The Arm of the Starfish
Encyclopedia
The Arm of the Starfish is a young adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle
, first published in 1965
. It is the first novel featuring Polly O'Keefe
and the O'Keefe family, a generation after the events of A Wrinkle in Time
(1962). The plot concerning advanced regeneration
research puts this novel in the science fiction
genre, but it could also be described as a mystery thriller.
for a summer job working for a famous scientist, Calvin O'Keefe
. Even before he leaves JFK
airport, Adam is approached by Carolyn ("Kali") Cutter, the beautiful, well-traveled daughter of a rich American industrialist living in Europe. She warns Adam against yet another passenger, Canon Tallis. Tallis is accompanying Calvin O'Keefe's eldest daughter, 12-year-old Poly O'Keefe, to Geneva, but bad weather and mysterious dangers derail those plans. Instead, Adam finds himself shepherding Poly on a short flight from Madrid
to Lisbon
. When Poly uses the restroom during the flight, she seems to disappear from the airplane completely, and the flight crew denies she was ever on board. Kali's father, Typhon Cutter, later enables Adam to rescue Poly from her kidnappers, deepening Adam's confusion about whom to trust. As the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that at least two different factions have equally strong but differently motivated interests in Dr. O'Keefe's research on organ regeneration
. Adam faces a number of ethical dilemmas as he is forced to choose between these factions.
Eventually Adam realizes that the O'Keefes are the ones who care about "the fall of the sparrow," as their friend Joshua Archer puts it, a Biblical allusion to caring about others, even the seemingly weak and unimportant. Adam wants nothing further to do with Kali and her ruthless father, but the O'Keefes ask him to make a date with Kali anyway, so that Adam can act as a double agent
, passing along fake research papers to the Cutters and smuggling the real ones out to trusted people in Lisbon
. Adam reluctantly agrees. This plan is complicated, however, by Kali's unexpected claim that she has learned of her father's perfidy, and wants Adam to protect her and keep her confidences. Adam's attempt to do so makes it nearly impossible to pass on the real papers, hampered as he is by Kali's presence and spies from both sides. Eventually Joshua comes to Adam's rescue, but is shot dead; and Adam learns that Kali was acting on her father's behalf all along. The Cutters are not arrested.
Later, Adam goes back to the Cutters' hotel to retrieve his passport
from Kali. Playfully, she makes him chase her into the ocean, where she is attacked by a shark
. Adam uses a special knife Poly gave him to fight off the shark and get Kali to shore. O'Keefe uses his experimental knowledge about limb regeneration to help Kali.
Adam Eddington
Intelligent, principled and a bit naive, 16-year-old Adam Eddington is a biology major who has been interning at Woods Hole, Massachusetts
in the summers, until "Old Doc" Didymus sends him to work with Calvin O'Keefe instead. The Arm of the Starfish is Adam's first appearance in L'Engle's novels, and his only appearance in the O'Keefe series. He later appears in the Austin family novels A Ring of Endless Light
and Troubling a Star
.
Polyhymnia ("Poly") O'Keefe
12-year-old Poly is red-haired, and describes herself as having measurements of "twenty, twenty, twenty." Intelligent, inquisitive and loving, Poly speaks English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Gaean. The Arm of the Starfish is Poly's first appearance, as such, but Meg Murry O'Keefe was pregnant with her at the time of A Swiftly Tilting Planet. Her unusual first name was bestowed on her by Canon Tallis, after which the O'Keefes did not allow him to name their other children. In later books, Poly begins to spell her name Polly to avoid awkward explanations about being named after Polyhymnia
, the Greek muse
of sacred music, and to keep people from pronouncing it with a long o.
, Charles shows signs of having special mental abilities, much like Charles Wallace Murry, the uncle for whom he is named.
Canon John Tallis
Canon Tallis is a bald clergyman with no eyebrows, said to have lost his hair due to withstanding torture in Korea
. Brusque and incisive, and not at all pious by L'Engle's definition, he defies the conventional image of a priest, and seems more than a little sinister to Adam at first. An Episcopal Canon
, he is surprisingly adept (but not perfect) at navigating the dangerous waters of international intrigue. Canon Tallis reappears in the Austin family novel The Young Unicorns
, where he is attached to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, the same cathedral where Madeleine L'Engle was writer in residence for many years. He also appears in the second O'Keefe family novel, Dragons in the Waters. Tallis is nicknamed "Tom" or "Father Tom" because of the historical composer Thomas Tallis
, who wrote the Tallis Canon.
