A Live Coal in the Sea

Last updated
A Live Coal in the Sea
A Live Coal in the Sea.jpg
Author Madeleine L'Engle
LanguageEnglish
Series Camilla Dickinson
Publisher Farrar Straus Giroux
Publication date
1996
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages336 pp
ISBN 0-06-065286-1
OCLC 49916940
Preceded by Camilla Dickinson  

A Live Coal in the Sea, written by Madeleine L'Engle and published in 1996, is the sequel to Camilla Dickinson (also published as Camilla), one of L'Engle's earliest novels. While Camilla Dickinson was written for a young adult audience, A Live Coal in the Sea is an adult novel. It continues the story of Camilla Dickinson as a college student, her marriage, her family and the problems that follow. The story is told by an aged Camilla to her granddaughter, who is seeking answers about her family.

Contents

The title comes from a line in William Langland's Piers Plowman : "All the wickedness in the world that man might do or say was no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped in the sea." [1]

Plot summary

Camilla celebrates a long and wonderful life with her friends and family when she is presented with an award for lifetime achievement. But her son's snide comments at the event stir up trouble which led to Camilla's granddaughter, Raffi, demanding answers about her family history. Camilla relives her younger days as she attempts to give Raffi the answers she seeks.

Camilla's story begins when she is an astronomy student in college. Her life has been peaceful until her mother, Rose, visits her on campus and promptly has sex with one of her professors, which Camilla accidentally sees. As she tries to get away, she bumps into a young man named Mac Xanthakos, who is volunteering at a local church, while training to be an Episcopalian priest. Mac invites Camilla in to talk and have a cup of tea, at which point, Camilla sadly explains about her mother. This event leads to a friendship between Camilla and Mac. A romance blooms between the pair but Mac suddenly pulls away. Camilla is left saddened and confused. She continues her education and devotes herself to her work. Then suddenly, Mac reappears and asks Camilla to marry him. Camilla accepts.

Mac introduces Camilla to his wonderful and wise parents. They accept Camilla as their own daughter and Camilla begins to feel like she belongs with them. She and Mac are married and Mac begins to work at a church in a small town. Camilla becomes pregnant. The happiness ends in devastation when Camilla's pregnancy ends in miscarriage. Her pain is deepened when Camilla's parents announce they are expecting another child. Camilla becomes pregnant a second time. But once again disaster strikes. Rose is in a car accident and is killed. Before she dies, doctors are able to deliver her baby by c-section. The baby, a boy, needs a blood transfusion and Rafferty attempts to donate. When doctors compare the blood types, they discover a terrible truth. The baby is not Rafferty's. The true father of the baby is unknown.

Rafferty is driven nearly insane by combined grief and anger. He begs Camilla to take the child and raise it, with the promise that he pay for all the costs of the baby. She and Mac agree to raise the baby and name it Artaxias, who is quickly nicknamed Taxi. Camilla even decides to breast feed Taxi. A few months later, their daughter is born and named Frankie. Camilla and Mac raise Taxi as their own child and as Frankie's brother. But their idyllic bliss is shattered after a few years. Red Grange, Camilla's former professor, appears and claims that Taxi is his son. He 'proves' his paternity with a letter from Rose that states that he is the father. Red gains legal rights to Taxi and takes him from Camilla and Mac.

Years pass and Camilla and Mac do not know how to move past the loss of their surrogate son. Frankie is confused by the loss of her brother and constantly prays he will come back to them. Finally Taxi is returned but only after several years have passed and Red and his second wife have been killed in a car crash. But Taxi has changed and no longer remembers Camilla, Mac or Frankie. He is angry, rude, tough and very confused about his identity. Camilla and Max do their best to raise Frankie and Taxi but the problems are endless. Taxi tries desperately to distance himself from Red Grange and his past. He longs to be Camilla and Mac's true son but is constantly reminded by the world that he is not. He frequently acts out and disrupts their home. Frankie is confused by her changed brother and pours herself into her artwork.

Camilla flashes forward to the future and explain to Raffi that nothing changed. Taxi became a soap-opera star, married and had one child, Raffi. Taxi is still hurting because of his past and still confused about his identity. Frankie still pours her emotion into her art and has become a successful artist. Although the past may be gone and over with, it is still affecting the family and their future.

Raffi accepts Camilla's story but is amazed when she accidentally discovers a missing piece in the puzzle. Red Grange was not Taxi's father. Red's son is Taxi's real father. Raffi is excited by this discovery and eagerly tells Taxi. Raffi believes her father will be happy to know that his father is not horrible Red Grange. Taxi instead lashes out and Raffi runs to Camilla for an explanation. Camilla simply says to give it time and Taxi will eventually calm. Raffi believes Camilla and despite the evidence otherwise, accepts Camilla as her one true grandmother.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madeleine L'Engle</span> American writer (1918–2007)

Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young adult fiction, including A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science.

<i>A Wrinkle in Time</i> 1962 science fantasy novel by Madeleine LEngle

A Wrinkle in Time is a young adult science fantasy novel written by American author Madeleine L'Engle. First published in 1962, the book won the Newbery Medal, the Sequoyah Book Award, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. The main characters – Meg Murry, Charles Wallace Murry, and Calvin O'Keefe – embark on a journey through space and time, from galaxy to galaxy, as they endeavor to rescue the Murrys' father and fight The Black Thing that has intruded into several worlds.

A Wind in the Door is a young adult science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is a companion book to A Wrinkle in Time and part of the Time Quintet.

