A House Like a Lotus
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 A House Like a Lotus first edition |
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| Author | Madeleine L'Engle |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Muriel Nasser (hardback) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Polly O'Keefe |
| Genre(s) | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Released | November 1, 1984 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 308 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-374-33385-8 |
| Preceded by | Dragons in the Waters |
| Followed by | An Acceptable Time |
A House Like a Lotus (ISBN 0-374-33385-8) is a 1984 young adult novel by Madeline L'Engle. Its protagonist is sixteen-year-old Polly O'Keefe, whose friend and mentor, Maximiliana Horne, has sent her on a trip to Greece and Cyprus. As she travels, Polly must come to terms with a recent traumatic event involving Max. The history of Polly's relationship with Max is told in flashback over the course of the novel. The use of double quotes distinguishes the present, whereas single quotes indicate flashbacks from the past.
[edit] Major characters
- Polyhymnia "Polly" O'Keefe - nearly seventeen years old at the time of the novel, Polly describes herself as mature beyond her years in some ways, remarkably immature in others. She has red hair and blue eyes, is tall and thin, and recently cut her hair short. This is the first book in which she spells her nickname "Polly" instead of "Poly." She was named after the Greek muse of sacred music.
- Maximiliana Sebastiane Horne, better known as Max, is a successful artist (a painter) who recently returned to her Southern mansion, Beau Allaire. She has a tragic past, her mother and sister both having died young. Max blames her ruthless and lascivious father for both deaths. Max generally sees Polly as the daughter she could not have, her only child having died a few days after birth. Max was formerly married to David Tomassi, and after their divorce remained friends with him until his death. Prior to her illness, Max was well-traveled.
- Dr. Ursula Heschel, sometimes called Urs, is a gifted neurosurgeon, currently on sabbatical as she takes care of Max. She is a longtime friend and colleague of Polly's Uncle Dennys, apparently since he was in college. Ursula has been Max's lover and confidante for over thirty years.
- Sandy Murry is Polly's favorite uncle. Sandy is the twin brother of Dr. Dennys Murry, a neurosurgeon specializing in research; elder brother to Charles Wallace Murry, who does not appear in the novel (or in any of the O'Keefe books); and a younger brother to Polly's mother, Meg Murry O'Keefe. Sandy and his wife, Rhea, are "anti-corporate" lawyers, traveling the world to protect people from the rich and powerful. Sandy wears a beard, partly to distinguish himself from Dennys.
- Zachary Gray is a sometime college student, the only son of a rich, widowed businessman. Having recently been "dumped" by a girlfriend (about two years after the end of his relationship with Vicky Austin in A Ring of Endless Light), Zach is in Europe, wandering around as he reassesses himself and his priorities. Zach is charming, arrogant, impulsive and reckless, but also remarkably astute in his impressions about Polly. Of the three major crossover characters between the O'Keefe family and Austin family series of books (the others being Canon John Tallis and Adam Eddington), Zach is the only one who first appeared in the Austin books.
- Dr. Queron Renier, nicknamed Renny, is a cousin of Simon Renier, the protagonist of Dragons in the Waters. Renny is an intern at M.A. Horne Hospital, an assistant to Dr. Bart Netson, and Polly's first boyfriend, although she initially assumes that he thinks of her a a kid sister. Renny became interested in South American diseases partly as a result of a past relationship with a medical student from Chile.
[edit] Series notes
This is the third of four novels featuring Polly O'Keefe, the rest being, in order, The Arm of the Starfish (1965), Dragons in the Waters (1976) and An Acceptable Time (1989). A House Like a Lotus is the only one of the four written in first person. These books, collectively called the O'Keefe series, are themselves part of a larger series, the Murry-O'Keefe books. Polly is born shortly after the events of A Swiftly Tilting Planet, the last (by internal chronology) of four books about Polly's parents and uncles. Most of the Murry-O'Keefe books have elements of science fiction or fantasy or both. A House Like a Lotus has very little of this, however, just a fictional disease (Netson's Disease) and an incident in which Virginia Bowen Porcher shows signs of ESP when she correctly guesses that Polly is in danger. Judging by Polly's age, A House Like a Lotus takes place four years after The Arm of the Starfish, two years after Dragons in the Waters and a year before An Acceptable Time.
