A Winter's Love

 

A Winter's Love / Madeleine L'Engle
NY: Open Road Media, 2017. c1957.
356 p.

I have always loved Madeleine L'Engle, since I read A Wrinkle in Time as a young reader. I've tried to read most of her work over the years, but have missed a few, this one included. It was available in my library so I decided to read it now. 

It was ok; very of its time, 1957 to be exact. The plot is that Emily Brown, wife and mother, is living in Switzerland for a year during her husband's sabbatical. Well, it was supposed to be a sabbatical, but he has lost his teaching job so it's really just time away from home -- everything was set so they decided to go ahead. They have 2 daughters, one an older teen and one a 6 year old (who reads very young). We find out further into the book that they had another daughter who died when she was 8 -- this adds to the feeling of estrangement in this marriage. After that experience, and the loss of his job, Courtney has withdrawn emotionally from Emily. And now, in Switzerland, they meet up with an old New York friend, Abe Fielding. And he and Emily struggle with the fact that they are falling in love. 

Along with this key dilemma, we have the older daughter Vee and her friend Mimi home for the holidays (this is set over Christmas, which is why I thought I'd read it now, but it is very much not festive, barely relevant to the story at all). Mimi is very mature and worldly wise, but Vee is so neurotic. She has hysterics over her parents behaviours (all quite mild), she takes everything way too hard, and makes herself sick with anxiety. Emily herself is slightly neurotic and can hardly make up her mind to anything. 

And there's a nearby 'friend', Gertrude, who is ill and living in a chalet there with a man - unmarried! Gasp! Gertrude was a resistance fighter in the war, which is very close, not even 10 years in the past. This colours the book as well. But Gertrude is also supremely bored, self-centred and melodramatic. She precipitates some of the action, both intentionally and accidentally.  

I really liked the setting of this book, and the very natural realism of war still overshadowing the characters. The characters have artistic leanings - piano, poetry, classical music, etc. - as expected in any of L'engle's books I've read. I always look for the artists and scientists in her books, it's an element I really enjoy. And I like her way of writing. 

But overall I found this plot far too full of indecision, melodrama and neuroticism to really enjoy it. The core dilemma is a bit dated and some of the side characters are almost unbearably unlikeable. I have a few more of L'engle's books still unread, though, and this won't keep me from reading them. Or rereading some of the others that I haven't read for years!