Customer Reviews

Michael McDowell's Blackwater I: The Flood

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

'The Flood', the first installment of Michael McDowell's Blackwater series, introduces us to 1919 Perdido, Alabama. Yes, a flood wipes out the town. But in its aftermath a mysterious woman appears who befriends the town's most prosperous family. As the narrative unfolds it becomes clear 'The Flood' is actually a southern gothic novel, along the lines of Anne Rice novels.

The best thing about 'The Flood' is how it captures the feel of early twentieth century Alabama. Not sentimental but rather balanced. I also think the author does an excellent job with the characterizations. However in truth the story itself is, well, slow. Never boring, just a slow yet deliberate meandering.


Bottom line: a short novel which begs the reader to buy the next installment in the series, which I did. Recommended.

This is the first in a 6 book series. Michael McDowell can write a creepy book. The relaxed and languorous atmosphere of the South combined with a horrifying, yet mystical creature, who hides among them and settles in with them. Through the 6 book series you can really feel the passing of time, as some characters age and some of them die. The Caskey clan is truly dysfunctional and you are inexorably drawn into their lives. You'll have to scout the used book stores for this series, but it is well worth it. I re-read these books about once every 24 months. Don't confuse this Michael McDowell with others, he only wrote the Blackwater series, Katie, Gilded Needles, The Elementals, and The Amulet.

My grandmother gave me the whole series of the "Blackwaters". They were bonechilling. I could not put them down. To imagine a monster living at the bottom of a river, eating people. Michael McDowell is rated in by book number one with Stephen King. Michael has clearly out done himself with the whole series.

Reading all these reviews of Michael McDowell's "Blackwater" series on Amazon really was a revelation. I thought I was the only one who loved these books! Now I hear that the Sci-Fi Channel is going to produce a four-hour mini-series based on it and I have to say...it's about time! I don't think four hours can do it justice, though when you consider that "Gone With The Wind" runs under four hours, maybe it'll be great. More importantly, this masterpiece of horror will reach a much wider audience... maybe even to the point of Avon re-releasing the whole series as one large paperback, like Stephen King's "The Green Mile."
One aspect of the story that I love is the duality of the main character, Elinor. Is she good or evil? Monster or angel? The reader feels conficting (and changing) emotions regarding her throughout the story, right to the very end, thanks to the brilliance of Mr. McDowell's writing. That schizophrenia is evident also in the style of the prose; Most often it is languid and lazy, in slow motion, reflective of life as perceived in the Old South. But whenever the horror starts, the paragraphs get longer, the prose gets more acute, and the images evoked are burned into your mind...often unpleasantly so. Then it slows down again, to disarm you until the next time.
I read in one review that the late Michael McDowell referred to himself as a 'hack' writer of pulp horror. Mr. McDowell, where ever you are, please regard these reviews at Amazon, note the five-star average rating (higher than many 'classic' novels), and know that "Blackwater" is etched in our memories, even after twenty years.

Is this series flawed? Sure. You can't crank 'em out like MM did and not miss some problems. Still, there is much here to enjoy. McDowell's creation is very evocative of the part of Alabama he writes about (I used to live there), and his characters avoid for the most part becoming the one-dimensional "types" so typical of popular fiction.

The characters are all engagingly drawn, quite distinctly individual without clunky self-conscious quirks nailed to them and dragged around the room like you will often find in precious contemporary literary fiction. The characters sometime come off as movie characters, but no more than, say, a John Updike character does, or a Bellow character. They are graceful, cruel, funny, ambiguous, dramatic. We finish the series not know quite how to regard Elinor Caskey, the amphibious Lovecraftian creature that crawls out of the floodwaters and insinuates herself into the Caskey clan. At best, she amoral.

McDowell's prose is a treat to read. He is precise and elegant, a far better craftsman than most if not all of his better-known contemporaries.

In short, this series is a real treat. I read it when it first came out in the early 80's, 25 years ago. I remembered very little, except for a single image, really--the image that occurs near the beginning of the first volume when the preacher woman stumbles upon Elinor soaking in a pool of water--in her froglike state. I loved rediscovering this series.

This has got to be the best series I have ever read! At first you really hate Eleanor Caskey and what she does to rule the rest of the Caskey's family. Eleanor gets married has a daughter but what are in store for the family is beyond what they could ever imagine.
I would love to have this on audio or have a movie made of this! The book is very well written it brings you there and with the maps of where every body lives is an extra touch.
At the end of the book what happens to you is awesome because you find you have falling in love with her and will miss her terribly. This is a horror story and has some parts in it that will set you up in the chair and have you looking around the room.

I read this book and its' sequal, some 10-12 years ago and even after all these years, I still remember how Blackwater was and is still such a captivating and remarkable story. I unfortunately loaned the books to another and have never been able to get them back. I would gladly read it again if I had it in my hands. Its' a story that you will never forget.

I found the entire Blackwater Series totally engrossing and couldn't wait for each monthly installment. Michael McDowell is so clever in his writing and seems to know what thrills readers of horror and Boy does he deliver! I have been searching over 20 years for more of the same but without success. I have read all the other McDowell books and gave away as I thought Michael would keep writing such great books. Please Amazon find him for me!

About 15 years ago, a co-worker loaned me the Blackwater series to read. I found it to be so engrossing and enthralling that I vowed to obtain copies for myself. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to but I have been haunted by this story ever since. The story rivals anything written today and it's memories will haunt you forever!

This series of books is just like a can of pringles; once you pop you can't stop, and I mean that literally. I began the series at the same time as my best friend. She would call me nightly to complain that I had given her insomnia. She couldn't put the books down. Me neither. I read one through four in two days. I finished five and six within the next three days ( had to work you know). I would recommend these books to everyone. They will scare you, thrill you, and throw you a few curve balls; I guarantee you will be thuroughly entertained with this series.