Dr. Calvin O'Keefe
Calvin O'Keefe is a marine biologist
, husband of Meg, and the father of seven children, the eldest of whom is Poly. Calvin first appeared in A Wrinkle in Time
, as a 14-year-old high school
junior, a popular and athletic but neglected adolescent from a family with 11 children. As an adult, Calvin is a loving and attentive father.
Margaret ("Meg") Murry O'Keefe
Meg O'Keefe is the former Meg Murry, who rescued her father from the planet Camazotz in A Wrinkle in Time. As of The Arm of the Starfish, she is a scientist and mathematician (albeit without a doctorate) who assists Calvin with his work, while also helping to raise her large family. In contrast to her awkward adolescence, she is described as "a tall, strikingly beautiful woman" as an adult.
, a name given to a number of deities considered "false gods" by the Hebrews in ancient times. The concierge at the Ritz Hotel is called Arcangelo
. Doc Didymus shares a name with the Apostle Thomas as well as the ecclesiastical writer Didymus the Blind
. There is even a special dolphin named after a famed 4th century Cappadoccian ascetic, Macrina, who apparently has two brothers Gregory (i.e. Saint Gregory of Nyssa) and Basil (i.e. Basil the Great of Caesarea). (The name Basil is later reused for another dolphin of Adam's acquaintance in A Ring of Endless Light
.) Macrina's mended fin evokes the historical Macrina's scar, which her brother Gregory writes about in his Life of Macrina. Canon Tallis is named after English liturgical composer Thomas Tallis
, and of course the name Adam is from Genesis. Classical names used in the book include Polyhymnia and the fictional Portuguese island of Gaea
, named for a Greek goddess associated with the Earth.
(1976), A House Like a Lotus
(1984), and An Acceptable Time
(1989). The Arm of the Starfish takes place about twelve to thirteen years after the events of A Swiftly Tilting Planet
, the last of the Time Quartet
of books about the Murry family. The Murry-O'Keefe books are said to take place in Kairos
time, as opposed to Chronos
or ordinary time. As such they cannot easily be pinned down as taking place in a particular year or even a particular decade. This is partly a problem of time continuity
, arising from the fact that the books were written over a period of several decades. However, L'Engle's use of the term Kairos (which she describes inside the front cover of Many Waters
as "real time, pure numbers with no measurement") suggests a religious connotation as well. The second generation O'Keefe books were written concurrently with the Time Quartet (eventually Time Quintet), with The Arm of the Starfish appearing just three years after A Wrinkle in Time
. The final book in the O'Keefe series, An Acceptable Time, is also the final book of the Time Quintet.
The Murry-O'Keefe books have further connections with other L'Engle titles. The Austin family books have three major crossover
characters in common with the O'Keefe books, two of whom are introduced in The Arm of the Starfish. Canon Tallis meets the Austins in The Young Unicorns
, which takes place a few months after Starfish. Adam Eddington meets Vicky Austin the following summer in A Ring of Endless Light
. The Austin family series is associated with Chronos instead of Kairos.
Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her young-adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time...
, first published in 1965
1965 in literature
The year 1965 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Lloyd Alexander - The Black Cauldron*J. G. Ballard - The Drought*Ray Bradbury - The Vintage Bradbury*John Brunner...
. It is the first novel featuring Polly O'Keefe
Polly O'Keefe
Polyhymnia O'Keefe is the protagonist of the Madeleine L'Engle novels A House Like a Lotus and An Acceptable Time, and a major character in two previous books, The Arm of the Starfish and Dragons in the Waters. The eldest daughter of Meg Murry O'Keefe and Dr...
and the O'Keefe family, a generation after the events of A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...
(1962). The plot concerning advanced regeneration
Regeneration (biology)
In biology, regeneration is the process of renewal, restoration, and growth that makes genomes, cells, organs, organisms, and ecosystems resilient to natural fluctuations or events that cause disturbance or damage. Every species is capable of regeneration, from bacteria to humans. At its most...
research puts this novel in the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
genre, but it could also be described as a mystery thriller.
Plot summary
The plot centers on a young marine biology student named Adam Eddington, who travels to the remote island Gaea off the coast of PortugalPortugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
for a summer job working for a famous scientist, Calvin O'Keefe
Calvin O'Keefe
Calvin O'Keefe is a major character in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet series of books, and, as "Dr. Calvin O'Keefe", an important character in her O'Keefe series of young adult novels. In an interview released on the DVD of the TV adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, L'Engle describes Calvin as "the...
