The one where the heroine is almost raped by her lesbian mentor is A House Like a Lotus. Truly a scarring scene.
The Arm of the Starfish is the one where the moral atheist gets shot in a cathedral and dies in the arms of a canon with the word "God" on his lips. (Is it a cathedral? Did my memory just at that for extra drama?) This happens in front of his newfound BFF Adam who is profoundly scarred, because, IIRC, Adam is in some way responsible, having told something to a beautiful girl that he should not have shared. Then the beautiful girl nearly loses an arm to a shark attack and the only way to save it is for the doctor friend of the moral atheist to make use of his starfish research (because starfish regrow their limbs!) and Adam is appalled that the doctor willingly does so, but also oddly inspired by this example of redemptive forgiveness.
(Given the themes of redemptive forgiveness, I always wanted Zachary to make some movement toward becoming a better person, but if he didn't manage it in An Acceptable Time then clearly he just never did.)
It's been years since I read either of these books. L'Engle was just very good at writing books that stick in one's head forever.
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The Arm of the Starfish is the one where the moral atheist gets shot in a cathedral and dies in the arms of a canon with the word "God" on his lips. (Is it a cathedral? Did my memory just at that for extra drama?) This happens in front of his newfound BFF Adam who is profoundly scarred, because, IIRC, Adam is in some way responsible, having told something to a beautiful girl that he should not have shared. Then the beautiful girl nearly loses an arm to a shark attack and the only way to save it is for the doctor friend of the moral atheist to make use of his starfish research (because starfish regrow their limbs!) and Adam is appalled that the doctor willingly does so, but also oddly inspired by this example of redemptive forgiveness.
(Given the themes of redemptive forgiveness, I always wanted Zachary to make some movement toward becoming a better person, but if he didn't manage it in An Acceptable Time then clearly he just never did.)
It's been years since I read either of these books. L'Engle was just very good at writing books that stick in one's head forever.