An Acceptable Time - Series Notes

Series Notes

Polly's grandparents, Kate and Alex Murry, were first introduced in A Wrinkle in Time, the first book in the Time Quartet, but were not initially given first names. A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet are primarily about Polly's mother, Meg Murry (later Meg Murry O'Keefe) in her teen years and young adulthood, and about Meg's brother Charles Wallace Murry. The other volume in the Time Quartet, Many Waters, is about Polly's other uncles on her mother's side, Sandy and Dennys Murry. Together with the four books in which Polly appears, they are known as the Murry-O'Keefe books.

Crossover characters Canon Tallis (who was responsible for Polly's unusual first name), Zachary Gray, and Adam Eddington (who met "Poly" in The Arm of the Starfish) connect the Polly O'Keefe books to Madeleine L'Engle's series about the Austin family. In An Acceptable Time, Zachary makes specific reference to his desertion of Vicky Austin at the end of A Ring of Endless Light.

An Acceptable Time is the continuation and culmination of both the Time Quartet and the O'Keefe series (The Arm of the Starfish, Dragons in the Waters and A House Like a Lotus), with references to many places and events from previous books. Alex Murry's interest in the space/time continuum, which led to the events of A Wrinkle in Time, is revisited in depth here. Kate Murry comments on her daughter Meg having had too low an opinion of herself, as seen in A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door; Kate's research in subcellular biology, a major component of A Wind in the Door, is also mentioned repeatedly. The snake Louise the Larger and her human counterpart, Dr. Louise Colubra, both introduced in A Wind in the Door, return in An Acceptable Time. Sandy Murry is quoted as having said that "some things have to be believed to be seen", a lesson he learned in Many Waters. There is also a reference to Kate Murry's lab being twice tampered with in the beginning of the book, clearly referencing the actions of Sandy and Dennys of "Many Waters", although the Murrys attribute the break-in to some "local kids". Last but not least, Polly's experience with the People of the Wind is consistent with Charles Wallace's interactions with the same tribe in A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

As for Polly's own past adventures, she refers repeatedly to Gaea, her home in The Arm of the Starfish, and mentions the Quiztano people from Dragons in the Waters. An Acceptable Time takes place about six months after Polly's trip to Greece and Cyprus in A House Like a Lotus. In the interim, her friend Max has died. and Polly is still grieving. It is implied that one of the reasons she has left fictional Benne Seed Island to study with her grandparents is that Max's death has left her with painful memories of her island home.