The Small Rain

Katherine Forrester Vigneras #1

by Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle's classic young adult books include A Wrinkle in Time, A Swiftly Tilting 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--theatrical as well as musical . . . . [Her] adolescence is lonely and difficult, but as Katherine advances to young womanhood, her heart as well as her talent is promisingly engaged (Publishers Weekly).

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Music, Literary Fiction, Novels, Adult Fiction, Adult

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young adult fiction, including A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I read this (18 years--I read it during the first year of my marriage), but I still remember that this book wrecked me. That might not sound like a recommendation, but it is: I love it when writing is that powerful.

That year (1995) was my Madeline L'Engle year. I read books of hers I hadn't read and re-read what I had read before, and it was all grand. Madeline L'Engle feeding frenzies are good for the soul.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I'm really annoyed with whichever Goodreads librarian classified these books by Katherine's MARRIED name, giving away the fact that she married Justin Vigneras although she is engaged to a man named Pete throughout the whole last third of the book. So, thanks, Goodreads, for the major spoiler. In a book like this, whom a person marries is extremely important. It would've been nice if I actually thought she was going to marry Pete. Instead, I kept waiting to find out why she doesn't, which is a totally different reading and level of expectation. Labeling the books "Katherine Forrester 1 and 2" wouldn't hurt!
At first, I really liked this book. It's a bildungs-roman about a girl named Katherine Forrester, whose mother is a well-known pianist and whose father is a celebrated composer. Katherine is currently living with her "Aunt Manya," her mother's best friend, because Julie became sick several years ago and hasn't been able to take care of her daughter, and Tom is capable of taking care only of himself. Aunt Manya is a famous stage actress, and Katherine hasn't gone to school in years because she's been acting a small role in Manya's play and living a highly irregular life for a child of her age (she's ten at the book's opening).
The movement of the book is swift in the beginning--Katherine's comfortable life is quickly interrupted then altered when her mother makes a reappearance. Tragedy occurs, and Katherine's life changes yet again. Eventually, a fourteen-year-old Katherine ends up in boarding school in France, and this is where I stopped "really liking" the book and just liked it. It is very slow in the middle, and the headmistress and one of the teachers at the school are very frustrating. I found myself more annoyed with the characters and the plot line than anything else.
Once again, a turn occurs. Katherine graduates, and the movement picks up. I really liked the last third of the book as much as the first third. Tragedy occurs again, and Katherine experiences a great deal to change her and force her to grow up. I kept wondering why so much should happen to one person, but I realized that life happens to Katherine, that's all. She does suffer a good deal, but she always comes out of it relatively unscathed if not unchanged, and that's how life is for a great portion of us. It's sad, and it's hard to read some of the things she goes through, but I enjoyed the way the book ends and how Katherine develops even over the last few pages.
The characters in this book, from beginning to end, came alive for me. I could imagine their looks and personalities. Setting also plays a major role in the story, and L'Engle's descriptions of New York, Connecticut, Switzerland, and France, along with her seasonal descriptions, are very beautiful. She's not as philosophical/spiritual in this book as she is in later books, but there are some great passages where the characters are expressing their struggles and doubts and when they question life and existence that are very interesting and even beautiful. I can sense L'Engle working through her own doubts, as she's admitted to being an atheist before becoming a Christian even though she was raised Anglican.
The most interesting aspects of the book are the way it transports me back to the time period and the way it highlights L'Engle's journey as a writer. First, the novel is very much a book of the forties. It clearly takes place between the World Wars, and the tone is somber like the tone of a true Modernist novel should be. The feeling of losing the center is very much present. There are hints of the dissipation that led Gertrude Stein to lament the "Lost Generation." Katherine and her friends, at a very young age, wonder about the existence of God and about life after death. They question everything, and they have no faith in the older generation, whose presence exists only to demonstrate what can go wrong or to prove that the younger generation can make it on its own. The apartments, the boarding schools, the music, the way of life in general, are all very much grounded in time, and I love that. I love experiencing a lost way of life through books.
Second, this is L'Engle's first novel. In the foreword she wrote decades later, she says that she worked on it for years, and it shows. This is a novel of work, not one of ease. This wasn't inspired; it was labored over. That shows in a good way and a bad way, for like Katherine's music, there is technique, but there is also feeling. In L'Engle's later work, there is the sense of inspiration, of the words and ideas and emotions coming easily to her. This novel is long, probably too long for what it contains, but L'Engle's later works are usually short and concise. The themes are also different. L'Engle hadn't discovered physics or faith yet. The novel has hope, but it's not the same grandiose, universe-wide, overwhelming sense of love that I adore so much in her later books. Still, there is something much more grounded, more intense, more earthy and earthly about this book that her later works lack.
I recommend this book to people who love Modernist novels and to people who enjoy coming-of-age stories told with simplicity and understanding.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 matters spiritual and philosophical is so absorbing and important that the wooden dialogue and clumsy plotting becomes invisible.

