Stephen King advises in On Writing to get busy reading if you’re serious about being a writer. (Carolyn See’s advice in Making a Literary Life is to write 1,000 words a day. Which is so much harder.)
So as part of my reading assignment, I’ve just re-read Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle. I haven’t read the book in years, so I was astounded to realize how much influence her writing had on me. Have you ever experienced that? It makes you wonder what you’d be like if you hadn’t read a certain book. Ms. L’Engle loved books and poetry and music, and it shines through in her writing.
It would be safe to say that L’Engle lived in a rarified world, but she made the idea of a beautiful and artistic life—even the rather humble, domestic sort found at the Austin home—seem possible for the rest of us. Mrs. Austin happily blares Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto to drown out the sound and fury of her four children while she makes a standing rib roast. She reads Kipling to them at bedtime, then plays and sings a song or two on her guitar as they fall asleep. And as if all that weren’t enough, the dog is named Mr. Rochester. When I was young, I identified with Vicky (the daughter), of course. But reading this book now, I paid a lot more attention to Victoria, the mother. I wondered if I hung out with her if her wonderful contentment and endless patience would rub off on me. And I wondered if Madeleine was like Victoria or if she was, like I am, just wishing she were.
