The Flood

I was getting really tired of books on people having affairs, or kids who suffer in broken homes, dysfunctional family, irresponsible parents, etc. when I came across this book. There is no affairs, sexual contents, divorce, or alcoholics/drug addicts in this book, thank goodness, and the protagonist's family is in good accord, even though there are some disagreements and distresses at times. From that perspective, one may call this book unique. It was quite refreshing to read about a functioning family facing external problems and issues which affect them internally. The protagonist is a 9-yr-old girl, Eva, who is a mature thinker for her age. Her sense of justice and fairness and what is right and wrong is very strong, and she seems to know how to make good argument about moral and racial issues. She often strikes up a discussion about these matters with adults around her, is capable of carrying the discussion at adult level. Yet she's still emotionally a child, and sometimes her weaknesses and childish selfishness show involuntarily. The Hoffmans have migrated from Vienna, fleeing Hitler's claws and settled in Topeka, KS. The father is a doctor (psychiatrist?), and the mother is a stay-home mama, with a very strong sense of moral and justice. Because of their own experience as Jews, they believe in human equality, and try to practice their belief in their daily life by treating black people, mentally ill people, white flood victims with the same principle, in the midst of white people who are trapped in racism and bigotry, and try to get along. They fled Europe's prejudice to the country of freedom (America), but they find the same prejudice, which is quite disappointing and disheartening. And they fight against it by living what they believe. However, even though they share the same principle, they all have different ideas on how to practice it in details, in their daily life. When they take in the ignorant, bigotry red-neck flood victim family Willgers to their home, each of the HOffmans reacts and acts differently. The mother tries to be really nice, cheerful, and do everything she can to make the Willgers feel at home, despite the insensitive racial comments her guests drop here and there. The father tolerates their presence, but withdraws to himself, failing to pay attention to his daughters' emotional needs. Eva's young innocent sister Sarah hits it off with Jolie, the Willgers' naughty, poorly mannered, insensitive, disrespectful daughter. Eva, the protagonist, is the one who sees the hypocricy and unfairness all around her and simply cannot take the insults and bigotry that these strangers demonstrate at her home. The poor girl is retreated up in attic, as a result of giving up her room to the Willgers, no longer finds a place for herself in the family or home. Each family member acts and reacts differently to this stress of living with people who belive in ideas which he/she doesn't approve of, who may well have hat

Nine year-old Eva Hoffman is an Austrian refugee whose family has found a precarious safety in Topeka, Kansas in 1951, the year of the landmark desegregation case. As the rising river inundates the town, the Hoffmans open their home to refugees from the flood, and Eva learns the complexities of prejudice-and courage-both within and outside her family."A richly evocative story of the awakening to adulthood." -- The Los Angeles Times."A refreshing and extremely moving novel." --Ms. Magazine"Eva is...reminiscent of a Carson McCullers heroine." --The New York Times.