This character study of Katherine Forrester gets under my skin a little because of L'Engle's treatment of homosexuality, in a very disturbing scene in a bar in the Village as well as some decidedly odd scenes from boarding school. It foreshadows the weirdness in A House Like A Lotus, I think.

[Zoe · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 book. However, she also edits some scenes within what remains, making them far more idealistic and romantic rather than conflicted and in some ways quite disturbing.

In Prelude, one of the bits that resonated most strongly was Katherine's loneliness and feelings that no one understood her properly. I certainly felt like that as an adolescent (as indeed many adolescents do) and although my chosen creative art was words rather than music, Katherine still seemed like a sister. This feeling became more pronounced when, at a boarding school which she loathes, she finally does make friends with another girl, Sarah, and they spend so much time together and become so close that Katherine can tell her things she has never spoken about before. It's after Katherine confesses her feelings after her mother's death and Sarah is comforting her that the two girls are "sprung" by a teacher, who instantly suspects them of having an unnaturally close friendship - in other words, that they are lesbians.

I still remember how I felt about it when I was young. I burned with the injustice of the teachers' suspicions; of COURSE Katherine and Sarah weren't lesbians! They were pure soul mates, and grown-ups just sullied everything with their horrid suspicions. Never mind that I, at that stage, was writing a (very bad) novel in which the male protagonist wound up falling in love with his male best friend. Never mind that this very bad novel made my own (female) best friend a bit nervous that I was trying to tell her something - that made me burn with misery and injustice as well.

Now that I am an adult, I read it and still burn with injustice, though less fiercely since I am no longer full of adolescent hormones. It's also for slightly different reasons - although I agree that Katherine and Sarah weren't lesbians, what would be so wrong if they were? Yes, yes, 1945, things were like that. I can't really expect much better of characters or their authors at that point in history.

Interestingly, these scenes remain unchanged (from what I can tell; I didn't do a side-by-side comparison of Prelude and The Small Rain). The rest of the book, and the edited scenes, are also quite disturbing. Katherine has a huge crush on her male piano teacher, Justin. At one point, he takes her to Paris to meet a renowned pianist. They drink too much and Justin winds up kissing her and if she didn't insist that she felt strange because of all the drink, it seems he would have been okay with sleeping with her, or at the very least taking it further. She's about 16 at this point. As it is, there's rather disturbing dialogue stressing her childishness and she goes to bed, wanting him to come in to her room. Which he does not, thankfully. Although the trip to Paris is in Prelude, the kiss and sexual elements are not, and Prelude ends shortly after that.

The Small Rain goes on. Katherine does sleep with a man a few years older than her whom she has known for many years and who has a physical resemblance to the idolised Justin. It's a one-off and isn't repeated, but they do discuss what would happen if she were to get pregnant and the nature of the sex quite frankly. Katherine finishes school and has a brief interlude in Paris with an almost-friend from school, who sleepwalks out the hotel window and dies. She accidentally runs into Justin's sister and eventually sees Justin again - they stay up all night talking and playing music, but nothing else happens.

