Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage (Crosswicks Journals #4) [B1868]

1989 PB clean, with just minor wear. In the final memoir of her Crosswicks Journals, the author of A Wrinkle in Time paints an intimate portrait of her forty-year marriage. A long-term marriage has to move beyond chemistry to compatibility, to friendship, to companionship.

As Newbery Medal winner Madeleine L'Engle describes a relationship characterized by compassion, respect, and growth, as well as challenge and conflict, she beautifully evokes the life she and her husband, actor Hugh Franklin, built and the family they cherished. Beginning with their very different childhoods, L'Engle chronicles the twists and turns that led two young artists to New York City in the 1940s, where they were both pursuing careers in theater. While working on a production of Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard, they sparked a connection that would endure until Franklin's death in 1986. L'Engle recalls years spent raising their children at Crosswicks, the Connecticut farmhouse that became an icon of family, and the support she and her husband drew from each other as artists struggling-separately and together-to find both professional and personal fulfillment. At once heartfelt and heartbreaking, Two-Part Invention is L'Engle's most personal work-the revelation of a marriage and the exploration of intertwined lives inevitably marked by love and loss.

From recent-ish Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "What a moving & deeply beautiful story of a marriage. The sacred ordinary communion of two lives given fully to each other over forty years. As always, five stars."; "I absolutely soaked in Two-Part Invention. Madeleine L'Engle tells her love story and her grief story with a rare mix of honesty, tenderness, and faith. Her writing is beautiful without being overly sentimental and grounded without losing its sense of wonder. I closed the book feeling both moved to appreciate my own marriage relationship and grateful that she shared hers. A stunning, hope-filled read. Five stars without hesitation."; "Sit for a while with a pot of tea as Madeleine shares with you the story of her life. Listen as the young girl works through her childhood, grows into a young adult, and finds her nest in an old home in a farm and an apartment in New York when not traveling for a play. Listen as she finds the rhythm of her life with her soulmate, their children, and their chosen family. There is no sugar coating or ghastly wailing, but the path that winds, climbs, descends, and continuously leads through the years. I shall miss this quiet time with Madeleine."