The Staggerford Flood

I have read all of Jon Hassler's novels. He has the rare ability to write a good story about people you come to care about. In this novel he brings back many of the characters who were so prominent in his other novels - almost like a reunion of characters. For long time readers of his novels this is a visit back home to see how the family is getting along. For new readers of his work, I would suggest that you begin with his earlier work and build to this one. Specifically start with Staggerford, Simon's Night, A Green Journey and Dear James. Rookery Blues would also be a prerequisite to this novel. You won't be disappointed. I grew up and still live in the area that Mr. Hassler writes about. He was also my poetry teacher in my first year in college at Brainerd Junior College. For those of you who like to read about central Minnesota this is the real Lake Wobegone. Jon Hassler describes real people - don't miss out.

No matter where you come from, Hassler's Staggerford feels like home, and his characters like the old friends (and nemeses) you probably grew up with. With an unerring eye for the universally mundane, and an ear for the commonplaces we all expect in conversations with old friends, Hassler brings Staggerford, Minnesota, to life during the "flood of the century," as the Badbattle River overflows and inundates the town one spring.There's nothing like a good emergency to inspire Agatha McGee, the 80-year-old spinster who taught most of Staggerford at St. Isidore's School. Ignoring ill health, she takes charge among her neighbors and friends, inviting seven unlikely people to ride out the storm in her house on the highest land along the river. With warmth and great good humor, Hassler recreates their long-standing friendships and loyalties, along with the gossip, resentments, and long memories which make life in any small town a community activity.For Hassler's long-time readers, this novel is like a reunion--everyone in the old gang, from all the previous novels, is here, older, perhaps, but still going strong. Beverly Bingham, the sad teenager who found refuge with Agatha in Hassler's first novel (Staggerford) returns as the mature mother of a schizophrenic son. Lolly Edwards, the radio gossip who held her own memorial service so that she could hear what people would say about her (The Dean's List) and her son, Leland, now President of Rookery State (Rookery Blues), are back, along with Fr. Frank Healy (North of Hope). Agatha's shy nephew Frank Lopat; her best friend, ditzy Lillian Kite, and her termagant daughter, Imogene; and Janet Raft Meers, the young woman who looks after her; and many others, continue their stories here, along with several new characters.The characters are believable, the dialogue is pitch perfect, and the community dynamics show Hassler's sensitivity to and love for the subtleties of small town life. The behavior of the characters is completely consistent with their personalities as we know them, and their ability to remain individuals while also acting for the good of the community is one of Hassler's greatest achievements. Hassler is careful to explain past histories here so that new readers can enjoy the novel almost as much as devotees of the previous novels, but new readers are urged to start with one of the earlier novels first in order to enjoy this one and its characters more fully. This is a "grand finale" of a novel, one you don't want to reach too soon. Mary Whipple

I have small-town envy.I wouldn't be caught dead living too far from good bookstores, restaurants, or movie houses. I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick than grow a garden. I much prefer the anonymity of a classy hotel to the coziness of the most lauded bed-and-breakfast. And I prefer not to know my neighbors.Still... Completely against my citified type, reading a Jon Hassler novel gives me sharp pangs of "I wish I lived there." Especially when "there" is the fictional Minnesota town of Staggerford.THE STAGGERFORD FLOOD takes place in the small town introduced in Hassler's first novel STAGGERFORD and revisited in A GREEN JOURNEY and DEAR JAMES. In his latest novel, Hassler uses a natural disaster to strew the familiar milieu with characters that appeared in previous novels.This novel opens a year after the flood, with elderly retired schoolteacher Agatha McGee planning a party to celebrate the anniversary of the deluge that laid waste to parts of Staggerford. Hassler then takes us back to a year earlier, when Agatha's failing health has dampened her natural bossy curiosity and left her ignorant of much going on around her.A natural, if irascible, leader, Agatha isn't used to being out of the loop, but apathy bred from grief over the death of a dear friend is a powerful narcotic. It takes THE STAGGERFORD FLOOD literally rising around her to make Agatha shake off her gloominess and realize she's still loved and needed."Before the flood, Agatha didn't look well. She didn't act well. She spent whole days in her chair by the front window, brooding and watching the occasional car or pedestrian go by. The flood woke her up. The flood and her new pacemaker. The change was miraculous. She came out of the ordeal looking even smaller and more fretful than she had before, but a lot of her old energy came back, her erect posture, her strong voice, her fiery opinions."Agatha, despite all evidence to the contrary, doesn't really believe in the flood, but its possibility enlivens her. After an impromptu visit from her new priest, Father Healy (who appeared in NORTH OF HOPE), Agatha takes her taciturn live-in nephew, Fred, and strikes out to visit friends before the water rises, to get provisions, and to take issue with the local newspaper editor who has reported her ill health to all of Staggerford. One by one, friends, neighbors, and even former students show up on Agatha's doorstep. Seven women spend four nights together waiting out the flood that cuts them off from the rest of Staggerford. While they wait, these women of disparate ages and personalities bicker and squabble and sometimes knock-down all-out fight, but they also talk and listen and begin to appreciate what it means to be a neighbor, a friend, a member of a small-town community.If you're looking for a story bursting at the seams with mayhem, murderous plots, and sweat-oiled heroes who save the world, this isn't the book for you. If, however, you appreciate the well-told slice-of-l

Those of us who have enjoyed the Staggerford stories will be brought up to date in this chronicle. It deals with failing health and the need for good friends at any age. We are brought up to date on characters familar from earlier stories, and introduced to new faces. The downside for me was that I wanted to know more about the relationship between Agatha and James, after their time in Italy and Staggerford. Hassler provides us with only a glimpse of this rich period in Agatha's life, and more's the pity. Perhaps Agatha will recount more of this as she reminisces in a future novel. Other than that, it is nice to be back in Staggerford, hearing from Miss McGee.

This book contains spoilers to half a dozen previous Hassler novels and hence is definitely not the first Staggerford novel you will want to read. (Begin with "Staggerford" itself.) It unites and reunites many of the principal characters from its predecessors, most notably Agatha McGee, first seen in "Staggerford", and Father Healy from "North of Hope". Relatively little new ground is broken in this short work, but I think readers will enjoy this recapitulation and summary of perhaps the most endearing set of novels in current fiction.