In this time when there is so much debate about the meaning of marriage, this book becomes a witness to us all. The love that L'Engle shared with her husband is an inspiration.

Another reason I loved this book so is that in her story, I see the beauty of my life partnership today. We share many of the same values of L'Engle and her husband as well as the depth of love and commitment. We are simply not "allowed" to be married even though we share this deep bond and commitment. ( )

Two-Part Invention is L'Engle's recounting of her courtship and marriage with Hugh Franklin. L'Engle wrote the book as Hugh was dying of cancer. Her reflections on the past are woven together with her reflections on the uncertain present as future. Madeleine and Hugh had been married 40 years, and the book shows the depth of their love and commitment.

L'Engle does not sugar coat her marriage. Marriage never acts as the romantic melding of souls some people want it to be. Madeleine and Hugh retained their individual identities even as they shared a long and joyous marriage. My favorite passage sums this all up:

I learned fairly early in my relationship that I did not have to confide everything in my husband; this would be putting on him burdens which I was supposed to carry myself. When a bride insists on telling her lover everything, I suspect she is looking for a father, not a husband. Some of my life was mine to be known by me alone. But our marriage was ours, belonged to the two of us, and was full of wonderful things, terrible things, joyous things, grievous things, but ours.

( )

3.5 stars. Perhaps the weakest of the Crosswicks books, but still very good. ( )

This is fourth in the 'Crosswicks Journals' - Madeleine L'Engle's reflections and musings about life and faith, based on her personal journals. In this volume she describes her first meeting with her husband Hugh, their courtship and marriage, right up to the time when, after forty years of married life, he loses his fight with cancer following some difficult and painful months.

I love the rather rambling style, the digressions into other topics, and also the way that we're allowed so much insight into this very special relationship. In places it's quite moving, despite knowing all along what the ending would be. Recommended to anyone who's read others in the Crosswicks series, or who likes fairly unstructured autobiographical writing. ( )

I don't know if it's a similarity of mind or simply the sheer number of her words that I've read, but Madeleine L'Engle's writing feels like home.

This book is her memoir of her marriage.

"After I had declined to be my Hungarian friend's mistress, I was more than ever convinced that marriage was not going to be part of my pattern. I would write, see friends, write, go to the theatre, write, but ultimately I was going to walk alone." (p42)

"Love of music, of sunsets and sea; a liking for the same kind of people; political opinions that are not radically divergent; a similar stance as we look at the stars and think of the marvelous strangeness of this universe -- these are what build a marriage." (p77)

"Our love has been anything but perfect and anything but static. Inevitably there have been times when one of us has outrun the other and has had to wait patiently for the other to catch up. There have been times when we have misunderstood each other, demanded too much of each other, been insensitive to the other's needs. I do not believe there is any marriage where this does not happen. The growth of love is not a straight line, but a series of hills and valleys. I suspect that in every good marriage there are times when love seems to be over. Sometimes these desert lines are simply the only way to the next oasis, which is far more lush and beautiful after the desert crossing than it could possibly have been without it." (p100)

"If we are not willing to fail we will never accomplish anything. All creative acts involve the risk of failure. Marriage is a terrible risk. So is having children. So is giving a performance in the theatre, or the writing of a book. Whenever something is completed successfully, then we must move on, and that is again to risk failure." (p173) ( )