. Even before he leaves JFK
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
airport, Adam is approached by Carolyn ("Kali") Cutter, the beautiful, well-traveled daughter of a rich American industrialist living in Europe. She warns Adam against yet another passenger, Canon Tallis. Tallis is accompanying Calvin O'Keefe's eldest daughter, 12-year-old Poly O'Keefe, to Geneva, but bad weather and mysterious dangers derail those plans. Instead, Adam finds himself shepherding Poly on a short flight from Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. When Poly uses the restroom during the flight, she seems to disappear from the airplane completely, and the flight crew denies she was ever on board. Kali's father, Typhon Cutter, later enables Adam to rescue Poly from her kidnappers, deepening Adam's confusion about whom to trust. As the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that at least two different factions have equally strong but differently motivated interests in Dr. O'Keefe's research on organ regeneration
Regeneration (biology)
In biology, regeneration is the process of renewal, restoration, and growth that makes genomes, cells, organs, organisms, and ecosystems resilient to natural fluctuations or events that cause disturbance or damage. Every species is capable of regeneration, from bacteria to humans. At its most...
. Adam faces a number of ethical dilemmas as he is forced to choose between these factions.
Eventually Adam realizes that the O'Keefes are the ones who care about "the fall of the sparrow," as their friend Joshua Archer puts it, a Biblical allusion to caring about others, even the seemingly weak and unimportant. Adam wants nothing further to do with Kali and her ruthless father, but the O'Keefes ask him to make a date with Kali anyway, so that Adam can act as a double agent
Double agent
A double agent, commonly abbreviated referral of double secret agent, is a counterintelligence term used to designate an employee of a secret service or organization, whose primary aim is to spy on the target organization, but who in fact is a member of that same target organization oneself. They...
, passing along fake research papers to the Cutters and smuggling the real ones out to trusted people in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. Adam reluctantly agrees. This plan is complicated, however, by Kali's unexpected claim that she has learned of her father's perfidy, and wants Adam to protect her and keep her confidences. Adam's attempt to do so makes it nearly impossible to pass on the real papers, hampered as he is by Kali's presence and spies from both sides. Eventually Joshua comes to Adam's rescue, but is shot dead; and Adam learns that Kali was acting on her father's behalf all along. The Cutters are not arrested.
Later, Adam goes back to the Cutters' hotel to retrieve his passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
from Kali. Playfully, she makes him chase her into the ocean, where she is attacked by a shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
. Adam uses a special knife Poly gave him to fight off the shark and get Kali to shore. O'Keefe uses his experimental knowledge about limb regeneration to help Kali.
Adam EddingtonAdam EddingtonAdam Eddington III is a major character in three young adult novels by Madeleine L'Engle. A marine biology student, he is the protagonist of The Arm of the Starfish , and a reluctant love interest for Vicky Austin in A Ring of Endless Light , a relationship that continues in Troubling a Star...
Intelligent, principled and a bit naive, 16-year-old Adam Eddington is a biology major who has been interning at Woods Hole, MassachusettsWoods Hole, Massachusetts
Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands...
in the summers, until "Old Doc" Didymus sends him to work with Calvin O'Keefe instead. The Arm of the Starfish is Adam's first appearance in L'Engle's novels, and his only appearance in the O'Keefe series. He later appears in the Austin family novels A Ring of Endless Light
A Ring of Endless Light
A Ring of Endless Light is a 1980 novel by Madeleine L'Engle. The book tells of a girl named Vicky and her struggle to understand life and significance in the universe as she deals with her dying grandfather, while at the same time finding love....
and Troubling a Star
Troubling a Star
Troubling a Star is the last full length novel in the Austin family series by Madeleine L'Engle. The young adult suspense thriller, published in 1994, reunites L'Engle's most frequent protagonist, Vicky Austin, with Adam Eddington, both of whom become enmeshed in international intrigue as they...
.
Polyhymnia ("Poly") O'KeefePolly O'KeefePolyhymnia O'Keefe is the protagonist of the Madeleine L'Engle novels A House Like a Lotus and An Acceptable Time, and a major character in two previous books, The Arm of the Starfish and Dragons in the Waters. The eldest daughter of Meg Murry O'Keefe and Dr...
12-year-old Poly is red-haired, and describes herself as having measurements of "twenty, twenty, twenty." Intelligent, inquisitive and loving, Poly speaks English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Gaean. The Arm of the Starfish is Poly's first appearance, as such, but Meg Murry O'Keefe was pregnant with her at the time of A Swiftly Tilting Planet. Her unusual first name was bestowed on her by Canon Tallis, after which the O'Keefes did not allow him to name their other children. In later books, Poly begins to spell her name Polly to avoid awkward explanations about being named after PolyhymniaPolyhymnia
Polyhymnia , was in Greek mythology the Muse of sacred poetry, sacred hymn and eloquence as well as agriculture and pantomime. She is depicted as very serious, pensive and meditative, and often holding a finger to her mouth, dressed in a long cloak and veil and resting her elbow on a pillar...
, the Greek muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
of sacred music, and to keep people from pronouncing it with a long o.
Charles O'Keefe
Charles O'Keefe is Poly's eldest younger brother, the closest to her in both age and companionship. Quiet, thoughtful and empathicEmpathy
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
, Charles shows signs of having special mental abilities, much like Charles Wallace Murry, the uncle for whom he is named.
Canon John TallisCanon TallisCanon John Tallis is a major character in the young adult novels of Madeleine L'Engle, appearing in four books. The character is based on L'Engle's real-life spiritual advisor, Canon Edward Nason West of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City....
Canon Tallis is a bald clergyman with no eyebrows, said to have lost his hair due to withstanding torture in KoreaKorean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. Brusque and incisive, and not at all pious by L'Engle's definition, he defies the conventional image of a priest, and seems more than a little sinister to Adam at first. An Episcopal Canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
, he is surprisingly adept (but not perfect) at navigating the dangerous waters of international intrigue. Canon Tallis reappears in the Austin family novel The Young Unicorns
The Young Unicorns
The Young Unicorns is the title of a young adult suspense novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is the third novel about the Austin family, taking place between the events of The Moon by Night and A Ring of Endless Light...
, where he is attached to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, the same cathedral where Madeleine L'Engle was writer in residence for many years. He also appears in the second O'Keefe family novel, Dragons in the Waters. Tallis is nicknamed "Tom" or "Father Tom" because of the historical composer Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century Tudor England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of England's early composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English...
, who wrote the Tallis Canon.
Dr. Calvin O'KeefeCalvin O'KeefeCalvin O'Keefe is a major character in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet series of books, and, as "Dr. Calvin O'Keefe", an important character in her O'Keefe series of young adult novels. In an interview released on the DVD of the TV adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, L'Engle describes Calvin as "the...
Calvin O'Keefe is a marine biologistMarine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
, husband of Meg, and the father of seven children, the eldest of whom is Poly. Calvin first appeared in A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...
, as a 14-year-old high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
junior, a popular and athletic but neglected adolescent from a family with 11 children. As an adult, Calvin is a loving and attentive father.
Margaret ("Meg") Murry O'KeefeMeg MurryMargaret "Meg" Murry O'Keefe is the main character and main protagonist in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet of Science fantasy novels, the daughter of two scientists, the sister of twins Sandy and Dennys Murry and telepath Charles Wallace Murry, and the mother of Polly O'Keefe and others in the...
Meg O'Keefe is the former Meg Murry, who rescued her father from the planet Camazotz in A Wrinkle in Time. As of The Arm of the Starfish, she is a scientist and mathematician (albeit without a doctorate) who assists Calvin with his work, while also helping to raise her large family. In contrast to her awkward adolescence, she is described as "a tall, strikingly beautiful woman" as an adult.Nomenclature
Many of the characters in The Arm of the Starfish are named after biblical or religious figures. The surname of the duplicitous Dr. Eliphaz Ball is initially misunderstood by Adam as BaalBaal
Baʿal is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu...
, a name given to a number of deities considered "false gods" by the Hebrews in ancient times. The concierge at the Ritz Hotel is called Arcangelo
Archangel
An archangel is an angel of high rank. Archangels are found in a number of religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Michael and Gabriel are recognized as archangels in Judaism and by most Christians. Michael is the only archangel specifically named in the Protestant Bible...
. Doc Didymus shares a name with the Apostle Thomas as well as the ecclesiastical writer Didymus the Blind
Didymus the Blind
Didymus the Blind was a Coptic Church theologian of Alexandria, whose famous Catechetical School he led for about half a century. He became blind at a very young age, and therefore ignorant of the rudiments of learning...
