The Small Rain (1945)

The Small Rain is a semi-autobiographical novel by Madeleine L'Engle, about the many difficulties in the life of talented pianist Katherine Forrester between the ages of 10 and 19. Published in 1945 by the Vanguard Press, it was the first of L'Engle's long list of books, and was reprinted in 1984. L'Engle began work on it in college, and completed it while an actress in New York.

An adaptation of the first part of The Small Rain for young people was also published by the Vanguard Press in 1968, entitled Prelude.

Plot summary

Young Katherine Forrester has not seen her mother Julie in three years, since the latter was in an accident that ended her career as a pianist. Katherine has been studying piano herself, doing a little professional acting, and living with "Aunt Manya", a family friend known to the rest of the world as Madame Sergeivna, a famous actress on the Broadway stage. When she is ten, Katherine is reunited with Julie, and lives with her until Julie's premature death four years later.

Manya marries Katherine's father, a composer named Tom Forrester, with whom Katherine has a cordial but not especially close relationship, making Katherine doubly distant from the two of them. However, after a while, Manya's love for her begins to melt Katherine's iciness. However, just as Katherine starts truly loving Manya, Tom and Manya send her away to a boarding school in Switzerland. She is miserable there, unable to make connections with the other girls or the teachers, who are mostly cold and autocratic; in addition, her piano teacher doesn't mesh with her at all. This continues until Justin Vigneras, the piano teacher she was originally meant to study with but who was away at the beginning of the term, comes back. Katherine adores him, and is gratified that there is finally someone at school who understands and supports her passion for music and her need to practice. She also learns to get along better with her peers after the arrival of Sarah Courmont, a girl she previously met briefly on her seventh birthday in New York; the two begin to form an intense friendship. However, school officials misinterpret that friendship as another deep attraction, and Sarah becomes distant with Katherine after Miss Valentine interrogates the girls. Just as Katherine's relationship with Justin begins to develop into a closer relationship, he leaves the school.

After suffering through the rest of school without Justin or the Sarah she once knew and a brief romance with Charles Bejart, a young physician and Manya's adopted son, Katherine returns to New York. There she studies with her mother's old teacher, whose style is extremely intense and different from Justin's, shares an apartment with Sarah, who is now an actress, and becomes engaged to Pete, who used to help look after Katherine at Manya's theater. She also meets Sarah's friend Felix Bodeway, though she's not often comfortable with the shady, questionable world that he seems to represent. Ultimately Katherine is betrayed by both Pete and Sarah, as Pete and Sarah become romantically involved with each other. Katherine leaves them behind and, upon Manya's urging, returns to Justin, ostensibly to study with him in Paris.

Major characters

Katherine Forrester — Pianist. In The Small Rain, Katherine Forrester is a gifted but socially isolated adolescent studying to be a concert pianist at a strict boarding school, who falls in love with her piano teacher, Justin Vigneras. She later continues her studies in New York City and is briefly engaged to Pete Burns.

Manya Sergeievna — Actress. Called "Aunt Manya" by Katherine, "Madame Sergeievna" by everyone else, Manya is a highly respected, larger-than-life actress and close friend of Julie Forrester, Katherine's mother. After Julie's accident, Manya takes care of Katherine, but reunites the mother and child at the beginning of the novel. After Julie dies, Manya marries Katherine's father, composer Thomas Forrester.

Justin Vigneras — Pianist, teacher and composer. Katherine first meets Justin when he returns to her boarding school as a teacher, and mentors her as his favorite student. Katherine, in turn, falls in love with him. Keenly aware of the age difference between them, Justin soon leaves Katherine and the school behind, but their professional and romantic relationship is rekindled at the end of the novel as Katherine enters adulthood.

Sarah Courtmont — Actress. Sarah first meets Katherine briefly in a park when both are young children. They meet again at the boarding school and form a close, intense friendship that is destroyed when the school's staff suspect the relationship may have a sexual component. They meet a third time in New York City and become roommates, until Sarah betrays Katherine by stealing her fiance, Pete Burns.

Pete Burns — Actor. Early on the novel, Pete acts as a protective "big brother" figure for the child Katherine, looking after her as she attends Manya's plays or appears on stage herself. After Katherine returns to New York, the relationship blossoms into a romantic one, and they become engaged. Ultimately, Pete leaves Katherine for Sarah.

Felix Bodeway — Violinist (at the time of A Small Rain). Felix first encounters Katherine in New York City when Katherine has finished school and has Sarah Courtmont for a roommate. Felix is Sarah's boyfriend of sorts, a bohemian would-be violinist with aspirations to be a "window cleaner" — that is, to help people see beyond themselves. Katherine sees him as a "lightweight" (although she finds him much changed when she encounters him again fifty years later in the sequel, A Severed Wasp).