The Sea of Light (Plume Books) [Paperback]

Jenifer Levin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1994 | Series: Plume Books

The Sea of Light is a wise, beautiful, and very American story of three women and their desire to excel and win - and heal one another - in the highly charged world of athletic competition. Angelita is the hurricane that brings down a plane carrying a team of star-quality swimmers, groomed from childhood to compete at the international level. Babe Delgado is a young Cuban-American woman, presumed dead, who is rescued from the crash. Fifty-one hours in the Atlantic have left her scarred in body and spirit, afraid to compete again. Brenna Allen is a tough, driven swim coach at a small university, grieving for a lover lost to cancer. She finds solace in building her own winning team, driving her overworked captain, Ellie Marks, ever harder. Ellie is a child of holocaust survivors, struggling to own herself and her sexuality as hard as she's working to win. Brenna recruits Babe, promising to help her rebuild her damaged body, strength, and will. The Sea of Light is a story of wins, losses, and passions in a world where destiny and magic interfere with victory, where families are forced to reconcile with private hurts and false dreams, and where a redemptive, healing love between women - erotic and overwhelmingly intimate - stands in stark contrast to the expectations of the world. A sensitive, powerful tale of self-discovery, sexual identity, and violent emotions unleashed by sudden disaster, this novel is sure to command attention and acclaim.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Levin ( Water Dancer ) explores the interconnectedness of mind and muscle in this uncommonly expressive, sensual novel of three female athletes. Each character follows a cycle of pain, loneliness and rebirth; each applies a resolve born of years of physical and mental conditioning to the healing process. Brenna Allen, a steely swim coach at Northern Massachusetts State University, inspires her team's ambition, fear and resentment. As she pushes each swimmer to excel, she never admits that she is grieving for a longtime lover who has died of cancer, nor that her lover was a woman. Dynamic, solitary swim-team captain Ellie Marks knows she lacks the body structure of a top competitor, but she gives all her energy to swimming; otherwise, out of the water, she battles the fear of informing her parents, Holocaust survivors, that she is a lesbian. Cuban-American swimmer Mildred "Babe" Delgado, a onetime Olympic hopeful, comes to the university on a scholarship after surviving an oceanic plane crash that killed almost all of her teammates. Scarred, out of shape and dispirited, Babe needs Brenna's gruff encouragement and Ellie's companionship. Some of Levin's flourishes verge on melodrama, but her lyricism and compelling narrative more than compensate. With her sensitive depictions of lesbian sexuality, Levin might be the female counterpart of Paul Monette; her novel reverberates in the imagination long after the the reader has turned the final pages.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The lives of three women suffering from physical and emotional pain intertwine in this third novel by Levin ( Shimoni's Lover , LJ 9/15/87, and Water Dancer , LJ 8/82), which is set against the backdrop of collegiate competitive swimming. Brenna Allen is the swim coach whose tough exterior and desire to win belies her inner suffering at the death of her longtime lover, Kay. Babe Delgado is the only survivor of a plane crash in which her entire Olympic swim team has perished. Ellie Marks is Allen's protegee and captain of the swim team. No one would doubt the sincerity and sensitivity of this tale of lesbian and human relationships. But its message is marred by its length and slow tempo. It pokes along and never gets the edge necessary to sustain interest and engross the reader. For libraries wishing to add to their collections of gay and lesbian themes.
- Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Bay Area Cooperative Lib. System, Cal.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Plume (June 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452270596
• ISBN-13: 978-0452270596
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,990,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars [e-mail], August 9, 2000

By 

Sheryl Valentine "www.SherylValentine.com" (So. Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sea of Light (Plume Books) (Paperback)

I finished this book last night, and though I read an average of 120 books per year, this one is up there with my top five! It was incredible! I found it in a used book store and it looked interesting - I am not gay or an athelete for that matter, and yet I found everything about this book, the characters, their relationships, their insights...to be incredibly relevant to my own life...I especially loved the following passage: "Whatever we do that is hardest for us, is the thing we put our most into. Whatever we put our most into, like our time, and sweat and blood, well that is the thing we make our own. Because after a while it smells like us. It tastes like us. After a while it calls out our name." Don't you love it? Can't wait to read more of Ms. Levin's books. Thank you Jenifer!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant--one of the most moving love stories I've read, July 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sea of Light (Plume Books) (Paperback)

I first picked up The Sea of Light several years ago after being lucky enough to take a writing class with Ms Levin. To this day, the book is one of few on my shelf to which I return again and again. The characters leapt off the page, their story moved me to tears on several occasions. As they usually are, Kirkus is off target; the construction of the novel is nothing less than perfect, the characters round and complete, the story at once filled with joy and devastation---as life always is. If you have not read this book, take the phone off the hook and don't plan on going anywhere until it's finished. You won't be able to put it down.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Begs for a film...but begs to be read and savored first!, January 4, 1999

By 

P. Kurkowski (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sea of Light (Plume Books) (Paperback)

This book, in short, was the most memorable read for me in 1998. And I read quite a bit. I've heard before that a sign of a really good book is how it affects you once you put it down. Well, with this book, I never wanted to put it down. An amazing story of hope, in the end. Hope to heal old wounds, hope to find new love, and the hope to rebuild and reinforce the nature of our inconquerable souls -- all of us. The venue is the sport of competitive swimming, which paints and shades a lot of what happens throughout the novel.. I am enamored of this story so much, I just hope the author can answer me one question: why has your work not been adapted to film? It should be...I even have a handle on who should take the leading role, for example: Allison Folland would make a touching, and quite believable, Babe. If you'd let me, Ms. Levin, I'd like to make your book into one helluva of a film! Thank you and bless you for such a transforming piece of writing!