. There is even a special dolphin named after a famed 4th century Cappadoccian ascetic, Macrina, who apparently has two brothers Gregory (i.e. Saint Gregory of Nyssa) and Basil (i.e. Basil the Great of Caesarea). (The name Basil is later reused for another dolphin of Adam's acquaintance in A Ring of Endless Light
A Ring of Endless Light
A Ring of Endless Light is a 1980 novel by Madeleine L'Engle. The book tells of a girl named Vicky and her struggle to understand life and significance in the universe as she deals with her dying grandfather, while at the same time finding love....
.) Macrina's mended fin evokes the historical Macrina's scar, which her brother Gregory writes about in his Life of Macrina. Canon Tallis is named after English liturgical composer Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis
Thomas Tallis was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century Tudor England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of England's early composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English...
, and of course the name Adam is from Genesis. Classical names used in the book include Polyhymnia and the fictional Portuguese island of Gaea
Gaia (mythology)
Gaia was the primordial Earth-goddess in ancient Greek religion. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods and Titans were descended from her union with Uranus , the sea-gods from her union with Pontus , the Giants from her mating with Tartarus and mortal creatures were sprung or born...
, named for a Greek goddess associated with the Earth.
Series notes
The Arm of the Starfish is the first of four novels about Poly (later called Polly) and the O'Keefe family. The other three are Dragons in the WatersDragons in the Waters
Dragons in the Waters is a 1976 young adult murder mystery by Madeleine L'Engle, the second title to feature her character Polly O'Keefe. Its protagonist is thirteen-year-old Simon Bolivar Quentin Phair Renier, an impoverished orphan from an aristocratic Southern family...
(1976), A House Like a Lotus
A House Like a Lotus
A House Like a Lotus is a 1984 young adult novel by Madeleine 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...
(1984), and An Acceptable Time
An Acceptable Time
An Acceptable Time is a 1989 young adult science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, the last of her books to feature Polyhymnia O'Keefe, better known as Poly or Polly ,...
(1989). The Arm of the Starfish takes place about twelve to thirteen years after the events of A Swiftly Tilting Planet
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
A Swiftly Tilting Planet is a 1978 science fiction novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the Time Quartet. In it, Charles Wallace Murry, an advanced and perceptive child in A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, has grown into adolescence...
, the last of the Time Quartet
Time Quartet
The Time Quartet/Quintet is a fantasy/science fiction series of five young adult novels written by Madeleine L'Engle.Those novels are:*A Wrinkle in Time , , ISBN 0-374-38613-7*A Wind in the Door , ISBN 0-374-38443-6...
of books about the Murry family. The Murry-O'Keefe books are said to take place in Kairos
Kairos
Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment . The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special...
time, as opposed to Chronos
Chronos
In Greek mythology, Chronos in pre-Socratic philosophical works is said to be the personification of time. His name in Greek means "time" and is alternatively spelled Chronus or Khronos.Chronos was imagined as an incorporeal god, serpentine in form, with three heads—those of a man, a bull, and...
or ordinary time. As such they cannot easily be pinned down as taking place in a particular year or even a particular decade. This is partly a problem of time continuity
Continuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
, arising from the fact that the books were written over a period of several decades. However, L'Engle's use of the term Kairos (which she describes inside the front cover of Many Waters
Many Waters
Many Waters is a 1986 novel by Madeleine L'Engle, part of the author's Time Quartet . The title is taken from the Song of Solomon 8:7: "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it...
as "real time, pure numbers with no measurement") suggests a religious connotation as well. The second generation O'Keefe books were written concurrently with the Time Quartet (eventually Time Quintet), with The Arm of the Starfish appearing just three years after A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1962. The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and...
. The final book in the O'Keefe series, An Acceptable Time, is also the final book of the Time Quintet.
The Murry-O'Keefe books have further connections with other L'Engle titles. The Austin family books have three major crossover
Fictional crossover
A fictional crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, or because of unauthorized efforts by fans, or even amid common...
characters in common with the O'Keefe books, two of whom are introduced in The Arm of the Starfish. Canon Tallis meets the Austins in The Young Unicorns
The Young Unicorns
The Young Unicorns is the title of a young adult suspense novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is the third novel about the Austin family, taking place between the events of The Moon by Night and A Ring of Endless Light...
, which takes place a few months after Starfish. Adam Eddington meets Vicky Austin the following summer in A Ring of Endless Light
A Ring of Endless Light
A Ring of Endless Light is a 1980 novel by Madeleine L'Engle. The book tells of a girl named Vicky and her struggle to understand life and significance in the universe as she deals with her dying grandfather, while at the same time finding love....
. The Austin family series is associated with Chronos instead of Kairos.