Customer Reviews

A Ring of Endless Light: The Austin Family Chronicles, Book 4

5 star:		(186)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Vicky Austin knows that this will be her last summer on Seven Bay Island with her beloved grandfather, because the scholarly retired clergyman is dying of a fast-moving form of leukemia. 15-year-old Vicky stands on the dividing line between childhood and adulthood. As a budding poet, she promises to retain childhood's heightened and sometimes painful sensitivities even after she crosses that border. That's a bond she shares with her grandfather, but not with the rest of her loving yet far more scientifically inclined family.

Complicating this already trying time for Vicky are three young men. Leo, a lifelong friend of her family, wants more from her than the companionship and sympathy she is ready to offer him. Zachary, a severely troubled and wealthy youth who was her first real boyfriend, follows her to Seven Bay Island and alternately charms and frightens her with attentions that her family would prefer she didn't accept. And Adam, her older brother John's friend from MIT, assumes an important place in her life when he discovers that Vicky's extraordinary (and unexpected, and unexplained) ability to communicate with dolphins can transform his summer project at the Island's oceanographic research station.

While Vicky's romantic and other feelings for this trio are central to the story, this is not a conventional tale of young love in which the girl's choice of suitor is the whole point. Vicky Austin is a complete person, and not about to treat romance at age 15 as the be-all and end-all of her life so far; nor as the defining influence on her future. Until now she has been something of a misfit, with her physician father and scientifically inclined older brother and younger sister tech-talking over her head. This summer, finally, "dreamy Vicky" who often slips away to write verses comes into her own. Which, as so often happens in real life, can only occur as she is tested by life. And by death, and by her responses to both.

L'Engle at her finest! Although I'm of grandmotherly years now, "A Wrinkle in Time" was among my own girlhood's defining books. I must now go out and find the rest of the Austin books. This writer's works have something to offer any reader, not just youthful ones.

--Nina M. Osier, author of "Love, Jimmy: A Maine Veteran's Longest Battle"

I don't believe that I've read many books as powerful as this one. All of Ms. L'Engle's books are amazing, but this one is my personal favorite. Vicky Austin, star of two previous books, has hit the hardest summer of her life. Her beloved grandfather, who is an absolutely amazing person, is dying of leukemia, and she has to come to terms with this. Enter three young men, all with their own experiences of death: Leo, whose father had died; Zachary, whose mother had died; and Adam from _The Arm of the Starfish_, who watched as someone he cared for was shot. Vicky hears their stories and has to come up with her own way to deal with dying. And this is only half of it. A previous reviewer didn't like the ending, but it was one of my favorite parts. The book as a whole is a testament to humanity's ability to see the whole of things, not one part. Like another previous reviewer, I would recommend this book to the 13-plus age group, rather than the fifth or sixth grade level the book has been given. One of the perfect pieces of children's literature.

Hi ya'll! First of all, A Ring of Endless Light is a simply great book by Madeline L'Engle, probably her best book. It's about not-quite-sixteen Vicky Austin, who in one summer finds out about life, death, and love. She finds herself the attention of three boys. Leo is a fried longing for more than friendship, but becoming more of a friend than ever to Vicky. Zachary is sophisticated, rich, and gorgeous to boot. However, he has a dark, maniacal side, that flirts with death. He pleads to Vicky that he needs her, but she's not so sure. Adam is a friend of her older brother John, nineteen. He's doing a project with dolphins, and Vicky is excited to help. She begins to think of Adam as more of a friend, but he just acts as though she were a child. Death seems to be erupting everywhere to Vicky. Commander Rodney, Leo's father had died, Zachary's mother died, her grandfather's health is deteriating, and an awful tragedy suddenly brings Vicky's life to a halting stop. She has held Death in her hands, literally, and her consciousness just fell apart. Only one thing can save her, the light, the ring of pure and endless light from the dolphins. This is an amazing book by Madeline L'Engle, and is one of my all-time favorites. Coming from me, that's really something. L'Engle fans are sure to love this, as well as anyone who enjoys a thoughtful, serious, well-written book. Read it!

A Ring of Endless Light has got to be one of my all time favorite books! If you've read Meet the Austins then you already know the characters, but for those of you who haven't, it's about a girl named Vicky Austin who has moved with her family into her grandfather's house because he is sick and they want to be with him when he,well,dies. At her new location Vicky meets Adam, her older brother's friend from work. Adam is studying dolphins and soon, Vicky gets to be apart of his project where she meets Basil, a wild dolphin. Vicky also re-unites with Zach, a rich boy who is not happy with his life. When Zach tries to commite suicide and ends up causing the death of a local life gaurd, Vicky must begin to face death, and heart ache.This is a wonderfully dramatic book that will keep you in tears, and in smiles. If you like dolphins, I gaurantee you will love this book. I've read it many times at the library already and now I'm buying it. This book is dramatic, sad, heart-wrenching, yet at the same time, fun and interesting. This is a must-read book! One of L'Engles best!

This was the first book I had ever read by this author and it was certainly the best book I have ever read. I know that the age is 9-12 but I am 14(almost 15) and I loved it. The main character, Vicky Austin, is sort of torn between three young men while she is also suffering from the hurt with her grandfather being very ill. Leo is an old friend, but he wants more than friendship while Vicky only wants that of him. Zachary is troubled and he feels he needs Vicky. Adam works with her brother John and is conducted an experiment with dolphins and he wants Vicky to be a part of it, but he treats her as a child. She is confused with life...and death.

Madeleine L'Engle shows her knowledge in science skills as well as in literature through this excellent book. I really hope this inspires you to read this book at any age!

