"Of course. I've been watching that little space within your heart enlarging all year as more and more ideas are absorbed into it. Some people close their doors and lock them so that nothing can come in, and the space cannot hold anything as long as the heart clutches in self-protection or lust or greed. But if we're not afraid, that little space can be so large that one could put a whole universe in it and still have room for more.”

picked this up when i was a teenager. it was part of my growing up in such an integral way. in retrospect poly's relationship with max was formative and eye-opening. just everything about this is so Peak girlhood becoming womanhood, figuring out the rails on caring. and sandy and rhea <3

This is so tough for me to put a number on. It reveals the warts and failures of Madeleine L'Engle's views on subjects that are very much in the forefront today, and if you judge her by current standards--or even 21st Century standards--this book has major flaws.

The way a lesbian's relationship is described to his daughter when she is distressed to hear about it is loving and for many if not most people at that time, progressive and accepting. But not to 21st Century readers.

The mixed messages about what are appropriate and inappropriate sexual behaviour with a 16-year-old female are unenlightened and in the midst of today's earthshaking and long overdue #metoo movement, alarming.

I can read this as a 21st Century woman and mark it down for this, way down. In fact, trying to figure how far down to mark it confused me even more.

I believe that were Madeleine l'Engle alive today she'd be as progressive as she was for her time. The fact that the feminist and gay rights movements were already vocal and she could have/should have been exposed enough to them to have more enlightened views may be enough to make this book a big no for many readers.

The fact that when this book that was published in 1984 she was exposing the broad youth population to a warm and loving acceptance of lesbians as friends, mentors, protectors who were written in practical, human nonsteretypical fashion [until one horrifying exception] goes far with me, but certainly may not with others.

I have googled various reviews of this book including some recent ones. It's definitely a book that still gets attention. I've seen it loved, reviled, and met with a range of reactions between. It's a book I'd love to have as book club discussion book if I were in a book club. Since I'm not [nor do I want to be] I'd love to see how friends view it.

Note: I read about this book, along with Judy Blume's, in an article about the time when YA dealt with sex as a natural act that teenagers might explore as part of their maturing process without dire consequences. So I came into it with that specific thought in mind and having read it, wonder if the author of said article was reflecting the memories of what these books meant to her in her youth without a recent reread.

Finally, I read the theory that this book was never meant to be about Meg and Calvin's daughter Polly, but was originally meant to be about Vicky Austin. It's presumptuous to make such an assumption, but it's interesting for sure.

"This is not the brash, confident, more than occasionally tactless Polly O’Keefe of her two earlier appearances. Rather, this is a somber, doubtful Polly O’Keefe, unsure of her place in the world, unsure of what she wants to be when she grows up, enthralled with poetry. In fact, this is, in all respects, Vicky Austin, right down to the more beautiful, more popular younger sister—here transformed into a cousin Kate—and the brother she feels closer to. So close is the resemblance that I am more than half convinced that this book was originally meant to be the next book in the Austin series (which may help to explain why the always annoying Zachary Grey showed up to irritate readers in this book) until L’Engle realized that she just could not do certain things to Vicky, a character she very closely identified with."

https://www.tor.com/2012/02/23/the-ne...

Finally, editing to add that many have commented on the structure of the book as she goes back and forth between her time in Greece and the events that brought her there. I loved that aspect of it. We know something traumatic happened to her at home in South Carolina that she is hoping to assimilate and deal with in Greece. As each scene from the past is revealed, we are led or misled into what that betrayal might have been. As a suspense structure I thought it worked particularly well, and enhanced the telling of the story.

I tried to get into it twice without success before trying it a third time (I liked the previous books in the series after all), and devoured it. I liked it, it has poignant messages about trauma, healing, love, friendship, forgiveness, seeing people as people rather than labels. And nobody writes quite like L’engle. I love how she interweaves ideas and theories and science and theology into relatable stories with characters you want to root for and come to love for who they are, warts and all. I wouldn’t just hand it to anybody, though. There’s (brief) content you’d expect in a “coming of age” story, so that will hit different for different people.

This is a straight-up coming-of-age story, and one I had some issues with; but I don’t generally argue content when the writing and structure are good. The latter is especially so (meaning I kept reading to get to the flashbacks) and made for compelling reading; though after the end of the first part, when the secret of Polly’s hurting is revealed, I found it less so.