Then she goes back to New York, where she finds someone to continue teaching her the piano and meets an actor she knew in her childhood (her aunt is an actress and as a child, Katherine was in a production with her). They become friends and, gradually, more than that. There's a disturbing scene with another actor that I kept thinking was going to turn into rape but didn't. She and the actor, Pete, become engaged while she is delirious with fever and severe influenza, to the point that she is hallucinating. She meets Sarah again, who is now an aspiring actress, and Sarah's friend Felix. Katherine and Sarah wind up sharing a one bedroom flat, with them taking turns between sleeping in the bed and on the couch. They briefly revisit the past accusations of lesbianism but don't say much about it. Then there's a memorable scene in which Sarah and Felix take Pete and Katherine to one of their favourite bars, which you eventually realise is a gay bar. This part is worth quoting.

At the bar sat what Katherine thought at first was a man. After a while Sarah nudged her and said, "That's Sighing Susan. She comes here almost every night."
Startled, Katherine stared at the creature again and realized that it was indeed a woman, or what had perhaps once been a woman. Now it wore a man's suit, shirt, and tie; its hair was cut short; out of a dead-white face glared a pair of despairing eyes. Feeling Katherine's gaze, the creature turned and looked at her, and that look was branded into Katherine's body; it was as though it left a physical mark.

The other people (note, people, not creatures) in the bar are briefly described. At best, they seem pathetic. At worst, they seem debauched.

So apparently, it's okay to kiss your 16-year-old student when you are a grown-up man. It's okay for a girl to get completely, roaringly drunk and sleep with a man. It's okay for her to have a conversation with that man making it clear that it was just a one-time thing, completely beautiful and wonderful but not going to happen again and that it wasn't about being in love. It's okay for an older male actor to not-so-subtly coerce the young, pretty girlfriend of his rival into coming back to his apartment, to sexually menace her. None of these things confer inhumanity in 1945 according to L'Engle. She's willing to delve into what would have been fairly controversial and daring territory in that era. However, being a woman and cutting your hair short and wearing men's clothes makes you no longer human, it makes you a creature.

I know, I know. There's a scene in The Well of Loneliness which is similar, and Radclyffe Hall was a lesbian. But somehow it's different because she was a lesbian. L'Engle, to my knowledge, is not. She married and had children, which I know is no guarantee of heterosexuality. And yet the lesbian thing comes up over and over in her books, as does the near-pedophilia. Sometimes (as in A House Like a Lotus) they are the same. Sometimes, like here, they aren't. It makes me mad that L'Engle treats it so simplistically when she's prepared to see the complexity in other relationships, in other people who frankly behave much worse than just having a short haircut and wearing trousers.

It also makes me wonder whether L'Engle was trying to deny something in herself. She treats gay men more sympathetically than lesbians, which reminds me of how I felt myself as an adolescent. I also went through a quite homophobic phase at uni, just before I realised that I wasn't completely without same-sex feelings myself. And yes, I know L'Engle is not me, just as Katherine is not me, just as Katherine is not L'Engle. But because I identified so strongly with Katherine, and L'Engle writes in her preface that she did too, I can't help but be disappointed in L'Engle's cruelty and lack of understanding.

(I should make it clear that although I think it's unwise to get completely, roaringly drunk and sleep with someone you're not in love with, I don't think it's on the same level as pedophilia.)

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katherine Forrester is a child of divorce. Her parents are artists – one a classical pianist and the other an actor. After the death of her mother at an early age, her father and his new wife send her to a Swiss boarding school, where she is bullied by fellow classmates, and the school authorities seem clueless. Her solace is music. She is a gifted pianist like her mother. After boarding school, she moves to Paris to study with her music tutor, then joins her parents in New York City. The storyline follows Katherine’s struggles to deal with personal loss, strained relationships, and the demanding expectations of a musician’s life.

Music becomes not only a means of self-expression and a potential career path, but also a lifeline for Katherine’s emotional survival. One of the central themes of the novel is individuality versus external influences. Katherine’s relationships with her mentors, parents, and peers often walk a tightrope between support and control. Her father is largely absent from her life, and her stepmother becomes her primary female role model and confidant. She forms only a few close friendships, and some of the “friends” are selfish and fickle.

