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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson


I was really excited when I first read that this book was coming out. I enjoyed the graphic novels I've previously read--especially the young adult ones in my college courses--and I thought this seemed like a fun classic to reconstruct. I also have extremely fond memories of my seventh grade teacher reading Madeline L'Engle's book out loud to our class. Her standing at the board illustrating the concept of a wrinkle in time is something I may never forget. 

But for all the fondness I feel for it, the graphic book didn't do much for me. I picked up the book and read it in an hour: the illustrated format and sparse text (well, I mean, less than the original novel, and less than the last graphic book I read, Watchmen) kind of let me get as into it as I wanted. And at 11 pm on some Sunday night, it would appear that I did not want to think too hard. 

I'd forgotten most of the characters, but not all. I remembered the controlling brain character, the dad, and the two siblings. The others were new again. The problem was that I didn't feel like I really established a connection with the characters. So nothing seemed that important to me.

 Two siblings. Missing dad. Weird boy at school. Instant best friends. Fairy godmother like beings. Other worlds. No surprise. Conquer all. Save the world. Blah blah blah. 

It seemed to easy for a story with such a potentially powerful moral. Then again, it's a YA book, so maybe that's okay. Maybe that's how the original was, too. Oh, the original, which I now, of course, want to reread and reassess. Just another book on the to do list, which is moving at about the pace of George R. R. Martin writing his Song of Fire and Ice books--painfully and annoying slow. 
Illustrating the wrinkle in time.

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