This packs an unexpected punch. I had written this book off as belonging to the "not-so-great" category that some of L'Engle's lesser-known books for teens sadly fall into, but despite the difficulty I had getting into the story initially, in the end it surprised me. After spending weeks dipping into it, then being distracted by other, shinier books, I consumed the last third in a single day, and even found myself tearing up at the soliloquy on love and loss. Even when not at her best, Madeleine knows how to unfold her wisdom in a way that kicks you in the gut and also (somehow) strengthens your faith in humanity.And this is not her best. It was better than I'd expected--there is some delicious tension in the climactic scene in the city, and a few twists I didn't see coming and then realized I should have--but it is not without flaws. The pacing felt uneven, but in fairness that could be because of my stop-and-go reading. My biggest complaint was with Adam's character development. He spends the majority of the novel dithering over who to side with: the "patriotic" tycoon and his alluring daughter, or Doctor O'Keefe (yes, THAT O'Keefe! Awkward li'l Calvin done growed up!) and his brood of precocious redheads. Even without background knowledge of the characters from A Wrinkle in Time --Which, honestly, you probably have if you're bothering to read this book--it's pretty obvious to the Reader which are the good guys. I mean, one is flanked by dark-suited thugs in sunglasses, the other sings and heals little girls in his free time.Yet, though the choice seems an obvious one, we are given no clear reason why Adam finally throws his lot in with the O'Keefe clan, aside from their being decent likeable people. After so much time spent on his indecision, I would have wished for a more dramatic tipping point. I did like the theme of Adam's sudden thrust into adulthood--how leaving home and traveling the world alone, without the aid or supervision of parents or mentors to lean on, becomes an education in making huge, life-altering decisions for himself, as well as in marine biology. From the initial scene at the airport to the heart-pounding race through the city, we see Adam grow from a lost, bewildered kid to a strong person willing to take risks and make sacrifices--still lost, maybe, but at least knowing the destination. His bewilderment, and later blooming confidence as he meets each challenge, felt very human and familiar; the only book, in fact, besides The Hobbit that so exactly captures my own experience traveling alone for the first time.And one more note... it was delightful, just delightful, to meet Canon Tallis again. The priest/secret agent may well be the coolest character in L'Engle's gallery. He should have his own miniseries--Bond, Poirot and MacGyver COMBINED couldn't top this guy for sheer awesome factor.
First of all, ADAM EDDINGTON OMG. I LOVE Adam. He is easily in the top five characters in all of L'Engle's books. He's also the anti-Zachary Gray; his appearance in a book is an automatic plus a million, while Zachary is an automatic minus a million. (Commander Rodney should have let him drown in Ring. And since he didn't, Poly should have let him drown in Lotus. Third time the charm?*)Anyway, Starfish is a lot of fun. Adam spends a bit too much time trying to make up his mind about whose side to be on, but he doesn't have the benefit of having read the previous books about Meg and Calvin, so it's realistic. It's nice to fantasize about being a spy and having awesome countersigns from Robert Frost poems, but when it starts actually happening around you and you don't know whom to trust...I think Adam's hesitancy is more or less how most of us really would react in his shoes.For characters, while we don't get much of Meg and Calvin, we do get Canon Tallis and Poly, and the sadly short-lived Joshua. So all in all, Starfish is a fun read. I recommend it.*This tangent is wholly irrelevant, but: I can't think of many other fictional characters I pure hate as much as Zachary Gray. There are characters I love to hate, like Lucius Malfoy, and there are villainous characters for whose deaths I gleefully root, like Larry on Burn Notice, but there aren't many characters that are so repellent and vile that I can't even stand to read about them. Zachary Gray is one. Man, I pure hate that guy.
What do You think about The Arm Of The Starfish (1979)?
I never quite got to the O'Keefe Family stories back in Germany. I notice that these stories so far, though using females to push along the story on both side of the fight, this story at least places the boys in control. The women are helpmeets and protectresses and tools for manipulation rather than intelligent beings. I hope that the second story rights this somewhat. Adam steps into an airport and a world of intrigue. I wonder at the role of a 16 year old playing as a man because he is going to do this scientific work. I understand she wanted to keep it YA and needed an excuse to move the story to a remote place, also isolating the boy from his parents, but the whole. I am a man because I am 16 was a bit much, even if we excuse the time lag between now and when the story was written a decade or more before. I did enjoy the story. I though it slightly odd that Meg had named her children to match her own brothers and sisters. It makes it a little odd to find you are bumping into mirrors of children from the past. Where is Poly going to go from here as she grows though and what happened to the cosmic battle?
—Rebekah
The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle is the story of a young man named Adam Eddington who has landed a summer job abroad with a renowned marine biologist, Dr. Calvin O'Keefe. Due to unforeseen circumstances he winds up caught in the middle of an international conspiracy between Dr. O'Keefe and those that would steal his work. Adam must figure out who he can trust and decide whose side he wants to be on, but this decision is not as simple as he would like.This book was an ok read. It was mostly a mystery thriller type novel with some light science fiction mixed in. The scientific concepts presented in the book were very interesting and there was a good bit of action as well. I'm not sure I entirely liked where the book ended though and felt it could have done with one more chapter to provide some additional closure, but I suppose the author wanted to leave that up to the reader's imagination. This book crosses over with L'Engle's Time Quintet series and features characters from that series, but all grown up with children of their own. This book takes place between books four and five of the Time Quintet and while it's not necessary to read the first four books before reading this book, I would recommend reading this book before reading the fifth book of the Time Quintet.
—Kythe42
I read this book many years ago, and only had a fairly vague memory of the story before picking it up to re-read now. I did enjoy the book, but not as much as the novels in the associated 'Time' series. I felt that the main character Adam spent so much time feeling confused, and thinking about feeling confused, that the other characters became very peripheral. Ms. L'Engle did tend to focus on one character fairly heavily in most of her books I've read to date, but this one seemed more marked. I found myself wanting to spend more time getting to know the other characters, and living some of their parts in the story, and was frustrated we kept going around and around Adam's own recurring doubts instead. I'm none-the-less glad I read the book, with it's tiny little window into the lives of Meg and Calvin years after their adventures in 'A Wrinkle in Time'. I also feel the general theme which explores the mores and moralities around the use of scientific discoveries, is an excellent 'thinking' topic for young readers.
—Anne Seebach
