Troubling a Star (by Madeleine L'Engle)

(Amazon UK link)

In my quest to read through Madeleine L’Engle’s novels for teenagers, I finally reached the fifth in the Austin Family series, ‘Troubling a Star’. I had no idea what to expect: the first book in the series is introductory, the second mainly involves a camping trip around the United States. The third, ‘The Young Unicorns’, is set in New York and is a thriller, and the fourth, ‘A Ring of Endless Light’, is a poignant story of bereavement and growing love.

However, I was still a little surprised when the opening paragraph of the first (and several other) chapters sees Vicky Austen, who narrates the books, alone on an iceberg in the Antarctic. As gradually becomes apparent, this is no dream, or fantasy… she really is there, getting colder and colder, wondering how much longer she can survive.

The bulk of the book takes place some months earlier, however, and gradually leads up to the point at which Vicky is in this life-threatening situation. She isn’t quite sixteen at the chronological start of the novel. However she’s feeling somewhat out of place in the high school she has returned to, after a couple of years living elsewhere. She loves English literature, particularly Shakespeare and poetry, but has a hard time making friends, and doesn’t find much else to like in her school.

Her friend Adam Eddington, who appeared in an earlier book, comes to visit his great-aunt who lives quite near the Austins. He thinks Vicky would like her - and, indeed, the two become friends almost immediately despite the huge age gap. Vicky misses her grandfather, whom she lost in the summer, and finds Adam’s great aunt to be a fascinating, thinking person - perhaps the only person she can relax with.

Adam, meanwhile, is off on his research in marine biology, travelling to Antarctica. And since we know from the brief prologues to most of the chapters, Vicky gets the opportunity to go there too. But it’s not straightforward, and she receives some rather strange warnings.

A large part of the book covers Vicky’s travels to Antarctica, getting to know several of her fellow passengers on the ship which will take her there. There’s quite a political element to the book; Vicky herself is rather ignorant about world politics, but is aware that some world leaders can be corrupt, or at least power-hungry. And there’s a strong theme about ecology and the importance of preserving the Antarctic rather than trying to drill for oil or encourage too many tourists.

I was slightly confused that Madeleine L’Engle introduces two imaginary countries amongst the real ones. There’s a small European country with a prince who is on the trip. There’s also a small fictional South American country called Vespugia, in between Argentina and Chile, which is quite significant in the book. They’re done well - so much so that I even looked one of them up to see if it had ever existed, or if it was a region of one of the known countries. But the only references online were to these books.

I assumed, since Vicky narrates, that she is eventually rescued from the iceberg, but I was intrigued to discover how she arrived there - and as she becomes more desperate, the book becomes more tense. I found it quite hard to put down by the time I was half-way through. The pace is excellent, in my view.

As with most of L’Engle’s books there are a few low-key references to the Christian faith; in this one, angels are mentioned several times. ‘Angels watch over you’ is a farewell greeting used several times and Vicky writes some poems about angels. This makes a nice contrast to some of the more tense parts of the novel, and I don’t think it would be a problem for anyone who does not believe in angels.

While it’s probably best to read this after the earlier four books in the series, as some characters (particularly Vicky’s family, and also Adam) were introduced there, it’s not essential. This book stands alone, and I thought it worked very well.

Recommended to teenagers, and adults who like reading teen fiction.

Review by Sue F copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews