Reviews for Live Coal in the Sea

The average rating for Live Coal in the Sea based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-01-04 00:00:00 June Herron I think way back when I was a teen and looking for the L'Engle books I had missed, I saw this one and passed it over. The teen romantic in me wanted Camilla to end up with her first love, and that she would marry someone else seemed like a betrayal. I know more now (thank goodness) and so when I rediscovered this sequel to "Camilla," right after I had finished re-reading that book with an adult perspective, I was thrilled. Here it was, the "Camilla" for adults. I had to read it right away. It's not one of L'Engle's best books. The plot jerks around, in that the central mysteries turn out not to to be very mysterious at all. It's a good exploration of character, though, and specifically of characters dealing with love and marriage. It's one person telling a story to another, with another person telling a story wrapped inside, kind of like Arabian Nights. L'Engle is able to latch onto the universal essence of desire for love and companionship and all of the things that can tear those things asunder. One thing that bothered me, though, was the idea that Camilla was a brilliant professor, mother and housewife all at the same time. It seemed incredibly unreal, especially that her husband Mac doesn't seem to be expected to help in the arena of the house and any details of the balance of her life are skimmed over quickly. Reading "A Circle of Quiet" has helped put some of that in perspective. It's interesting, how L'Engle can be so progressive and old and conformist at the same time. She writes about her guilt over not being a good housewife. And while it seems like a part of her knows that she shouldn't use this to validate her worth, she still believes in this image of woman as the domestic goddess in her solitary domain. A lot of this book is about marriage, but also on all the ways our parents mess us up, as the two things seem to be tied up together. While marriage seems to require grace (forgiveness, I think Elizabeth Gilbert would call it) being a daughter seems to require the ability to move on. Maybe the book suggests that that is a harder kind of grace, because one can never choose one's parents.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-02-08 00:00:00 Kenneth Finto 'But all the wickedness in the world which man may do or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped in the sea.' William Langland This is the quality story one expects from a master. L'Engle displays the height of her storytelling in this very adult tale about the reverberations secrets and lies can cause those protected and those who think they are protecting. 'Well, it seems very peculiar that God or evolution should make creatures that see upside down and then have to reverse everything. Is there a reason?' 'It's just the way it is.' 'Like life. Upside down.' Decidedly non-linear. Convoluted sequel to Camilla, written thirty years earlier. Few authors have L'Engle's gift for segueing through time and point of view. Numerous shifts between numerous point-of-view characters and timeline without losing the attentive reader. (The casual reader is hereby forewarned.) 'When two people, lovers, or sometimes friends, have an enduring care for each other, allow each other to be human, faulted, flawed, but real, then being human becomes a glorious thing to be.' Camilla's voice is that of a Ph.D. who is more at home at a lectern than with her own family. Didactic. Many sermons on just about every subject. Many autobiographical references, though the reader need know nothing about L'Engle. Not even necessary to have read Camilla. 'Once upon a time we used to be so happy.' 'That time is gone, my darling. We have to live where we are now, somehow trying to clean up the mess.'