The subject matter, touching on homosexuality and teen sex, is for the oldest, or most mature, of teens. Polly is sixteen, a junior in high school, and she’s hanging out with twenty-something-year-old men; one with the encouragement of the adults in her life. (I especially had issues with some of the advice, not related to the young men, her ‘woke’ Uncle Sandy gives her.) The adults tell her she still has growing up to do (she tells herself that as well), yet she is given a lot of freedom, though most of what happens to her is (realistically) unknown to her parents.

I read this novel (along with its respective endnotes) in this edition: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

A House Like a Lotus is a coming of age story about Polly, who is the daughter of Meg Murry and Calvin O'Keefe from _A Wrinkle in Time_. It coterminously tells the story of Polly's life on Benne Seed Island in South Carolina, where she is befriended by her wealthy artist neighbor Max, and the time Polly later spends in Greece with a fascinating international cast of supporting characters.

Madeleine L'Engle was my favorite author from the time I was 9 to the time I was 16 or 17, and it is now in rereading her books as an adult that I see why. While the plot of this book is not complicated, L'Engle deals deftly with themes such as love and faith, and allows her characters to be complicated. Polly, her main character, for example, is not always sure why she believes and rarely sure that she is on the right path, and is more believable and more engaging for it. L'Engle is a professed Christian, but her characters go through events and express ideas that would hardly be accepted by the Christian mainstream. Furthermore, she, at the age of 66, in 1984, included GLBT characters in her book, and pretty much didn't make a big deal about the fact that she did. I find this pretty impressive.

Basically, I gave this book a 5 because I love it. It is the kind of book that entertains me but also speaks to me, and I am now off to reread more of Madeleine L'Engle's works.

Some light spoilers ahead, but I tried to refrain from really telling anything.

First, this book is not for kids unless you're prepared to discuss sex, consent, and people taking advantage of teens.

As background, Calvin and Meg are 41 years old now, and move back to the US for Calvin's job. They settle on another island, this time in South Carolina. Their 7 children are a little older now: Polly (16 years old), Charles (14), Sandy "Zan" (12?), Den (10?), Peggy (8), Johnny (6), and Rosie (4).

While the whole family is mentioned, this story is mostly about Polly's "coming of age." She makes friends with a bunch of much older people in South Carolina: Maxine and Ursula who are in their 50s, and a medical intern Renny that she's dating. He's the absolute worst person in this book in my opinion, but Polly doesn't seem to notice. Max encourages her to take a trip to Athens, where she meets a total creeper guy Zachary in his 20s. He's the second or third worst person in this book. Again Polly doesn't seem to notice. Instead she focuses on being mad at Max for basically no reason at all. The story flashes back and forth between her town in South Carolina and Athens.

There are a lot of issues with this book, the biggest is that it is SO MELODRAMATIC. Maybe that's perfect for teenage girls? Another problem is the super high number of creepy characters willing to hit on 16-year-old Polly. Polly is tall, but she makes it clear that she does not look like an adult, so it's not an innocent mistake. Given that this was written in the 1980s we can't blame culture for this disaster. Another issue is that a whole bunch of new characters are introduced about 70% of the way through the book. Nope, sorry, I can't care about new people this late in the game.

Nonetheless, if I grade it on a curve, it's the best in O'Keefe series, and maybe one of the better in the bigger Kairos series (which is the 8 books in the Time quintet + O'Keefe series). There are references to great books, and there are a few deep thoughts.

More of a spoiler: Netson's Disease is fictional but I'm not sure why, as there are plenty of parasites that injure the heart. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...

This book was so confusing. The big scene with Max didn't make any sense. They acted afterward like she tried to molest her or something?? But in the scene she doesn't?? It just says she got drunk and fell down?? I am so confused. After Max saying for pages and pages 'you're like my daughter.' And then to insinuate that she's trying to ?? what exactly?? It literally just says she fell down and reached out to Polly. That doesn't sound like anything. Anyone falling down would reach out??

THEN she loses her virginity to a DOCTOR who is 10 years older than her? They have unprotected sex. Which she NEVER reflects on???? She never. once. thinks 'Hmmm that was stupid, I could have got pregnant and I'm still in high school so that would maybe ruin my life.' No, no thoughts on that. Why does L'Engle waste an entire book on this badly written mentor betrayal plot then spend zero sentences on Polly's own thoughts on LOSING HER VIRGINITY to an older man she seemed to not even like that much? It's not like she was in love with him. She didn't even have feelings for him. And she said he thought of her as a sister. Why is every older person in Polly's life trying to have sex with her? It's unhealthy.

