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The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (Crosswicks Journal) Paperback – January 1, 1984

by Madeleine L'Engle (Author)

35 customer reviews

Book 2 of 4 in the Crosswicks Journal Series

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Editorial Reviews

This journal offers a loving and poignant portrait of L'Engle's mother in old age that is more about living than dying.

Series: Crosswicks Journal (Book 2)
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: HarperOne; Reissue edition (January 1, 1984)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 006254506X
ISBN-13: 978-0062545060
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 35 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1123 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Religious
- #25424 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States
- #37512 in Books > Religion & Spirituality

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Thoughts and memories of Madeleine’s early life and family as she deals with her mother’s impending death.

June 17, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The Summer of the Great-Grandmother is about Madeleine L’Engle’s final summer with her mother. You assume from the beginning that at some point her mother will pass away (and she does.) But that is part of what is important about this book. All people will die at some point. Living in family means both birth and death happen.

The setting of this, like her other Crosswick Journals, is their summer home. It is the home that her children were born in. But now that the family lives in New York City, it is where they spend their summers. This summer, and most summers, there are four generations in the home. But unlike previous summers, Madeleine’s mothers is confused and needing constant care.

This allows for L’Engle to reflect on her early life, the death of her father when she was young, the life of he earlier ancestors and the meaning of life and family. As with the first book in this series, there is lots of wisdom in these pages.

But the wisdom is occasionally hard fought for. L’Engle’s life, and the life of her ancestors, has not always been easy. Death matters. Her father died when she was a late teen from injuries that he received in World War I, but he survived with for years after. We are who we are, in part because of the lives of those that have come before us. Looking into those lives and thinking seriously about what has come before us is part of understanding ourselves.

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Marian Beaman

More about living than dying

November 12, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The Summer of the Great-Grandmother, Book Two in Madeleine L’Engle’s Crosswicks Journal Series, is a must-read for all caretakers, especially those who support the needs of parents who have Alzheimer’s disease. Crosswicks is the rambling country house harboring four generations where the author has brought her ninety-year-old mother to spend her dwindling days during a 1970s summer. About the awkwardness of assuming the senior role, L’Engle writes: “The pattern has shifted; we have changed places in the dance. I am no longer anybody’s child.” (243)

An accomplished pianist, like the elder Madeleine, the author uses the metaphor of fugue to refer to the contrapuntal mix of feelings the presence of her mother provokes, a mother who by turns is angry, frightened – prone to night wanderings.

Each of her forebears, giant characters all named Madeleine, underscore the trans-generational nature of narrative and identity. In the end, though, her nineteen-year-old grandson presides over the death of the absent Ms. L’Engle, symbolizing in effect, the continuation of life, “across a traditional boundary of gender.”

As in Book One of the series, Madeleine continues her reflections on spirituality, reminiscing on the impact of her Mother’s Bible: “Perhaps through it she will teach me an alphabet of grace. She had that spontaneous quality of aliveness which illuminates people who have already done a lot of their dying, and I think I am beginning to understand the truth of that.” (180)

The author’s use of setting in the book particularly interested me. The family had a chic Manhattan apartment and a rambling New England homestead large enough to hold four generations including hired help. But there were flashbacks to their former residence in Jacksonville, Florida, where I currently live. I was aware of the great fire but had no idea it began when men, trying to burn Spanish moss from giant oaks, unwittingly began a fire that destroyed the city in 1901.

Readers who are also writers will appreciate her lessons about concentration and inspiration gleaned from her own experience. As a blurb from The Washington Post suggests, this is a perceptive book, “more about living than about dying.”

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

February 22, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Every person dealing with the elderly needs to read this book!

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Just Another Opinion

A lovely tribute

January 15, 2001

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a lovely book that underscores the potential beauty of death as well as our responsiblity to the dying. Madeline writes this book as a tribute to her mother and to her mother's life during the summer that her mother lays dying in Madeline's Crosswicks home. The book has very strong echoes (read repetitive)of A Circle of Quiet and therefore should not be read immediately after reading that one. While I found her story interesting and sometimes fascinating, I did get bogged down in some of her listings of her family tree. But this was overall another lovely book that was thouroughly Madeline

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lawrence kittiver

Nice Memoir of family life with death coming

January 6, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Nice insight on how to spend the last few months with a loved one before death. Beautiful writing. Well done on a difficult subject. I learned a lot on how a loving and wealthy family can function under all conditions and maintain their ties and history. Much better book Than Dideon's on similar subject that I bought at the same time.

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Gabrielle

I love her work

October 26, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Madeleine L'Engle is a master writer in every which way and writing style from junior fiction to novels to stream of consciousness. I love her work.

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LCT

This book was recommended to me to read regarding caring for the elderly

March 10, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book was recommended to me to read regarding caring for the elderly, specifically parents. The book is helpful.

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M. Cottrill

Summer of the Great-Grandmother

July 5, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I had ordered this book to replace a copy I'd lost. It's a favorite--a very poignant account of Madeleine L'Engle's experience of losing her mother while at the same time realizing both how little and how much she knew of her mother. It's a celebration of her mother's life and of the awe and wonder we can experience when we are attentive to our lives (and the generations before and after them) and to the truth of love as it is revealed in our everyday existence.

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Most recent customer reviews

Kelly Takeyama

A very sad but pleasent read.

A very sad but pleasant read. Written very smoothly. I really enjoyed reading this book. I will be looking for more from this author

Published 21 days ago

Dave in Minnetonka

A very poignant and realistic journey through a parent's demise with dementia

Madeleine L'Engle's non-fiction is wonderful. This is one of the better ones: parent/child relationships, the death of the second parent, life cycles.

Published 1 month ago

True2

One Star

Was slow and boring. I couldn't get into it at all & never finished it.

Published 7 months ago

Linda Clewell

Five Stars

Vivid characterization. So many of us can identify!

Published 7 months ago

Can't wait to read, great condition.

Published on March 22, 2016

Billie Scheel

I do enjoy reading her writings and sharing her efforts to understand ...

Madeleine L'Engle is a most remarkably thoughtful and probing writer. She is spiritual, imaginative, creative, caring and full of spirit and curiosity.Read more

Published on June 29, 2015

Eleanor Shumway

Five Stars

YES!

Published on June 21, 2015

Richard B.

Five Stars

111%

Published on June 18, 2015

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