Meghan O'Rourke has a beautifully-phrased and thoughtful appraisal ofMadeleine L'Engle's work in Slate today. I like O'Rourke's point about how L'Engle's action tends to take place entirely inside the hearts and minds of her characters; this is what the New York Times meant when they called her work "quixotically personal." But it meant the world to a lot of us. And in a way, this writer of fantasy was the ultimate realist; for most people, the profound moments really do happen inside.
O'Rourke did, however, miss what I consider a crucial aspect of L'Engle's work. L'Engle wasn't just non-dogmatic an openminded. She was an implacable enemy of religious cruelty, to the point of having (it is strongly implied) God himself blast a Puritan church right off the map with a bolt of lightning in furious punishment for the church's attempt to burn a woman as a witch. Her villainous Pastor Mortmain (mortmain=dead hand, aka "the dead hand of the Law") is a memorable and all-too-rare example of a religious thinker standing up against dogmatism and religious sadism.
It's all right there in "A Swiftly Tilting Planet," imho the best of the lot.
