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175th out of 333 books
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400 voters
The Small Rain (Vigneras)
Madeleine L'Engle's classic young adult books include A Wrinkle in Time, A Swiftly Planet, and Certain Women. The Small Rain, an adult novel, focuses on Katherine Forrester, the daughter of distinguished musical artists, whose career as a concert pianist evolves through loves and losses. Katherine is a child growing up in a refined, yet bohemian, artistic ambience--theatri
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Paperback, 384 pages
Published
July 1st 1985
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(first published 1945)
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Katherine is a serious, deep-thinking child who is determined to be a pianist like her mother. As the book opens, she's ten years old, appearing in a play with her famous aunt, with whom she lives; she has not seen her mother in three years. The novel spans the next eight or nine years of Katherine's life, including bereavement, boarding school, and her first romantic affairs.
Madeline L'Engle states in the introduction that it's not autobiographical, but some of Katherine's situations are hers;...more
Madeline L'Engle states in the introduction that it's not autobiographical, but some of Katherine's situations are hers;...more
Mar 19, 2010
Judy
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
female artists coming of age.
Shelves:
books-from-1945
This is Madeleine L'Engle's first novel and what a beautiful book it is. (I missed it when I was reading books from 1945.) The story opens when Katherine is ten years old. Her mother, a famous concert pianist, is somewhere unknown to Katherine, recovering from a nearly fatal accident. Manya, an actress in the New York City theater, is caring for Katherine, who has a bit part in Manya's play.
Katherine does not want to be an actress. Her dream is to be a pianist, like her mother. She also wants he...more
Katherine does not want to be an actress. Her dream is to be a pianist, like her mother. She also wants he...more
I was surprised at how much this book resonated with me. It was first published in 1945 (is L'Engle's first novel, I believe), and has been out of print since 1985. I think L'Engle's voice is so earnest, the reader cannot help but be sympathetic. For me, L'Engle is a kindred spirit, and this work seems at times autobiographical (she was a student in a boarding school in Switzerland, her mother was a pianist, she was clumsy and misunderstood by teachers as a child).
I was also surprised how the b...more
I was also surprised how the b...more
Rather than hide the whole review, I'll just say now that there are massive spoilers in here. You have been warned.
I've been slowly filling in my collection of "books I loved as a young adult". Reading The Small Rain was partly a familiar experience and partly an entirely new one - this is because as a young adult, I only had access to an expurgated and edited version of the book called Prelude. L'Engle was the one who edited it, and mostly her editing consists of taking out the last half of the...more
I've been slowly filling in my collection of "books I loved as a young adult". Reading The Small Rain was partly a familiar experience and partly an entirely new one - this is because as a young adult, I only had access to an expurgated and edited version of the book called Prelude. L'Engle was the one who edited it, and mostly her editing consists of taking out the last half of the...more
1 like · like · see review
This was the first book I'd read of L'Engle's adult fiction. I read her fantasy books as a kid and really liked them and I knew a bit about her own life, but somehow I never managed to get around to reading her adult books until a couple years ago. This is her first published book and it shows in that it's a bit overwritten, but that said, I still really liked it. It's a coming-of-age story, but it's L'Engle, so you know it's not going to be schmaltzy. Tortured is more like it. The main characte...more
2 likes · like · see review
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Aug 03, 2011
Meghan
added it
I read "A Severed Wasp," the follow-up novel to "A Small Rain," a couple months ago. "Wasp" is set decades into the future, and although I read them backwards I thoroughly enjoyed learned more about Katherine and her friends/family. I would advise reading them in the correct order, however, as there is much set in flashback in "Wasp" that is really revealing but knowing how it turns out makes the impact not as deep as it could have been. I did really enjoy seeing how things that were so signific...more
This book has a copyright date of 1945. It is the first book by Madeline L'Engle (one of my most favorite authors). This is the story of Katherine, a pianist, from the time she is ten until she is in her mid-twenties. She is passionate about the piano. She is in love with Pete, but her old friend and actress Sarah steals him. This is truly a wonderful book. I got lost in it.
The mother in the book died when Katherine was fourteen (compared to L'Engle losing her father at 17.) I could not put thi...more
The mother in the book died when Katherine was fourteen (compared to L'Engle losing her father at 17.) I could not put thi...more
Never having read any of Ms. L'Engle's adult fiction, I wasn't sure what to expect - now I'm eager to read the sequel.