The novel highlights the transformative power of music. For Katherine, music becomes an outlet for processing her pain. This is the first book of a duo, so the reader may expect an ending that does not resolve all the open questions about Katherine’s life. While there is much sadness in this story, it ends on a hopeful note. This book was published in 1945 and is Madeleine L’Engle’s debut. It is a beautifully written coming-of-age novel that explores personal growth, artistic ambition, resilience, and the pursuit of authenticity. I had only previously read A Wrinkle in Time, so I am pleasantly surprised at her versatility.

[Katherine Kappelmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed quite a few of L'Engle's books growing up (primarily many hours spent reading the Time Quintet), so it was interesting to explore a more adult-focused novel from her, particularly one focused on an aspiring musician. This was her first novel, which definitely shows. While there are strong, engaging characters and moments of brilliance, there's also plenty of stilted dialogue, excessive melodrama, and consistently concerning adult behavior. Despite the flaws of this book, I'm looking forward to reading the sequel and seeing how Katherine's story develops.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 her mother. She gets both of those wishes but their fulfillment comes with heartbreak, struggle and much loneliness.

Katherine's coming of age tale takes place between the World Wars. She has a most unusual childhood and adolescence for an American girl, part of which is a deeply unhappy period at boarding school in Switzerland, where her only consolations are long hours of piano practice and a beloved piano teacher.

Later, back in Greenwich Village, as her piano studies continue, she experiences love, betrayal and more heartbreak. She learns to discern whether or not friends are trustworthy and comes to terms with her priorities as a serious musician.

L'Engle vividly captures the wild emotions of adolescence, the sacrifices of becoming a true artist, the perfidy of others and the cost of finding oneself. I wish I had known of this novel in my early adult years. It was clear to me, after reading The Small Rain, why she became such a successful writer. She has got that view of the independence women must always struggle to achieve and maintain; she knows the prices we pay. Her awareness that at the bottom of it all is love for ourselves and for others, as well as for art, shines through the story. I must say it again: beautiful.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

(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 stages in A Severed Wasp, in which an older Katherine looks back over her life and tries to come to terms with her memories.

The Small Rain, which was L'Engle's first novel, is full of adolescent angst and emotion; A Severed Wasp is also emotional but is more contemplative. I always read them together; they make a beautiful pair.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a young woman raised by artistic types who undergoes various trials in her early life (death of loved ones, horrible boarding school, lack of peers, etc) and must stay strong and persevere in her music. I could see why I loved L'Engle so much when I myself was young--the amazing idea that one would just start having deep, passionate, meaningful conversations about life with people one had just met--and yet as an adult now, it seems slightly overwrought. As one of the characters comments, "The old will never understand the young." :)

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katherine is a child who seems to carry the weight of the world upon her artistic shoulders... a deep serious, almost brooding type of personality. She is the same as an adult.
Good writing and a solid story can't be ignored, I suppose.
But I think this story is one I should've read at an earlier stage of my reading journey. It just didn't go down as well as I thought it would.
My reading habits and tastes have changed, quite drastically -and I'm more critical than ever.
I don't know if this is a good or bad thing.

[Austen to Zafón · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 character is a concert pianist and a sensitive person. Although she is frequently betrayed by people she trusts, her music keeps her going and is ultimately the only thing she can rely on. It's a good portrait of youth and naivete.

[Lia Marcoux · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book full of gross impositions. A mother expecting her ten-year-old to manage her alcoholism; a stepmom encouraging her tween stepdaughter's shipboard romance with an aging married Lothario who has a stone-cold Nazi villain scar; a predatory teacher kissing his student; getting engaged to a guy because when you were a child and he was already a grown-up you had a pash on him, and, sure, that's not yucky; and everybody but everybody kissing the main character without permission. But it's not a horror story! With one exception, I suppose (sort of hilarious because I do think L'Engle softened on this issue down the road)...terrifying l-l-lesbians!!

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew reading this book was going to be a weird experience but I was unprepared for how beautiful it was going to be. L'Engle's writing is often lovely but sometimes lovely just for the sake of being lovely which I always claim to dislike and then feel drawn to anyway. I wasn't particularly fond of the characters but I liked the tone of this book and the cyclical plot a lot. It left me feeling melancholy and I love when books affect my mood like that.

[Tina · Rating 1 out of 5]

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.

[Han · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hey there L’Engle, your homophobia is showing. Didn’t help either that I read this after your other very homophobic work, A House Like a Lotus.

[Gloria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Known especially for her children's books, this is the first novel, an adult novel, by renowned author L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time) begun while she was still in college. In L'Engle's personal life, she spent a lot of time in New York, in the art and theatre scene. This influence is very present in this semi-autobiographical story of a young talented women coming into her own among many other talents in the 1930s.

Katherine Forrester is born to a composer and a concert pianist. Her father is lost in his compositions and musical projects that take him away from home. Her mother is manic, depressed, and an alcoholic, but oh so talented. When they divorce, the father marries a supremely accomplished Russian actress who becomes a huge influence in Katherine's life.

This is a coming-of-age story in an environment that is largely unfamiliar to many, replete with boarding schools, multicultural influences, and great talents. This is not a sweet story, but one filled with lots of teen angst and young adult love. There is quite a lot of sexual yearning, including lesbian/gay relationships and teachers/students and affairs. Nothing graphic of course because this was written in 1945. It is also about 'growing' a great talent and deals with measuring up to others, finding the seriously great teachers and sponsors, and practicing five hours per day. Indeed, Katherine is not comfortable when her friend introduces her to the more typical lifestyle of partying into the wee hours. She cannot disappoint her teacher.

I liked this. Definitely depicts the artistic atmosphere of this era well, particularly through the speech. Reads like you are watching a 1930s era film. Emotions are suggested rather than delved through and explored. The ending is rather feministic, before feminism was a big deal. Katherine decides to find her own way and listen to her own voice. Commendable.

[MargaretDH · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I picked this up, I didn't know that this was L'Engle's first novel. Which is fitting, because even though I first read one of her books when I was 11 or 12, I didn't know she wrote books for adults until just a few years ago.

Published in 1945, L'Engle tells the story of a young woman whose life mirrors her own in important ways. Katherine, our heroine, acts on the New York stage, attends a Swiss boarding school and wants to dedicate her life to art, all as L'Engle did, although Katherine is an aspiring pianist, rather than a writer. We begin when Katherine is 10, acting in a play, and we follow her as she comes of age, and as she loses her mother, struggles with making friends at a school in Switzerland, and falls in love, both with her music and with men. Katherine is rather prickly, and mostly devoted to her music, with a rich inner life and strong convictions.

Though the pacing is rather lurching here and there, and some of the dialogue is much more stylized than natural, this book is as full of the passionate feelings of adolescence that L'Engle captures so well in her later heroines. It also gives an eye into the world of art and New York in the interwar period, and what it was like to be a woman who knew she wanted a career, especially a career in the arts at that time.

If you like coming of age stories, I think this is worth picking up. Even though it was published more than 70 years ago, Katherine is relatable and sympathetic (though I did get tired of everyone calling her 'baby' and 'kitten' and 'baby kitten'). And if you like other L'Engle books, this is an interesting place to start and see some of her writing for adults. 40 years after L'Engle published The Small Rain, she published A Severed Wasp, a sequel about Katherine in her 70s. I'm looking forward to picking it up soon.

[Jill Geyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up The Small Rain because I wanted to read something by Madeline L'Engle besides A Wrinkle in Time. I later found out she wrote the book right after college which is kind of cool.

The Small Rain is Katherine Forrester's coming of age story. I think my favorite thing about coming of age stories is that they show how vulnerable we are to our surroundings. In most people's young adult years they become acquainted with pain. These moments of pain change us and shape us. Katherine's Aunt Manya may say it best.

"...the old earth, round and bare from friction with the sky, like a pebble worn too smooth by waters turbidly flowing. And I felt that my soul, too, was bare and round from too much rubbing against life. Well! I was nineteen! So old. So very old."

[Elena Hebson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one definitely isn't as good as L'Engle's later work, but still shows lots of promise. There are descriptive passages that are very beautiful and thought-provoking. I personally didn't care for the way things worked out for the heroine, but I must admit that it was pretty realistic to the characters.
My main problem with this book is its perspective on love, which felt flippant and naive. I know that it was supposed to encapsulate the heroine's confusion and youth, but I just didn't care for it.
I did like the heroine very much despite all this and wished that she got a happier ending.
And, if nothing else, this book did make me want to practice the piano more diligently. XD

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful coming-of-age tale, splendidly written. THE SMALL RAIN kept me up too late several nights as I eagerly read on to find out what would happen to Katherine, the introverted pianist living among glamorous famous people. Heartbreak and happiness, determination and ambition, all are expertly rendered. There is, admittedly, a fair bit of white privilege, homophobia, and mooning over one man or another—one wishes for Katherine to fully realize herself and focus on her music, but that would be a novel written today, wouldn’t it?—but L’Engle has given what feels like an honest portrait of a smart, talented, brave, sometimes foolish, very young woman. I long for a sequel!

[Eugenea Pollock · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, this is the best of this author’s books. It deals with the trajectory of a gifted pianist’s career from childhood to young adulthood, as she deals with the glory as well as the burden of her remarkable gift. How others respond to it—family, teachers, friends, romantic partners, rivals—augments the story. I LOVED this. So, so addictive. I could hardly put it down.

[Meredith McCaskey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even Madeleine L’Engle could write a not-very-good kind of self-indulgent first novel. And what’s with every man she ever meets from the time she’s 14 wanting to hit on Katherine? Ew...

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing writing! Character and scene descriptions were so deep…they were like you were there seeing and experiencing! Because it was only covering Katherine’s life 14 years to 20, I’m looking forward to reading the sequel! I feel like I’m invested in her music career, her life, and the rest of her journey!

[James Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second Read, May 5th, 2025
I still love this one. It is passionate and dreamy in all the best ways. It is a tale of a girl who has yet to truly understand the world or herself. It is the tale of a girl who sees with the maturity of one beyond her years because she has already seen so much and been through so much yet you’re often reminded that she is really just a girl. Katherine Forrester is one of my favourite characters to revisit – as I’ve been reminded as I read this one – and though at times she seems almost alien in the way she hovers above the text, there are brutal moments when all crashes down to earth and Katherine is revealed as oh so human. For a first book, this is revelatory. If only I could write like L’Engle. There are some of her quirks that will be further utilized in later books, but there is also a freshness here. Yes, it’s an adult book and thus some heavy themes – do not read this if you want a light read! – yet this book does not delight in the darkness. There are some descriptive passages that made me almost want to weep for beauty. Yes yes, I know I’m biased because I love L’Engle’s writing so, yet I truly believe this is a wonderful book. This is a book that just works as a late-night read, good for being curled up on the couch with a candle burning as one’s mind slips into a state suspended between the waking world and the world of dreams.

First Read, March 12th, 2021
Picked up this book a week ago at a Half Price Books in Dallas on a whim. Browsing the literature stacks and of course my eye will catch on a L'Engle title. But somehow I never have heard of this one? Doing a little more research, apparently this is the first novel she ever published!? So yes, of course I bought it. It is a...beautiful book. Raw and emotional, as befits a first book. Published in 1945, this book seems to belong to a bygone age, yet the characters in this book leap from the page, seeming as fresh and real as if I were sitting across from them and enjoying a cup of coffee as we chat. This book is about a young woman (well, really starting when she is a girl) named Katherine Forrester and is about her journey through the early part of life. She suffers loss, finds love, meets with tragedy after tragedy. She is someone who seems a bit unemotional and odd to others, yet her inner fire is hot and oh yes, she feels pain and longing and really just wants to love and be loved. L'Engle's writing style is familiar yet also a bit stilted at times yet...? That almost contributes to the reader coming to identify with Kat and feeling one with her. Reading this book night after night, it only took me a minute or two before I was able to sink back into Kat's psyche and see through her eyes. There were some phrases and words that were classic L'Engle and it made me smile to see her use them here in her first book! The dialogue is wonderfully simple and real. This book is a sad book. And it is not always easy to read. There are a few rough spots because this book does not seek to cover over the rawer realities of humanity. But still, I enjoyed. Melancholy soul that I am at times, this book was beautiful. It has earned a spot on my shelf for future reads.

