A *shrug* and a *yawn*

So I first read A Wrinkle in Time around 20 years ago. That’s my best guess. I remembered nothing about it, except that I did not like it at all, on a fairly strong level. So when I heard they were making a new movie I shrugged, but then it was directed by Ava DuVernay (yes), staring a diverse cast (YES), and then the trailer dropped. All in. Alllllll in. And it’s our bookclub book today! Reread commencing.

I’m going to skip the plot synopsis on this one, as it’s pretty darn well known, and go into why, yet again, I didn’t connect with this one. And I don’t fully know. Reading it, even now, Meg has much in common with my awkward, abrasive teenage self (it was a long awkward phase). And yet, as a young teen and now I mostly just want to say, you bring this on yourself. Teenage me might have been awkward and superabrasive, aggressive, what have you, but I also had confidence and Meg annoyed me to no end with her lack of worth in herself. Now, I see that lack of worth as completely relatable to many, many children, but at the time coke bottle glasses me, at least knew I had value to add to the world (don’t worry grad school kicked all of that confidence out of me).

As a kid and as an adult if I don’t connect with my protagonist, I generally don’t connect with the book. And that’s the case here. It was fine. I read it, but again I now feel a *shrug*. It was fine, I thought she was pretty heavy handed on the metaphors and allegories, but overall it was fine. It felt like a lot of 60’s sci fi that I’ve since read because it’s Mr. Beth Ellen’s favorite. It just feels like now there’s so many more options out there, and while this is clearly the predecessor that made room for them it’s left me indifferent this go around.

Although I will say that I’m not indifferent to the movie. It looks a-MAH-zing! I will be seeing it on streaming months from now (reality does not result in going to the movies), but I’m looking forward to Ms. DuVernay’s vision.