A House Like a Lotus by madeleine l/engle

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

This is one of the L'Engle books I struggle with the most - the blatant homophobia in particular. I've never understood the big climactic crisis between Max and Polly - my impression is always that Max got drunk and weird (which might be a little upsetting), but I just can't see any signs of seduction - I think that's just people transferring their own homophobic fears there...... The supposedly sympathetic characters (starting with Meg and Calvin) talk in hushed tones about Max being a lesbian like it's akin to pedophilia or being a serial killer. Not okay.

Also, I DO. NOT. GET. the character of Zachary Gray - I know he's supposed to be slick and attractive and all, but he just repels me, and I can't imagine why Polly O'Keefe (or Vicky Austin) ever gives him the time of day, much less spending all that time with him. L'Engle obviously saw some value in him as a character (or plot device) - maybe just because of the words she could put in his mouth - but I think he's awkward and out of place and completely unbelievable and utterly icky.

As an adult, I have to say that the relationship between Polly and Renny squicked me out too. She's 16 and he's an intern at the hospital (therefore, in his mid-to-late-20s at LEAST), and no one has a problem with them dating? Yeah right. I just can't handle that.

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mangaman123

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

It was very dense and boring. There were never any chapters to break up the story and it felt very confusing. I never quite understood what the real plot of the story was because usually her books are more exciting and there is something more concrete happening. But in this book it felt like I was just reading words that slowly moved me forward in an extremely bland way. I have loved all the previous Madeleine L'Engle books in this series, but just not this one.

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gamgades

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Maybe it's because I've done so much work with people who have a history of sexual abuse, but this book struck me as mostly being about would-be predators and actual predators. I don't care if it's 1984 or 1954 or 1864, it's still creepy for a dude in his mid- to late 20s to be dating a 16-year-old, and to seduce her when she's at her most emotionally vulnerable. The book's structure is also kind of nonsensical, and it is never wise to have the story you're telling in flashback be more interesting than the story of the present. The love interest in the present - Zachary Grey - is a creeper and also insufferable, and Polly herself (excuse me, Polyhymnia) has virtually no personality of her own. It's hard to root for her, or feel sympathy for her as she gallivants around the world or lives at home with her accepting parents on an island off the coast of South Carolina. And then there are the maybe-predatory lesbians with their deadly tropical diseases - I actually don't think this even is an AIDS metaphor, but if it is, it doesn't make any sense as one. Considering this is a later book for L'Engle, it almost seems like she took for granted the fact that people would read it. As an advertisement for travel to Greece or Cyprus - it's so great when you get to randomly leave school to take a gofer job at a conference of wordly writers! - it's A++. As a novel, it's a bit of a mess.

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BMartinaj

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Problematic at best.
Gave this one a go for the nostalgia factor of one of my childhood favourite authors. Give it a pass if you're pondering it.
I had to skip back several times because the main 'crisis' of the protagonist passed me by completely. An older same sex friend and mentor makes a pass at our young hero who is then all kinds of fucked up about it. About...what? I couldn't figure it out. It feels like L'Engle was trying out including sex and romance into her novels but it's a total fail. All the romantic interests are creepers or ridiculous or both. Even the first person narration left me without insight into Polly's motivations.
Disappointment all around.

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MayucchiYukie

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

This book just would not end.

I diverted through the O'Keefe Family Series in my reading of the Time Quintet. The tone in these was very different from the original Time series, but I didn't mind the adventure tone of the first two O'Keefe series books. Then, this book.

I loved Polyhymnia in the first book. In the second book, I found her mildly annoying. However, I do recognise that it takes a special writer to write books in which I can't stand the main character. (Jane Austen's Fanny Price, anyone?)

In this third book, I can comfortably say that I no longer find Poly annoying, I downright despise her. I despise her. I despise the self-indulgent tone of this book. I suppose this is one of those books that would be described as "coming of age"? It reads like the diary of a spoiled teenager who thinks too highly of herself, yet is determined to wallow in self pity. I guess that's what it is, but it felt more like the writer preaching from a soapbox rather than promoting any sort of narrative.

This was money poorly spent.

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Gluomme

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Wild and weird and somehow darkly wonderful, like several of Madeleine L'Engle's adult books.

The whole book is overshadowed by a sense of foreboding, because you know something has happened to Polly and you know the general genre of that thing (I.e. sexual trauma) but not what it is until much later. And Polly is sixteen and doesn't want to talk to her parents and it's making everything that much worse. Pros of this are that the adults are complex people who actually care about Polly and are dedicated to making her feel safe and loved. Cons of this, of course, are that we as readers feel disturbed and that something is wrong but don't get told what it is.

In the end, what Polly is most disturbed by is not what I'm most disturbed by but the combination of the two makes this book unsettling.

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Graygoose124

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Yet another L'Engle that did not disappoint. She just always is able to create characters you are invested in, put them in unique settings, and then explore important themes as these characters interact in these settings.

It's important to start by saying that this book, for me at least, should not be considered young adult fiction. I wouldn't recommend my children to read it until they are probably 16. But I would add that the themes and questions considered in this book (gender, sexuality, safe people, vulnerability, trust, maturity) are all more relevant than ever. This book, while published in 1984 (the year of my birth), is really a book for 2022, and I would recommend others to read it.

Ultimately, this book is about forgiveness, and how and when it can be offered even despite trauma. And while there were some tough parts of this book, the resolution was very hopeful in its picture of how forgiveness is a balm for the soul of the victim and the person who caused the harm. I appreciate L'Engle's boldness for tackling these issues, particularly back in 1984 when folks were not talking about them nearly as much as today. Then, as now, there aren't easy answers, and L'Engle never tries to offer any. But she reminds us that if we can find a safe community of support from parents and other loved ones, we will have the support we need to navigate the trials and traumas we might face in our lives.

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IAmOdie

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

As I've read and re-read Madeleine L'Engle's books in the last few years, I've found myself constantly struck by the maturity of the topics she deals with. Are they always dealt with in the way I might wish? No. The author is certainly a product of her time (which means, among other things, not finding statutory rape particularly disturbing), but I appreciate that L'Engle makes space for the complexity of the human story (in ways I think we struggle to in our current age, with its ironic tendency towards black-and-white thinking).

This book is definitely uneven. And as other reviewers have pointed out, it's problematic that the past is so much more compelling than the present in this story. And there are significant cringe moments and cringe characters. However, I think it does a good job of engaging the complexity and confusion of coming of age - of needing to navigate the world for oneself and decide what one will, or will not, take as one's moral compass.

I vaguely feel like I may have read this book before. But I'm not 100% sure. Certain elements felt familiar, others felt new.

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O'Keefe Family #3

A House Like a Lotus

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