Customer Reviews

Severed Wasp

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A Severed Wasp is an example of Madeline L'Engle's fictional writing at it's best. This novel continues the story of Katherine Vigneras (previously Forrester) from the book's prequel A Small Rain as Katherine returns to New York for retirement and to come to terms with her past. Madeline L'Engle does an excellent job of describing the life of a pianist, and in such a way that the reader will feel both appreciation and compassion for the main character. She also does a wonderful job of making the reader understand that all things, no matter how painful they may be at the time, play an important role in one's life and happen for a reason. The amount of love that Ms. L'Engle has for her character is easily noticable and the feeling is easily transferred to the reader. Ms. L'Engle has carefully woven bits of information about characters from some of her previous works and what they have grown up to be. She makes references to Phillipa Hunter (And Both Were Young), Emily Gregory (The Young Unicorns), Suzy Austin (all of the Austin-family books), and Josiah (Dave) Davidson (The Young Unicorns). This book has definitely added to my thought that Madeline L'Engle books are like old friends and can be picked up and read over and over again without getting tired of them.

When I saw "The Small Rain" in the bookstore a while back, I was so excited to see that Madeleine L'Engle has written adult novels. I instantly purchased it and truly enjoyed it. Then I bought this one, and I cannot tell you how MUCH I loved this novel. From start to finish it held my attention. The reader learns of Katherine's past in bits and pieces throughout the book - through her dreams, thoughts, and conversations. L'Engle skillfully takes us from the past to the present in an incredibly smooth way. It's a treat - you never know where you will be next. Will it be a past heartache, a present dilemma, a future concert? Who is after her now, and does the current mystery have something to do with the past that haunts her?

So many interesting issues are packed into this novel, and so much suspense too! When I was young, I was filled with wonder when I read L'Engle's "Wrinkle in Time." In a similar way, this book filled me with wonder about the nature of life - it's drastic ups and downs. It teaches just what a person can endure and what a person can accomplish despite tragedy and loss. There is hope in Katherine, and that hope is even more powerful when the reader discovers what has happened to her since she was young in "The Small Rain." And as a young adult, this novel actually made me thing of my older years in a whole new way. They will be a time of rest, reflection, hope, and warm bubble baths. I look forward to getting to the point where I have lived a complete life, yet still have some living left to do. I had never thought this way before.

I give this novel my highest recommendation. I couldn't stop reading but didn't want the story to end. The book was a friend at my bedside table, one that I curled up with while sipping herbal tea. It just doesn't get better than this.

There are several levels upon which this book appeals to me. The first is the most obvious: Katherine the musician. Madeleine L'Engle captures the heart and soul of the Artist so well, that, while I am reading this book, I can feel, for that fleeting moment, what it is like. Then there is the other thing that she does so well: tie the storyline with threads from previous books. Like the first reviewer, I too was very surprised to find Suzy and Dave married (though there's a subtle hint if you read _Young Unicorns_ carefully). (Note: if you read _Ring of Endless Light_ carefully, Katherine makes a cameo appearance.) And then there's the message -- accepting your past, the decisions you've made, as well as those made for you; taking the pain and just... letting it go (moving through it to get to the other side).

I could go on and on... I re-read this book a lot, and each time (as with the best of the L'Engle books), I learn something new.

Hooray! We finally get to find out what happened to Katherine ("A Small Rain", I believe Madeleine L'Engle's first book). She is a real person, complete with problems and triumphs. This book focuses on dealing with the past and coming to terms with memories. Fans of Ms. L'Engle will love references to other characters (Phillipa Hunter from "And Both Were Young", one of my personal favorites) and familiar places (the Cathedral of St. John the Divine). Better after "The Small Rain."

This is a wonderful story of the reconciliation of life's memories of the past with the present. A Severed Wasp is a continuation of the story of Katherine Forrester that began in A Small Rain. While the narrative is about Katherine as a retired pianist, through the use of flashback, the story continues at the point of Katherine's departure for France to her school-tutor, Justin Vigneras. I found that reading A Small Rain first led me to enjoy this book even more. The book is brilliantly constructed with present events in Katherine's life mirroring past events and evoking profound feeling in Katherine. Through ever-building and subtle epiphany, Katherine realizes that a life long-lived touches a great many people and that in continuing to choose life and engage life, one continues to touch many, many people. A wonderful testimonial for an active "retired" life.

Like other reviewers, I was a "Wrinkle in Time" fan who ran across the "adult" books and the bookstore and thought I would return to her writing. I read "A Small Rain" few months ago, which I mostly enjoyed. What was striking to me was how the characters lingered with me, sneaking into my thoughts even months later. So when I saw this return to the same characters, I was happy to pick up "A Severed Wasp."