[Amander · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 book addressed issues of the changing social norms post-World War II (sexuality, abortion, lesbianism, divorce). While the discussion was subtle, the author did not shy away from showing a realistic picture of the changing zeitgeist.

At times it was difficult to tell what the character Katherine wanted (other than to live up to her mother's legendary status as a pianist), but I think that's what makes it a true coming-of-age story - the character herself does not know what she wants, and lives on the cusp of adulthood where she is not yet able to fully make decisions for herself, and would not know how to even if she could.

"Active happiness is not a common state. Active unhappiness is better than dull days. Katherine was seldom in an intermediate stage" (153).

"I don't know anything any more except that I've got to believe in something, and I do, I don't know exactly what it is. Because I don't think many of us are enough in ourselves to say anything great in our work; I know I'm not, but I do think if I work hard enough and make myself ready, things can be said through me that are much bigger than I am, and I do believe there's something great somewhere to say them, if I should be ready enough to be chosen" (191).

I am looking forward to reading the sequel, A Severed Wasp.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

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; she sees her as a close sister. It was her first novel, started when she was in college; unlike her best-known 'Wrinkle in Time' series, this is intended for adults, and very much set in the real world. Written in 1945, the book feels quite up-to-date in its emotional impact, despite being obviously dated in some respects.

I felt that it was a bit long-winded in places, with conversation that didn't entirely flow. Some of the characters seemed a little flat, too. But overall I found it very readable, and finished it in just a couple of days. I look forward to reading the sequel, 'A Severed Wasp' at some point.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 most l'engle books) and i immediately liked the character. the only drawback that i found to this book is that l'engle later wrote a sequel to it (a severed wasp) which excited me greatly when i finished this book as i didn't want the story to end. but instead of finding the same katherine that i had enjoyed in the first book, i found a much older version that liked to solve mysteries and was a little full of herself. at any rate, the small rain is definitely a must-read.....especially for females in their teenage years.

[Rowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 writing isn't as good as A Severed Wasp. However, I really enjoyed getting to read about Katherine as an adolescent and how it relates to the person she becomes in A Severed Wasp, when she is in her 70s and coming to terms with her memories. It is a look into the past of one of my favorite literary characters.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore this novel. I first read it as a young adult and fell in love with the beautiful writing and the way it talks about an artist's life. Upon re-reading it, I realized just how downright strange parts of it are (ship's doctor hitting on 14-year-old Katherine, the adults in her life encouraging it, allowing Katherine to smoke and drink as a young teen, the distressing (to a present-day reader) gay bar scene.
This was “very much a first novel,” as L'engle says in the forward. I'm wondering how much of the strangeness is because of the time period it was written in and how much was L'Engle herself. I also found myself wondering what this type of novel would look like now? What's out there right now that discusses artists and how to become one from the point of view of a young girl/teen? Looking forward to re-reading A Severed Wasp, the sequel that came many years later.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love L'Engle's work as a rule, but Katherine in this book was carried from place to place, largely babied and bullied by others until she actually notes that she feels comfortable with bullying by her lover. The number of times men press themselves on her and the times they physically threaten her--and it makes no real impression on her. So many events don't seem to develop her character, for she's horribly unintrospective and phlegmatic. The things she wants she can scarcely explain to herself. The dialogue is markedly frustrating in how every single potential love interest calls her "kitten" and "little one" and "darling." Indeed, she barely takes up any space at all.