
And that's where my pleasure ends. I loved, no adored!, L'Engle's non-fiction exploration of the book of Genesis. And It Was Good, A Stone for a Pillow, and Sold Into Egypt are far more intimate and interesting than these novels for the quartet. And because of my adoration for both the Genesis Trilogy and A Wrinkle in Time I am so disappointed that I could not and did not like the rest of the Quartet more.
Before reading Many Waters I did not know that it would be a visit to the story of Noah and the Ark. The copy of the Quartet I have is a four-in-one volume and I had removed the dust jacket intentionally going into each volume in blissful ignorance. And I give mild kudos to L'Engle for not immediately identifying the Biblical context for this final book. However, as soon as I read the names Lamech and Japheth I knew immediately who "the father" was. The rest of the story was so boring and predictable. I am not referring to the fact that Noah is called to build the Ark. Of course, that is predictable. I refer to the details which L'Engle had to add to flesh out the stories, especially the roles that each of the women, who remain unnamed in the Bible, and how their stories would play out.
Also, as a mother of multiples, I was hugely disappointed that Sandy and Dennys were so interchangeable. What little difference there is in their personalities is completely negated by how identical they are in their responses to their experiences. The only time either of them responds differently to a person is only the result of the brief separation the twins experience. And that they were both attracted to the same woman was not very believable. Although some twins are attracted to the same type of person, most I have met and known have been very different in their personal tastes. Especially when it comes to sexual attraction.
I think that, ultimately, my appreciation for L'Engle's non-fiction has overshadowed her fiction narrative to such a degree that I cannot enjoy her imagination. If I were to choose to read more of her young adult fiction or turn to her Crosswick's Journals I would simply have to choose the latter. Unfortunately, after finishing the quartet, I have lost my taste for L'Engle and think I'll just move on. At least for now.