THEN OMIO, also 10 years older, flirts with her and kisses her and holds hands with her but IT'S HER FAULT FOR THINKING HE WANTS SOMETHING MORE THAN FRIENDSHIP. She's like 'Oh, i'm such a dumb girl, I was expecting too much. I can't be mad that he's married.' What?? In what universe is this okay? Everyone just taking advantage of a teenager but SHE'S the one who needs to adjust expectations and grow?

Zachary is the only one who is a reasonable age for her, and she seemed to actually like. But he's not boyfriend material because he's a terrible swimmer and sometimes has bad judgement? The only one who's age appropriate and wants to be committed? Tell me what I'm missing. It is so inappropriate to paint a 16 year old girl as too 'mature' for boys her own age and suggest she needs someone 10 years older. It's actually super toxic. The story should have placed her in college with age appropriate love interests. Bizarre.

Gah. This was seriously the probable worst book I've ever read. I picked it up praying it would be as wonderful and the Time quartet; it wasn't. Everything I loved about the quartet- the family themes, the love story without it being a romance, the purity, the amazing plot, how different it was- was lost in this book. There was none of the family love in this book, she fell for an arrogant jerk, was extremely unfaithful, there was no element of purity whatsoever throughout the book, and quite honestly there was no plot. There were hundreds of times I wanted to yell "You have no right whatsoever to be in the amazing family you were born into!" She sure didn't act like she cared about her family, and that was my favorite part of the Quartet. It was uninteresting and seemed very ordinary, and even the writing wasn't good. What happened to the writing I read in A Swiftly Tilting Planet? Beautiful, lyrical, poetic, able to make me laugh or cry. What happened to the loveable characters, what happened to the people I cared about? Instead we get Poly- one of the most irritating characters I have ever encountered.

I adore L'Engle, but this one falls flat. The Max/Polly plot element is clumsy; the handling of sexuality and alcohol are awkward and insensitive. What on earth? So Max gets drunk and Polly is upset? Renny takes advantage of the situation and has unprotected sex with a teenager? More bad decisions from Zachary? Age discrepancies between love interests in L'Engle novels are common, but it was thoroughly unsettling in this context.

As an aside: I really like the overlapping characters that wander between the Murray/O'Keefe and Austin family novels.

A House Like A Lotus is more like a strange after-school special than the expansive, complex philosophical coming-of-age novels that are L'Engle's best.

The third book in the life of Polly O'Keefe. This is less-action oriented and not a thriller, unlike the previous two books. It is the only one written in the first person, from the perspective of Polly, now a sixteen year old who has taken a summer job in Greece. It is more of a coming of age story.

This book is more about the exotic locales, history, and personal relationships. The suspenseful part of the story is told as a series of flashbacks regarding Max, a close friend of Polly's who is dying but also acted in an untoward way at their last meeting. A lot of crap is written on the internet about various SJW themes involved in the relationship, but the key point, again missed by fucking 90% of commentators is Polly's immense capacity to love, and unusually for a YA novel, the ambiguity and complexity of grown-up relationships.

It is the weakest installment of the tetra-ology but by no means bad... elements may go right over the head of young readers, but it is worth reading as an adult

I recently re-read the Wrinkle in time series, which I loved as a teen, then decided to try the O'Keefe books to see what happened to Meg and Calvin's children. Arm of the Starfish and Dragons in the Waters were interesting, but not the same as the fantasy of the Wrinkle in Time books. This one was so far from the first series, I didn't enjoy it much. I was surprised at all the adult themes that came up. Not appropriate for young adults at all, in my opinion.

I didn't realize this was #3 of books when I read it. Even if I read the other 2, I wouldn't be impressed.
I didn't get into the flashbacks. Too many of them, too many characters in 2 different places and I had a tough time keeping track of them all. I thought this was a love story of sorts- as one would surmise from the cover. It's not. There are a few romantic scenes and a sex scene with a 16 year old and a mid- 20's something year old. ?!? And there's this big attack of some sort that happens to the main character, but I didn't understand why this was such a big thing? Maybe I zoned out during that part?? Maybe there were implied things that happened that I missed? I don't know, but I didn't understand it. Then there's this Zachary guy that pops into the picture and seems too good to be true, then kind of dumb... And kayaking without life jackets?? Why?? I also wouldn't send my almost 16 year old across the world by herself to work at a conference, missing school for it. This was written in a different time, but still that would just be weird.
I kept reading it hoping it would get better but it didn't.