But I didn't really enjoy the book. It succeeds as a story - a good pace, and very readable. But the magic of the characters disappears in this follow-up. I found the main character Katherine to be annoying, a dislikable person who is constantly described lovingly. L'Engle constantly flatters this character as so talented, amazing, and eminently respected by all. But she is clearly a judgmental person, stubborn, self-centered, and obnoxious. In "A Small Rain", interactions between Katherine and other characters reveal how her stubbornness might be a strength and a weakness. Here, Katherine remains an imperfect person but the reader sees her only through the author's rose colored glasses. It becomes tiresome very quickly.

The lack of character richness extend to the minor players as well - it is only in the last few pages that L'Engle attempts to bring any motives to characters beyond the lead, which makes the ending seem forced and implausible. Even the character of Mimi who is so prominent throughout the book lacks independent qualities or motives, and is essentially dismissed before the end of the novel.

I suppose I did enjoy the puzzle of the portrait of Katherine - given her self-absorbed, arrogant nature, why do the other characters flock around her? But in the end, the characters just do not work for me.

Great literature, in my opinion, teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. The best literature, though, teaches without us ever knowing we are being taught -- we are so captivated, caught up in the unfolding of events before us, that we fail to realize how deeply we empathize with and truly "know" the characters presented, and therefore we understand/know ourselves just a little better.

"A Severed Wasp" draws you into a seemingly large cast of characters that all require the reader's attention and empathy. Kudos to an outstanding author for keeping characters, plotlines, and flashbacks so well wrought that this reader couldn't put the book down the first time I read it! Each character has its proper place in the story, and the reader is led to empathize and understand each point of view in its proper place. Completely enjoyable storytelling can be found in these pages.

The reading of "A Small Rain" is not necessary to enjoy this book. Reading more of L'Engle's marvelous stories, though, is required -- quite a few of her books are on my shelf of "best literature".

Katherine Vigneras, concert pianist and widow of composer Justin Vigneras, returns to New York - the city of her youth - in retirement. She's in her seventies now, enjoying good health despite a few of the usual age-related physical problems, and she's tremendously thankful that she can still keep a routine of daily practice. When she meets an old friend whom she hasn't seen since she was seventeen years old, she has no idea that their renewed connection will draw her into a mystery that is somehow tied to the cathedral where Felix Bodeway was once Bishop of New York. She's simply amazed that the boy she knew could have turned into a clergyman.

This thoroughly adult (in the best sense of that word) novel is peopled with characters familiar to L'Engle's readers from her young adult books. I found it fascinating to look at them through a different pair of eyes - those of sophisticated expatriate, septugenarian Katherine. As always, even L'Engle's "minor" characters reach the page fully fleshed. The novel plays itself out in layers, as each event in Katherine's present day life (her "new" life of retirement) reminds her of her past. She moves back and forth through time, across the Atlantic and back, and takes the reader along without causing confusion. Writing with this technique takes skill, but it's absolutely necessary when following the thoughts of an elderly protagonist whose work now is to make sense out of the past. To think through everything that she had no time to analyze while she was living it, and to come to terms with everything she's lived long enough to regret.

L'Engle's best, in my opinion; and I've been reading L'Engle since I discovered A WRINKLE IN TIME over 40 years ago. Wise and unsentimental, yet brimming with hope and with common human love. Highly recommended, indeed!

This book completely blew me away...I lived and breathed this and "The Small Rain" for the several days I was reading it. Madeleine L'Engle has a special quality for putting in her characters a realism and essence that unveils the true human nature, flawed yet perfect. She has a wonderful portrayal of the world as it is, and though the books are not always happy, they have a type of hidden joy, an acceptance that they cannot change the world, but they can try to. She has a remarkable talent of being able to touch your very soul, to make you believe there IS something out there, something worth living for, and hope flows throughout her writings even in the darkest times. An altogether awesome book!

Rather than approaching this book as I would approach most L'Engle (or C.S. Lewis or Stephen Lawhead) stories, simply as stories with a moral or two and a page-turning plot, each time I read A Severed Wasp I slip into my piano-player mode. I know relatively little about Ms. L'Engle herself; I don't know the extent to which music was a part of her life. However, Katherine is plainly a musician, and easily believable as such. She lives not only in the musical world, but in the world of music; music is her coping mechanism and her anxiety, her key to past, present, and future, and through music she can deal with the things which life hands her. I don't think I've ever met a musician as real as Katherine outside of a practice room. And of course, as musicians we don't tend to talk about the things L'Engle shows in her book -- we deal with things musically rather than verbally. So Katherine, because she is a written creation, shows things to the reader that she would not show to the world, and while doing so shows the musician/reader more about himself. The plot's good, the characters are interesting, but more than anything I would recommend this book to all musicians. Katherine operates the way a true musician, one whose heart is essentially made of music, does. Through this clear example, a musician can more easily come to terms with the way he himself operates.