, launched about a thousand other books that Madeleine L’Engle published. I really loved how she continued writing about beloved characters. I read somewhere, though I can’t find it now, that she sent out press releases about her characters’ educational progress long after she had stopped writing about them. Something about Polly O’Keefe getting a PhD in something?

Anyway, A Wrinkle in Time is a sublime book that I must have read at least a hundred times growing up. Like the best books, its ideas and emotions still resonate today.