and_both_were_young epitome of incomprehensibility This is a surprisingly wise early novel from L. M. Montgomery. The copy I have is from 2011, and there's a foreword by her granddaughter mentioning how the current edition restores some things that were bowdlerized: for instance, the main character, a girl of about 14 at the start, complains how her father is "lusting" after a woman she dislikes. This is set in 1948, I think, and published not long afterwards. The first publication changed the wording - never mind that it's funny. The father gets better. As in, he gets a better partner. There's also a sweet and rather innocent romance for the protagonist, Flip (short for Philippa), but that's where things might get Slightly Traumatizing to the Teenage Reader Expecting a Cute Story (as per rank_books_by_arbitrary_criteria). Not that he treats her badly, but he has a sad backstory. I'll mention this more at the end. I'm not entirely convinced trauma-induced amnesia can manifest itself the way it does in this story - that, like the sports-underdog subplot, comes across as a bit cliché - but the violence that tore apart his family is based on too-real events. But I'm not really putting things in order (like the mess on top of my bookshelf). Okay. Things start when Flip goes to a boarding school in Switzerland. At first she feels homesick and left out. The guidance she gets from a teacher helps to put things in perspective: most of the students aren't consciously trying to exclude her, so it's up to Flip to make friendly overtures, scary as that might be. This I found interesting, because it's easy to fall into extremes when talking about adapting to new environments, like: 1) I will change completely to fit in; 2) I will insist that people accept me as I am. I mean, 2) is better, but without an openness to learn from others, it can be self-centred. And Flip does stay herself - becomes more herself, in a way, by developing her skill as an artist while succeeding in making friends. Huzzah! ...I don't know why the "Huzzah." This isn't British. A couple of the kids are, though! L'Engle has a tendency to be multicultural about characters, not just from a desire to be inclusive, but also, I suspect, to give her people-creations interesting names. Here, the diversity is quite white, but also multilingual: English, French, German, Swedish (I think), and more. The other American, besides Flip, is Jewish - at least, I think so; she has the same name as a Jewish composer and makes a reference to worshipping differently than the others when she apologizes to Flip for making fun of her quiet meditations in the school chapel. So that brings me to the part with the Mysterious French Boyfriend, Paul, and why L. M. Montgomery "talks about the Holocaust without talking about the Holocaust," as my tired mind framed it. Paul's original family was torn apart by the Nazis since his parents work for the French resistance, but there's little explanation of what they're resisting, even the aspects of political tyranny that are unrelated to racism. My theory: L'Engle didn't want Jewish people to be *only* known for bad things that happened to them. That's why she includes Flip's American classmate, Jackie Bernstein, but not a French or German Jewish character. Does this make sense? Somewhat. But I still think there's a missed opportunity to be explicit about how the Nazis ranked people as better or worse based on perceived race and fitness, etc. The book shows many characters practicing the opposite of this mentality, so I'd have liked L'Engle to be clearer about how this problem manifested in the (then recent) past. We're not just up against vague cosmic forces of evil like the Etchthroi in A_Wrinkle_in_Time (who, incidentally, rather terrified me, even if their name reminded me of my Etch-a-Sketch). ... Anyway. Despite a few flaws, this is a good early YA book by L'Engle. Also, I flipped (Flip said to flip) back to the introduction, and this is what Léna Ray, the author's granddaughter, writes: "In 1949, the sphere of young adult literature was more strictly defined than it is today. One did not broach such topics as sex and death, even in the subtle ways of Madeleine L'Engle, so some deeper themes of the original manuscript were sanitized for a 1940s audience" (Ray viii). (I wonder, did that include the WW2 stuff?) And then, a little later, she mentions that it was in 1983 that Delacorte Press republished the book in its earlier form...so that was while the author was still alive. 260210 ... e_o_i Ugh! By the writer gods, I should *NOT* attempt longer pieces when I have a cold. Do you see the glaring mistake in the first sentence?? I wrote L.M. Montgomery when I meant Madeleine L'Engle. This isn't new - I keep mixing up their names, even though their lifespans barely overlapped. 260210 ... e_o_i attempts editing ...I also see a present-tense verb that should be past. But it's time to attempt sleep. 260210 what's it to you? who go blather from