Customer Reviews

Flood Stage and Rising

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This is a question that Jane Varley probes in Flood Stage and Rising. It is thrilling and fascinating that she is writing about midwesterners, and more specifically, Grand Forksians, inhabitants of this Red River Valley---but Varley's explorations in this work move well beyond our area, begging everyone to look closely at their surroundings and experience a sense of place more fully.

Every other chapter in Flood Stage and Rising is about Varley's experiences during the 1997 Grand Forks flood. The other chapters reveal her connections to water, particularly rivers, over the course of her life. She was born during an April flood in Dubuque and in the chapter describing it says, "I was born from water into water."

As a newcomer to North Dakota, Varley maintains a compelling distance from her topic, offering us a view of ourselves that is rich in familiar phrases ("Forty below keeps the riff raff out"), accents ("Ya got cherself in a spot there, didn't cha?") and ways of life ("In Minnesota, kindness can be an urgent business"). Yet Varley reminds us of her transient status: "Was the flood helping me know this place better or preventing me from knowing it, spurring on the feeling that I should leave and find new territory?"

It's a question we ask ourselves: Why do we live here? Varley will not answer this question for you, or even really for herself. You will not want her to; you will read the book and ask questions of yourself, your home, your memories, your observations, and your thoughts. As I stated earlier, people from all parts of the country will relate to and enjoy this book, and we owe an extra thanks to Varley for reminding us where we've been, making us put aside the jokes about living in North Dakota long enough to truly appreciate our own stories. "The stories reveal who we are, full of words, ready to say what happened to us, as well as silent, turning back to the cold muck of a basement, reaching in and ordering a new kind of life."

This book is an amazing story of the beauty and strength of nature. Though written as a narrative, the language is beautifully poetic. The author is a fantastic story teller, and shares a personal account of an incredible event.

I live on the floodplane of the Mississippi River. In flood years, the spring rise threatens my existence in deluging ways, the river flowing into the first floor of my house. I keep a dinghy tied to my back doorknob for quick escape. Jane Varley's book provides haunting and fascinating images of what happens when a river relcaims its rightful place. Always in the counter-balance, of course, is how it wreacks havoc on human life. What does the river give? What does it take? Varley's book tackles both these questions in insightful and poetic ways.

Buy this book. You'll find her story of living in the midst of disaster life-giving and awe-inspired.