I've found comfort and happiness, as well as sorrow and hope in this beautiful novel. I've read so many books since I first picked this up in ninth grade, but this has always remained my favorite. It's the only book I've ever read that I take something new out of everytime. The story of Vicky and her summer of confusion and light begins in death and ends in death, but L'Engle celebrates both life and death in a convincing and realistic way. Throughout the book, we also get snatches of fascinating scientific ideas, religious views, and other interesting trivia that L'Engle manages to weave in and parallel to Vicky's life. In my opinion, this book far surpasses "A Wrinkle in Time." A must-read for anyone, anytime, any age, anywhere.

One of L'Engle's Best
A Ring of Endless Light is one of my favourite books. What intially attracted me to it was the fact that it was written by L'Engle. I had just finished A Wrinkle in Time and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and I thought it was another story about the Murrys and the O'Keefes. Boy, was I wrong. This book is about the Austin's summer on Seven Bay Island; mostly about Vicky's romantic encounters with the three boys, Zachary, Adam and Leo. During all the confusion of Vicky's estranged love life, the book deals with death, hatred, family and it wouldn't be a L'Engle book without a little supernatural stuff.

This book deals with big things during a teenager's life, and I highly reccomend it to any teenager or former-teenager. This book can be read without reading Meet The Austins or The Moon By Night ( I did it), but reading the first two books give it more meaning. This is a VERY good book.

Also recommended: Anything by Madeleine L'Engle, and The Only Alien on the Planet by Kristen D. Randle

I loved this book and I would recommend it to girls from the ages 10 and up. This was a good story to connect to your life or the lives of the people around you. The things that happen to Vicky in A Ring of Endless Light might happen or may have happened to the reader. Therefore the plot of the story is believable. I would like to read another story by this author because I loved how thorough she was when describing Vicky's thoughts and feelings. When she was explaining how Vicky was seeing only darkness after a friend died in her arms, she painted a very vivid picture in my head. I thought that a Ring of Endless Light was truly a great book.

A Ring of Endless Light
By Madeleine L'Engle
Book Review

In Madeleine L'Engle's A Ring of Endless Light, main character Vicky Austin discovers many new aspects of life in a single summer. She is sixteen and already holds many responsibilities. Vicky becomes paralyzed with a fear of death when a close family friend is buried, and even more so when a small child dies in her arms in a hospital waiting room. She eventually discovers, however, that death is simply another part of life, and through new friends and a strong family Vicky stays tough and helps others cope.
A Ring of Endless Light is engaging and well written, conveying highly believable emotions to the reader. L'Engle uses poetry and metaphor in an effective manor to express the cruel wonder of the world. Vicky's relationships with her family and friends were believable as well, and overall the format of the book really worked nicely and made you want to continue reading.
In the story, Vicky participates in a study her brother's friend Adam is doing on dolphins. These sections of the book were intriguing, because Vicky has the ability to communicate with the dolphins themselves. This kind of communication seems to be a theme throughout the book, but in a spiritual more than "science-fictiony" way. The ocean also works its way into many of the strongest metaphors of the book, as the house the Austin's stay in is right on the coast.
Vicky struggles with relationships throughout the entire book, which adds to the believability of the plot. There are three different "young men" in her life, all very different. There is Zachary, the wealthy yet troubled boy who wishes to show Vicky a life of country clubs and expensive banquets. Then there is Leo, a sad, slobbery child at heart with more needs than Vicky knows how to attend to. Finally there's Adam, the educated older friend who works at the marine biology station. The three are all connected to her, and most need more than Vicky has to offer.
Overall, I found A Ring of Endless Light to be an expertly crafted work, filled with tangled emotions and interesting twists. Love and death entwine each other, and only by reading the book can you find which feelings overcome others. I would recommend this book and others in the series to anyone looking to go on a roller coaster ride of emotions that are not their own, but striking just the same.

Madeleine L'Engle has been honoured by the Newbery Award twice. As many know, she won the 1962 honour for her classic "A Wrinkle in Time". Her second honour came as an honourable mention in 1980 for "A Ring of Endless Light". Reading this book, the only surprise to me is that it did not win the Newbery Award outright. It certainly deserved to.

"A Ring of Endless Light" is a deep and complex book about death and its place in life. It is so good that it overshadows the rest of the Austin Family series of novels, particularly "Troubling a Star", which follows it in the series. Madeleine is very at home here with the characters of the Austins and tells a compelling story of their last summer with their grandfather, who is dying of leukemia.

Fifteen-year-old Vicky carries off the story very well as the narrator, getting the reader deeper and more personally involved with the characters. The story of her summer is alternately funny, touching, uplifting and very sad. "A Ring of Endless Light" will hit anybody in the gut who can remember losing their own grandparents. The weight that's placed on Vicky's shoulders throughout the book makes my heart ache.

This ache is emphasized by the other events of that summer, with the normally lovelorn Vicky (quite to her shock) finding three men in her life. Not only is she pursued by the staid but sympathetic Leo and the fascinating but dangerous Zachary, but she develops strong feelings for the distant Adam Eddington, a scientist friend of her brother John who enlists her help with his project on communicating with dolphins, and who finds himself being emotionally drawn towards this interesting young woman.

Some may think the premise of communicating with dolphins and learning from their spiritual sides to be silly, but Madeleine has the guts to pull it off. Those readers should find more to like, anyway, in Vicky's rapport with Adam, and the shocking personal climax she faces in the final chapters.

This book is highly recommended, and one which I'm sure many will cherish.