A Brief History of the Flood [Paperback]

Jean Harfenist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2003

Lillian Anderson is a strong-minded, backwoods-Minnesota girl, well-versed in the basics of survival. She can find air to breathe under a capsized boat, drive in a blizzard, or capture a wild duck. As part of a large struggling family, she tiptoes around her explosive father whose best days always come right after he’s poached something and her neurotically optimistic mother whose bursts of vigor bring added chaos. Lillian barrels through adolescence with no illusions about her future, honing her clerical skills while working the nightshift as a salad girl in the airport kitchen. Just as she’s on her feet and moving out, their house is literally sinking into the marsh. Stunningly honest, this story explores the fierce love that binds family together.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First timer Harfenist packs a big story into a short coming-of-age fiction peopled by broadly painted, eccentric characters. In 11 linked short stories set between 1959 and 1970, this jolting, highly colored narrative traces the life of Lillian Anderson from eight to 18. She and her sister and two brothers live in a perpetually flooded, rundown house in Acorn Lake, Minn. Their mother, a convincingly portrayed manic-depressive, is always up for wild projects, like turning the family's pontoon boat into a giant-size floating wedding cake; once the fun is over, she sinks into bed for days. Their father, an alcoholic, sits in his recliner drinking beer and eating pickles when he isn't tormenting their mother. Essentially bringing herself up, Lillian sculls through her hardscrabble life, losing her virginity at 14 to a teacher, shoplifting with her best friend, fighting her way to a secretarial job and a small studio in the Twin Cities. Throughout, Harfenist combines pared-down first-person storytelling with terrific character descriptions. Sounds place the reader at each scene and in Lillian's mind, like the noise a city boy makes when he "walks across the crushed gravel driveway in bare feet." The author's direct narrative style, though sometimes abrupt, gives Lillian's story a bright, three-dimensional quality. Readers looking for a fast, entertaining summer read with multidimensional characters will be pleased with this effort.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Die-hard novel readers leery of short stories will not be put off by Harfenist's first collection; these stories follow each other like chapters, leading readers deeper into the confusing world of Lillian Anderson, in 1960s Minnesota. Lillian is having a tough time growing up. Poverty, drugs, and alcohol dominate her family life, and she can't wait to get out and live her own life. We witness not only Lillian's memories of an idyllic childhood of living and playing on Acorn Lake but also the disruptive family life that begins to erode her love of the water. The usual themes for female coming-of-age stories are here, including food and weight issues, sexual yearnings versus sexual taboos, and makeup and clothes, but Harfenist's characters are real and their situations absorbing. Will Lillian's older brother come back from Vietnam? Will Lillian make it to adulthood without getting pregnant, landing in jail, or overdosing? Contrasting with her disruptive family life, Lillian's narrative voice is strong, honest, and straightforward. A solid debut from a talented writer. Michelle Kaske
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (July 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375713352
• ISBN-13: 978-0375713354
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,869,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MASTERFULLY CRAFTED, February 28, 2003

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Brief History of the Flood (Hardcover)

Lil Anderson is young, gutsy, brave, naive, quirky, fast-talking, quick-witted, and totally affecting. She is also the memorable debut creation of California writer Jean Harfenist.

Presented as a series of short stories, which segue easily from one to another very much like chapters, "A Brief History of the Flood" traces the life of Lil from 1950 through 1979, between the ages of eight and 18. She shares a usually flooded, much in need of repair lakefront home outside of Acorn Lake, Minnesota with older brother and sister, Randy and Mitzy, younger brother, Davey, and a black Lab, Happy.

Mother Marion in tiny shorts with a wide belt encircling her tiny waist has a world view determined by the words of every love song she has ever heard. She sees only what she wishes and wishes for the impossible. If she's awake, "she's working on something," weaving a rug from panty hose or even building a floating wedding cake for the Fourth of July Float contest.

Dad Jack is an intrepid hunter who built their home then dubbed it "Jack's Hunting Lodge." He delivers dictates and diatribes in equal measure as he clinks ice cubes in his glass of Old Heaven Hill. Lil learned early in life to avoid him because as her Mom explains the young girl has "a talent for saying the one thing that'll launch him. Like good morning or hello."

As an eight-year-old Lil enjoys carefree days on the water, drifting in the family's pontoon or flipping over a rowboat to make breathing room underneath. Harsh reality strikes with 1965 as Randy is of draft age. Mitzi has a busy social life, having "dated every other boy who comes to school without manure on his shoes," and Lil surrenders her virginity to a teacher, Mr. C.

At the age of 15, along with five friends, Lil finds work putting together salads for airline passengers at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. It's driving 62 miles each way but that night shift duty pays $1.73 an hour, even though they're overseen by a hefty supervisor who "fills the cafeteria door like a new refrigerator."

Noting that her Mom knows Lil can run her own life and "Dad doesn't care," the teenager moves quickly into shop lifting with best pal Irene who pierces Lil's ears in the basement restroom of a shopping center. Being caught doesn't stem their taste for further adventure.

A teacher mentions that Lil's Mom has "bursts of vigor," little knowing that these spasms may be due to the Dexedrine she pops, and generously shares with her daughter. This drug induced energy enables Lil to whip through her high school classes, and land a job as a typist at an insurance company in St. Paul. Keeping the pounds off, Lil finds, is another benefit of her "speed system."

Growing up has not been easy for Lil, but reading this masterfully crafted coming-of-age tale is pure pleasure. Jean Harfenist is definitely a writer to watch with her knack for presenting an arresting narrative voice that lingers in readers' minds. In precise, penetrating strokes the author portrays off-beat characters with their foibles full-blown.

"A Brief History of the Flood" is a winner.

- Gail Cooke

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely and painful, August 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Brief History of the Flood (Hardcover)

I know a lot of people don't enjoy short story collections; they prefer to get to know a character and stay with them. All of the stories in this collection happen chronologically and focus on the same family. Maybe the chapters stand alone - I didn't notice. But they certainly flow together as a narrative, which can be read in one (long) sitting.

I just finished "The Miss America Family" which also deals with dysfunction, but I didn't believe in those people. You'll believe in these people - you know them - you've met some of them. This has been a great summer for new novelists, and I think Jean Harfenist ranks right up there. If you like Lee Smith or Kaye Gibbons, you may want to seek this out.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surviving the family, August 3, 2002

By 

James Coffey (Seaford , N.Y.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Brief History of the Flood (Hardcover)

If you are going to read one book this year, read, A Brief History Of The Flood, by Jean Harfenist. The voise of this author captures you from the very first sentence and resonates well after you have finished the last page.
The book, which is a series of linked stories, reads like a novel and follows the life story of Lillian Anderson from the age of eight until twenty when she decides to leave her family and home in Acorn Lake Minnesota. Set during the 60's and early 70's Ms. Harfenist shows an extremely deft eye for character and relationships and how the parents of this first person narrator, Lillian, effect each of their children as they prepare or rather fail to prepare them for the world. It is written with humor and pathos and a hard cold eye for truth, while never sacrificing its sense of compassion and understanding for the people the narrator seems, despite everything, to truly love. As Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times reveiw of books said; Ms. Harfenist "has made an auspicious and stirring debut."