Katherine is a funny child - not comfortable around other children, a little stiff and distant around adults - whose family is in disarray. Her father, a composer, is too scattered to care for her and her mother has been away for a few years following a serious car accident (it's never clear if this was drunk driving or a suicide attempt or simply an accident), so Katherine is s...more
Katherine is a funny child - not comfortable around other children, a little stiff and distant around adults - whose family is in disarray. Her father, a composer, is too scattered to care for her and her mother has been away for a few years following a serious car accident (it's never clear if this was drunk driving or a suicide attempt or simply an accident), so Katherine is s...more
I own this book, and would have said that I had read it at one time, but in re-reading the copy recently given to the church library, it didn’t strike me as familiar at all. Katherine Forrester is the daughter of musical parents – a pianist mother and composer father. During her early childhood, an “aunt”, a famous actress, Madame Manya Sergeievna, raises her because her mother has been badly injured in an automobile accident. At the beginning of the story Katherine is ten years old, and is reu...more
(I read and reviewed this and A Severed Wasp together originally, so I'm posting comments on both here rather than trying to separate them out.)
L'Engle's books quite often have to do with art, but the two Katherine Vigneras books are particularly focused: Katherine is a pianist, from a family and background of musicians, composers, and actors. The two books are very good on the artistic life, from its beginnings in The Small Rain, which covers Katherine's childhood and adolescence, to its later...more
L'Engle's books quite often have to do with art, but the two Katherine Vigneras books are particularly focused: Katherine is a pianist, from a family and background of musicians, composers, and actors. The two books are very good on the artistic life, from its beginnings in The Small Rain, which covers Katherine's childhood and adolescence, to its later...more
1 like · like · see review
this ranks as one of my favorite books of all time and definitely something i'd recommend to any females out there. basically it's a coming of age book, sans your typical judy bloom-like horror stories. katherine, the main character, is being raised by her composer-father who is neglectful if not anything else, and her step-mother-actress. the book chronicles the different phases she goes through as she reaches her adulthood. i thought it was very well written (as tends to be my opinion about mo...more
I thoroughly enjoyed this book mainly because I could relate with the main character's, Katherine Forrester, personality. She's a quiet girl, very talented, but also quite intuitive and thoughtful. She takes the pains of her life with grace and chooses to give people the benefit of the doubt. I've always been a fan of Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time novels and had no idea she had written adult novels as well. L'Engle is an excellent author and if you've enjoyed any of her books, there's a go...more
The first of Madeline L'Engle's novels. It is a peculiar book. Katherine Forrester is a compelling character, L'Engle's understanding of one's commitment and connection to one's art written with deep understanding, her prose is beautifully written; and yet, the plot did not feel like a complete story to me. Perhaps I did not understand the arc of the underlying themes, perhaps I simply wasn't compelled them. Still, an enjoyable read.
I never realized as a kid that L'Engle just can't write believable dialogue. She really had a tin ear. And it really doesn't matter.
It's interesting to me how, as I work my way through the L'Engle on my shelves, I keep complaining about it and following the complaints with "but it really doesn't matter". It's true, though. The bones of the writing are so good that the flesh ... wait, it's L'Engle, so: the soul of the writing is so good that the flesh is inconsequential. Her examination of matte...more
It's interesting to me how, as I work my way through the L'Engle on my shelves, I keep complaining about it and following the complaints with "but it really doesn't matter". It's true, though. The bones of the writing are so good that the flesh ... wait, it's L'Engle, so: the soul of the writing is so good that the flesh is inconsequential. Her examination of matte...more
3 likes · like · see review
Katherine Forrester is nowhere near as engaging as a suffering, lonely, gifted child / young woman like L'Engel's Flip. In fact, I could not help compare and see markedly contrast between And Both Were Young and this book. Nonetheless, L'Engel tackled some possibly controversial topics and explored interesting vignettes of life as she wrote about Katherine's single-minded passionate desire to become a premier pianist.