<i>A Ring of Endless Light</i> 1980 book by Madeleine LEngle

A Ring of Endless Light is a 1980 novel by Madeleine L'Engle. The book tells of teenager Vicky Austin and her struggle to understand life and significance in the universe as she deals with her dying grandfather, while at the same time finding true romantic love. The title originates from a phrase in the seventeenth-century Welsh poet Henry Vaughan's poem "The World."

<i>The Arm of the Starfish</i> 1965 novel by Madeleine LEngle

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.

<i>Meet the Austins</i> 1960 novel by Madeleine LEngle

Meet the Austins is the title of a 1960 novel by Madeleine L'Engle, the first of her books about the Austin family. It introduces the characters Vicky Austin and her three siblings, and Maggy Hamilton, an orphan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bion Barnett</span> American banker (1857–1958)

Bion Hall Barnett was an American banker. In 1877 he co-founded Barnett Bank, known as "Florida's Bank", the largest in the U.S. state of Florida at the time of its acquisition by NationsBank in 1997.

Victoria "Vicky" Austin is one of Madeleine L'Engle's frequently used fictional characters, appearing in eight books and referred to in at least one more. She is the protagonist of the Austin family series of books being the first person narrator of Meet the Austins, The Moon by Night, A Ring of Endless Light, Troubling a Star, and the picture book The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas. A developing poet and writer, Vicky observes the everyday events in her large family, dates several boys, communicates with dolphins, faces the occasional mortal danger, and reflects on important issues about life and death, faith and family as she gradually comes of age.

<i>The Moon by Night</i> 1963 young adult novel by Madeleine LEngle

The Moon by Night (ISBN 0-374-35049-3) is the title of a young adult novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Published in 1963, it is the second novel about Vicky Austin and her family, taking place between the events of Meet the Austins (1960) and The Young Unicorns (1968), and more or less concurrently with the O'Keefe family novel The Arm of the Starfish. The book marks the first appearance of the character Zachary Gray, who dates first Vicky and then Polly O'Keefe. Although Vicky will later appear in three novels that have fantasy and/or science fiction themes, there are no such elements in The Moon By Night.

<i>The Small Rain</i> Book by Madeleine LEngle

The Small Rain is a semi-autobiographical novel by Madeleine L'Engle, about the many difficulties in the life of talented pianist Katherine Forrester between the ages of 10 and 19. Published in 1945 by the Vanguard Press, it was the first of L'Engle's long list of books, and was reprinted in 1984. L'Engle began work on it in college, and completed it while an actress in New York.

<i>A Severed Wasp</i> 1982 novel by Madeleine LEngle

A Severed Wasp (1982) is a novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It continues the story of a pianist, Katherine Forrester, who was first seen in The Small Rain. Now a widow in her seventies, Katherine Forrester Vigneras returns to New York City in retirement from concert touring in Europe. There she encounters Felix Bodeway, an old friend from her Greenwich Village days, who is now the retired Episcopal Bishop of New York. He asks Katherine to give a benefit concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It turns out to be an unexpected challenge, full of new friends and mysterious dangers.

Madeleine L'Engle, an American novelist, diarist and poet, produced over twenty novels, beginning with The Small Rain (1945), and continuing into the 1990s with A Live Coal in the Sea (1996). Many of her fictional characters appeared in more than one novel, sometimes in more than one series of novels. Other major characters are the protagonists of a single title. This article provides information about L'Engle's most notable characters.

<i>Time Quintet</i> Five young adult science fantasy novels by Madeleine LEngle

The Time Quintet is a fantasy/science fiction series of five young adult novels written by Madeleine L'Engle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Cunningham</span> Fictional character from Hollyoaks

Tom Cunningham is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Ellis Hollins. He made his first appearance during the episode broadcast on 28 December 1999. With Tom being a young child for most of his tenure, his early years featured minimal storylines, including the numerous death of his family, being abused by Clare Devine and having various guardians including Steph Cunningham and Jack and Frankie Osborne. However, a turning point came for Tom when it was announced that his girlfriend, Peri Lomax would fall pregnant, and deal with Peri's subsequent decision to give their baby away for adoption. Other storylines have also included his friendships with Nico Blake and Dylan Jenkins and his relationships with Peri and his foster sister Jade Albright.

<i>And Both Were Young</i> Book by Madeleine LEngle

And Both Were Young is a novel by Madeleine L'Engle originally published in 1949. It tells the story of an American girl at boarding school in Switzerland, not long after World War II, and the relationship she develops with a French boy she meets there, who cannot remember his past due to trauma he suffered in the war.

<i>Camilla Dickinson</i> 1951 novel by Madeleine LEngle

Camilla Dickinson is a 1951 novel by Madeleine L'Engle about the first romance of two teenagers from dysfunctional families in New York City. In 1965, it was republished in slightly different form under the title Camilla.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sable Colby</span> Soap opera character

Sabella "Sable" Scott Colby is a fictional character from the ABC television series Dynasty and its spin-off The Colbys, both created by Richard and Esther Shapiro. Portrayed by Stephanie Beacham, the character was introduced on Dynasty in the November 1985 two-part episode "The Titans" as the socialite wife of wealthy California CEO Jason Colby. Beacham was subsequently a series regular on The Colbys for two seasons from 1985 to 1987. She reappeared as Sable on Dynasty for its ninth and final season from 1988 to 1989.

Lilian Darcy is popular Australian writer of over 75 medical romance novels since 1981.

<i>The Stonecutter</i> (novel)

The Stonecutter is a 2005 novel, a psychological thriller by Camilla Läckberg. It was translated by Steven T. Murray in 2008. It tells the story of a seven-year old girl who was drowned. A parallel story is about a stonecutter in the 1920s. The connection with the recent crime is only revealed towards the end.

References