BOOK REVIEW: Ilsa by Madeleine L'Engle

I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

I can’t claim to know anything about Madeleine L’Engle except that she wrote the marvelous A Wrinkle in Time. When I saw this re-release of her 1946 novel, Ilsa, available on Netgalley, I was eager to read it. This is her second novel, written for adults. It’s been out of print for ~60 years.

Ilsa is about unhappy, unfulfilled people, primarily Henry Porcher (pronounced Puh-Shay) and Ilsa Brandes. They meet as children. Ilsa is a three years older and Henry is immediately smitten. She’s a wild and independent girl, living off by the sea with her naturalist father. The circumstances of her birth are mysterious. Henry is an unobjectionable child from an extended southern family who look down on pretty much everyone, but particularly on Ilsa and John Brandes. Henry is forbidden to spend time with Ilsa. Whether he might have rebelled against his parents is a moot question because a fire consumes the town and Henry leaves with his family, not to return for many years.

The rest of the novel is taken up with Henry’s wistful pursuit of Ilsa, which consists primarily of him hanging around despite everyone telling him she’s not interested and he should move on. Ilsa marries Henry’s hateful, drunken cousin Monty because he’s handsome and can be charming. Henry goes away to Paris for eight years, has a meaningless fling with yet another cousin, then returns home to moon after Ilsa some more.

There are a couple of cousins who manage to find a semblance of contentment, but most are miserable. Henry eventually learns the truth about how his family is connected with Ilsa’s, which goes a little way to explain why so many of them are such a mess.

There is some pretty writing in the novel. Unfortunately, it’s dull overall. The plot meanders and doesn’t reach much of a conclusion. Much of the dialogue is stilted. The characters, except for Ilsa, are weak. Ilsa has strength and independence, but terrible taste in men.

Although it was interesting to have a look at a novel so very different from A Wrinkle in Time, it’s not a book I would seek out for its own sake.