After the Floods is a kaleidoscopic tale of a changing America. From New Orleans--the flooded Big Easy--all the way up the Mississippi to the fictional town of Cold Beak, things are at once sadly and hilariously out of whack. Through it all, this novel speaks of our ability to survive, to rebuild, and to love and laugh along the way.
After the Floods
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Bruce Henricksen's richly detailed novel begins in post-Katrina New Orleans and moves to a small Minnesota town that has suffered its own traumatic flood. Loss and recovery--and healing--are themes that drive the plot, as people create new lives, crows and dogs converse, and time itself shrinks and expands. It's magical realism, southern style and northern style--lyrical, funny, sad, and thoroughly engaging. After the Floods is at once regional and universal. --Connie Wanek, poet and editor, author of Hartley Field.
About the Author
Bruce Henricksen is a former editor of New Orleans Review. His short stories have appeared in numerous magazines, have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and have been collected in Ticket to a Lonely Town, which received second-place honors for the Grace Paley prize in 2005. After the Floods is his first novel.
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More About the Author
As a child I yanked rhubarb from Mrs. Haugen's garden. My grandmother made rhubarb pie, but I didn't care for it. The best thing about rhubarb was stealing it. Later I graduated from the University of Minnesota and got a Ph.D. from Southern Cal. I taught at Loyola University New Orleans and edited New Orleans Review. My fiction has appeared in quite a few magazines and a couple of anthologies. I'm proud to have Robert Olen Butler's endorsement on my collection, Ticket to a Lonely Town. My first novel, After the Floods, is set in post-Katrina New Orleans and in a fictional Minnesota town that has also suffered disaster. It has been favorably reviewed in the New Orleans Times Picayune and elsewhere. and it's available on Amazon Kindle. I am also editor of From the Other World: Poems in Memory of James Wright. Wright was a poet and teacher whom I have much admired. I live in Duluth MN with a lovely wife who makes pottery and rhubarb pie.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magical Realism!,
By Miri "3kidsandazoo" (Detroit, Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: After the Floods (Kindle Edition)
The blurb on the rear cover describes this unusual novel as "magical realism -- southern style and northern style." Although I'm not too familiar with that genre (I'm mainly drawn to history, memoirs and realistic fiction), I ventured into After The Floods while I commuted to and from downtown Detroit everyday this past Winter/Spring. The weather was cold and dry, or cold and wet; the predominant color, grey; and the exterior of the bus always smeared with salt and dirt. The city was suffering economically and mired in a corruption scandal. Very real, and not very magical.
After The Floods was an escape in one sense, to places (New Orleans after the flood, and Cold Beak, Minnesota) where some animals mysteriously speak, where an obese Birdella May Borguson becomes a local hero as she strips at a local restaurant to lose weight, where time is sometimes suspended, and where a whole host of real and unusual people live, love and survive. I loved the characters, and believed in their world, as strange and irrational as it is often portrayed by Henricksen. In that sense, the book is a worthwhile escape. If that's what you look for in a novel, then go for it. But in another sense, the book made me look around the bus, so to speak, and wonder about some of the strangers on the bus (who really aren't strangers, because I see most of them off and on all the time). And despite the struggles around, the book helped me to see the some of the magic. And I figure that maybe my time on the bus everyday is a real-life suspension of time. After The Flood is interesting. And add to that, Henricksen's wonderful way with words and keen sense of observation, and you end up with a great read. Here's a small sampling of his prose: "Happiness never comes alone, it always drags a shadow." "A voice told me that truth and meaning are wanderers, living here and there, sometimes in a church, sometimes in a book, a river, or a person. And as soon as you're sure you know where they are, they're gone and you have become a wanderer too." "On warm evenings the ice rink at the recreational complex was a meeting place. Birdie, given her pregnancy and her inexperience with skates, stayed indoors sipping coffee, but many of the others I've told you about glided around the oval plane of ice under blue lights as music drifted from the speakers. Few things are more beautiful than snowflakes illuminated by lights beneath the vast darkness, snowflakes descending on children who duck and dodge among adults, forever losing and finding one another as they call 'Marco' and 'Polo.'" I'm lucky enough to live in a place where I still get to skate at night "beneath the vast darkness" and experience a bit of Henricksen's magical realism right around me. The cicadas are hissing outside as I type, marking another seventeen year cycle of summers. I suspect that most readers will come away with similar connections to this story, and it will evoke long-set-aside memories. If this is magical realism, then I like it. It now has has a distinct place in my library.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Multi-layered magical realism,
By
This review is from: After the Floods (Perfect Paperback)
After the Floods can be read on at least a couple levels. On one level, it's an engaging story about some folks living their lives after floods in their hometowns, in New Orleans and in the fictional small town of Cold Beak, Minnesota. It is told from several points of view, including an omniscient narrator who can hear crows and dogs talk; an ex-Mayor and town historian of Cold Beak; and one of the main characters, Billy Boichild, whose narration is in the form of emails to God and Sister Ann, a religious radio personality. The first time I read it, I was aware that the narrations wove in and out of each other, that scenes in one narration were also mentioned in scenes from another narration. In the ex-mayor's narrative, a crow drops a rose on a grave. In the omniscient storyteller's narrative, we see the crow dropping the rose and we understand why she does this. It was fun to notice the times the scenes converged among the narratives.
I also noticed that there was another intriguing level to the novel. The theme of religion, or belief, is laced throughout the stories. Billy Boichild brings with him some peculiar beliefs to Cold Beak from New Orleans that he keeps to himself (except in his emails to God and Sister Ann), there is a nefarious cult outside of Cold Beak that plays a role in the novel, and another main character is atheist. The novel itself is classified as magical realism. Time goes nuts in Cold Beak, birds from all parts of the world show up in Minnesota, and the crows and dogs can talk, but their voices are only heard in the narration of the omniscient storyteller. It's made clear that the animals' abilities to speak only appeared after the flood in New Orleans, and that it was only a temporary ability. I have never lived through a flood or other major disaster, nor have I had the kinds of losses that characters in this novel have endured. I imagine that one of the ways people get through profound losses is by using magical thinking, whether consciously or not. After the Floods illustrates this magical thinking in an enchanting story. It's a story to be read several times to uncover the layers.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Gem........read it !!!,
By
This review is from: After the Floods (Kindle Edition)
What a treasure is this book !
I received this novel as part of the early review program at LibraryThing.com. My first impression was how beautiful the cover of the book was. I was then struck by the inscription. Mr. Henricksen took the time to check out where his book was going and then to sign my copy. What a nice surprise. I started reading the book the same evening I received it.....I finished the novel about 24 hrs later. I was immediately drawn into the story. Mr Henrickesn has a wonderful way with the written world, the prose was, in places, beyond beautiful. I've read the other reviews and the story line has been explained. For me, this is a hard story to pin down. Sometimes I felt like I was reading a beautiful fairy tale, sometimes the story was so profound as to leave me a bit breathless but always the author kept me involved with his characters. As I read, it was always very evident that this story was in the hands of someone possessing a good sense of humor, a sense of wonder as to the world around us and a good dose of respect for the natural world. The combination led to hours of reading pleasure......I did not want to come to the end of this novel. A beautiful book . I will recommend this to ALL three of my reading groups. This book almost begs for sharing and discussion. I will be waiting for more from Bruce Henricksen. I realize this is a small press and the author was responsible for the publication of this novel......Thank Goodness, I say, that it is still possible to do this. I would not want to have missed his effort. To Mr. Henricksen I say, keep up the effort. Anyone reading After The Floods can not help but be touched by the story, the style and the message. Thank you Bruce Henricksen !
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