Melody Murray's Books

I love the aunts in this book, and the literary games they play. I wonder how much of my literary character, if you will, was formed by early and frequent exposure to L'Engle. Though if that were true, I'd probably be a Christian as well, or at the very least a theist. This is a strange book, dark and full of allusions, mysterious and circular and disorienting. Like the protagonist, Stella, one is plunged into a complex and layered Southern family with a generous helping of racial tension and conflict. On balance though, this, like all the other L'Engle books, is about the redemptive power of love. This one's darker than most, and the shocking denouement is precisely that- shocking no matter how many times one reads it.One central quote never fails to make me weep."Only on love's terrible other side is found the place where lion and lamb abide.”