The Adventures of Flash Jackson: A Novel [Paperback]

William Kowalski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 23, 2003

Haley Bombauer, aka Flash Jackson, confronts the summer of her seventeenth year with glorious anticipation. She envisions herself roaming the hillsides and forests on her beloved horse, venturing farther and farther away from her sleepy hometown and her overprotective mother.

But when Haley falls through the rotted roof of the barn, she is destined to spend the summer in a thigh-high cast, stuck at home with her mother, enduring visits from her spooky grandmother, and pondering the error of her impulsive ways. The year that follows will, in fact, transform not only her life but also the lives of those around her.

Set in Mannville, New York, William Kowalski's signature town, here is the story of one young woman's emergence into a world that, in her words, "was not designed with girls in mind" and her efforts to find a way to fit in without giving up her independence.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This amusing, slightly bizarre novel by Kowalski (Eddie's Bastard) puts a supernatural spin on a familiar coming-of-age story. Seventeen-year-old tomboy Haley Bombauer lives with her widowed mother in upstate New York. Though they look much like anyone else, the Bombauer women are actually witches-or at least, Haley's reclusive grandmother is. Her mother has given up the family tradition, and Haley herself never took an interest until she breaks her leg and has to spend a summer recuperating indoors. She becomes so bored that she starts messing around with spells. At the urging of her mother, she moves in with her strict, forbidding grandmother, who teaches Haley the healing arts and some other skills. Though Haley is at first resistant, she gradually comes to embrace her special powers. When the outside world threatens to interfere with this dubious education, the old woman and her cabin vanish into thin air. Haley continues to live in the woods on her own; she eventually makes a partial return to civilization as the town healer, but not before she has an unlikely adventure with drug smugglers and a wild sexual encounter with a neighbor boy. Her exploits as a feral woodswoman are implausible even by the loose standards of this book and make for some comically absurd lines ("Note to self: When menstruating, bury used tampons very deep. Something has been digging them up lately. Something big"). Yet Haley is a winning narrator whose dry sense of humor keeps the celebration of womanhood from getting too syrupy.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Kowalski's new work is not so much a coming-of-age as a coming-of-gender story. On the eve of her 17th birthday, Haley Bombauer falls through the barn roof and breaks her leg-a singular occurrence that changes her life and sets us all on an unusual journey. Early on, tomboy Haley had invented a persona that seemed more true to her nature, stuntman Flash Jackson. Haley's father, her partner in her acts of derring-do, was killed in an explosion of one of his inventions, leaving her alone with her less-than-free-spirited mother. Haley's maternal grandmother lives alone in the woods and is well known as a LEGITHATA (ladies extremely gifted in the healing and telepathic arts). With her leg in a cast, Haley goes to live in the woods to find out about Grandma's healing ways and learns more than she expected to about the beauty and community of nature, its creatures, and her place in the world. Haley is 24 as she narrates this story, but as readers we always feel that it is indeed a teenager-grumpy, ornery, and foul-mouthed-who is leading us through our paces. Somewhat fragmented overall and especially slow going in the woods section until Haley's final revelations, this book is not as compelling as Kowalski's first novel, Eddie's Bastard. Still, it is a solid purchase for public libraries.
Bette-Lee Fox, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (December 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006093624X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060936242
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,185,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An authentic voice and a new kind of character, September 6, 2005

By 

Angela C. Kelly Klaassen (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Adventures of Flash Jackson : A Novel (Hardcover)

Haley Rombauer aka Flash Jackson is a new kind of character in American literature. Both she and her story are about as far from ordinary as can be, but there is a surprisingly familiar archetypal resonance between the thinking reader and this story in which the unusual seems awfully familiar. Kowalski has managed somehow to imbue Haley with an authentic voice, guided by old wisdom and new experiences, and -- somehow -- with an ear for the thoughts in a young woman's head, words that are rarely spoken anywhere. If you go into this book expecting a light coming-of-age story, you may call yourself disappointed when you are overwhelmed by the Coming of Ages denouement. I hope that early confused expectations among Kowalski's readers and critics do not doom this treasure of a novel to obscurity, as this is a voice in the wilderness that deserves to, almost has to, be heard -- and really should be talked about, too. Highly recommended, especially to be read together by book clubs or by mothers and daughters.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Kovalsky book, July 2, 2005

By 

A. Moore (madera, ca) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Adventures of Flash Jackson: A Novel (Paperback)

After reading Eddy's bastard and it sequel I thought that there couldn't be any better. But I was pleasantly surprised at the magic and wonder of his third book. The best he has written so far.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not What I Expected, But Still Good, June 9, 2003

By 

Cameron M (Toronto, ON) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adventures of Flash Jackson: A Novel (Hardcover)

Unlike most stories using "Book 1" and "Book 2" as an arbitrary way of dividing the story into sections, in The Adventures of Flash Jackson, Book 2 seems like almost a completely different girl and story than before.

Haley Bombauer is a feisty and lovable heroine, who has always been a tomboy and plans on staying one for life. She's sick of her mother and gossipy small town neighbours trying to get her to be more ladylike. I found her views on everything amusing and fresh.

When Haley falls off the roof of her barn and breaks her leg, she's looking at a long, boring summer. I thought this book would be about her coming to terms with her injury, her father's death, her friend Frankie's schizophrenia. It's not. This is not just a coming of age story. It morphs into something reminiscent of "Nell", where she moves into the woods with her reclusive grandmother and shuts herself off from society for almost a year. As much as some readers will probably be weirded out by the drastic changes in plot and character, I was fascinated by the stories about herbal lore and how her grandmother is actually an age old spirit inhabiting the magical woods (I will say it once again: This is not your average coming of age story! It looks like general fiction, but it becomes fantasy almost).

If you told me how it ended when I first started the book, I would have been shocked beyond belief, but by the time I got there, I was used to the changes and found it really interesting. This book is certainly different, but this reader enjoyed it immensely.