This is the only one I might give two and a half stars to, and not quite three. This was the first novel she started to write and after a long time, finished. They say it is the most biographical of all her writing. Maybe that is why I least like it. It is good, but the story and the characters are set in an era that is much different from her other works and somehow it doesn't hit the mark for me.
I might have been able to tell that this is a first novel without the introduction - and a lovely first novel it is. It was also fantastical in its own way. Certainly all of the events and characters and interactions are possible, but their combination has an element of magic. I cannot decide if Katherine Forrester is a simple character, or if we were just told why she is complex. Possibly neither. I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Mar 30, 2008
Sarah
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those who read L'Engle's books way back when
Recommended to Sarah by:
Mosh
I was less enchanted by this than I had planned to be--I loved L'Engle's fantasy books as kid, and while this is in a different vein, I expected to be similarly engaged. Instead, I found it overly written. But I did get all caught up in its love philosophy--familial, romantic, fraternal (what's the girl version for friend love?). Definitely a worthwhile read if you want to see L'Engle's origins.
The passage that resonated with me:
It's a strange thing, how you can love somebody, how you can be all...more
The passage that resonated with me:
It's a strange thing, how you can love somebody, how you can be all...more
I read this because I really love the book, A Severed Wasp. This book is the prequel (or rather, A Severed Wasp is the conclusion) to the story of Katherine.
Madeleine L'Engle writes in the forward to The Small Rain, after the book was put back into publication in 1984 (first published in 1945), that it is very much a first novel. That I can see. A Severed Wasp was written decades later and the writer has matured and grown along with the characters. I probably won't re-read this because the writ...more
Madeleine L'Engle writes in the forward to The Small Rain, after the book was put back into publication in 1984 (first published in 1945), that it is very much a first novel. That I can see. A Severed Wasp was written decades later and the writer has matured and grown along with the characters. I probably won't re-read this because the writ...more
4.5 stars - I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I really connected to the main character, Katherine, as she struggles through difficulties that many young girls face. It was a great coming of age story (usually my favorite kind)! I wouldn't have guessed that this was L'Engle's first novel. A wonderful book!
I'm quite sure I read this book and its sequel long before I should have. The problem was that I knew how to use the card catalog, L'Engle was my favorite author, and I didn't see any reason why I shouldn't check the book out from the library. More than a few things eye opening when they weren't over my head. :)
Did not like it at all. I give a book five chapters before deciding if it's worth my time and I just couldn't get interested in it at all. The dialogue was awful and I couldn't care what happened to the characters. Many loved this book perhaps it got better after chapter 5 but I didn't even want to wade through it.
Beyond the look into the life of a serious artist, this story exposes a young woman who, in her earlier years, cannot seem to help being herself. When she becomes an adult, circumstance eventually forces her to come back to herself--thankfully, before she's too far off. Katherine is a character who, for whatever reasons, simply cannot live (what would be for her) a facade of a life. To me, that's what's most valuable about this book.
I read this a long time ago and liked it a lot. Lately I read the sequel. I like them both very much and appreciate the subtlety of the story. The character is very interesting and experiences a lot in her life beyond the normal.
I found this book through a yard sale or by accident and started to read. It was around 1974 or 75 and I fell in love with this writer. She is one of my favorites. I was shocked at how good the book was.
An amazing story. So much detail, but never too much. I felt for Katharine and all the trials she went through. I really related to her sense of loneliness and her desire for true friendships.
This is such a wonderful book! I loved it on so many different levels. I adore Madeleine L'Engle's writing! This is in my top ten for sure! I read it a second time in November 2003.
Mom's book club read this and recommended it. It's a coming of age story set in a time when women had so many fewer choices. Considering the time it was written, it's a good story.
Okay novel whose main character is a young girl Katherine (10 years old at the start) who is a talented pianist, daughter of a composer father and a pianist mother. The mother has been out of sight for 3 years following a car crash that crippled her. A bit melodramatic, but an interesting look at mostly well-to-do artsy types between the wars.
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Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her Young Adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters. Her works reflect her strong interest in modern science: tesseracts, for example, are featured prominently in A Wrinkle in Time, mitochondrial DNA in A Wind in the Door, organ regener...more
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“Active happiness is not a common state. Active unhappiness is better than dull days. Katherine was seldom in an intermediate stage.”
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May 27, 2010 10:33am