The Staggerford Flood

Rating:
Summary: Sleepy and Unimaginative
Review: This book has a promising premise... a certain saccharine-sweet appeal to it when you look at the cover and read the first few pages.
The problem, though, is that there are too many characters which are easy to confuse with one another, and too little of an attraction by the reader to the characters' story. I'm halfway into this book, and so far, it's just a blur of old people and their families, and random thoughts and odd comments made by a protagonist who's not very appealing.
I just have no connection to these characters. If you have a Minnesota connection, however, and/or are not bothered by a slow pace, you might like this book.

Rating:
Summary: (3.5) An octogenarian's slumber party
Review: At a time when neighbors are barely acquainted, Hassler offers a welcome distraction, a visit to a place where America is known for its small towns with friendly people, where the postman greets everyone on his route. The Staggerford Flood is author Jon Hassler's intimate novel of small town life, in Staggerford, Minnesota, where everyone's business is discussed by folks who have known each other all their lives. Staggerford has the aura of turn-of the-century America, long before extended families began their exodus to crowded cities, where distance is an obstacle to communication.

Most of the characters in this novel are familiar faces, returning from previous tales, updating their stories. The most endearing character is Miss Agatha McGhee, a former schoolteacher and octogenarian and the resident wise woman. Agatha hasn't gotten out much the last few months, slightly under the weather, but when she sees her name in the headlines of the local newspaper, she is incensed that anyone would announce her business without consulting her. The newspaper article gets Agatha's dander up and she is on the move, fueled by a need to set the record straight. While in town, Agatha learns that the recent rain threatens to flood, that the Badbattle River will inundate all of Staggerford, as well as the neighboring towns.

Immediately concerned with those neighbors who may not have shelter when their homes flood or are unable to reach the safety of higher ground, Agatha prepares for the worst, gathering blankets and canned goods to accommodate at least two guests. When the number of stranded women increases drastically, Agatha is hard-pressed to accommodate everyone comfortably.

Agatha has gathered an odd assortment of eccentrics under her roof. Among the guests are Agatha's best friend of many years, Lillian, and her obdurate daughter, the town's new undertaker, Linda Schwartzman, Janet Meers with her daughter Sara and the much-married Beverly Bingham Cooper. Her usually quiet residence is filled with female chatter and laughter, as the women nestle contentedly out of harm's way, pleased to be warm and dry. Even when the electricity shorts out, the little group snuggles together in candlelight, festive and secure.

There is much reminiscing and storytelling as the women wait out nature's fury.
Add an assortment of town regulars who check on the women's safety, the sheriff, a local radio talk show host (a gossip) and Agatha's nephew, Frederick, and the octogenarian's house becomes a temporary home to some wonderfully eccentric characters. Agatha oversees her disparate quests, content to have brought these women together, their troubles far away for this short time. Occasionally, the old woman dozes, dreaming of the friends who have peopled her long and well-lived life.

This novel perfectly showcases Hassler's unique talent. Like Garrison Keillor of Lake Woebegon, Hassler is the undisputed muse of Minnesota. Quirky and wry, Hassler's seductive and charming characters offer his readers a welcome respite from the stresses of everyday life, a walk back in time, when conversations were held on porch swings and grandparents lived only a block away. Luan Gaines/2003.

Rating:
Summary: Welcome Back Home
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Welcome Back Home
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A well-told slice-of-life tale focusing on a small town
Review: 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-life tale, if you long for the slowed down pace of small-town life, if you take solace in the universality of human frailty and find wonder in the particularity of human strength, then THE STAGGERFORD FLOOD is for you.

--- Reviewed by Jami Edwards

Rating:
Summary: Not one of Hassler's better novels...
Review: I was really looking forward to reading this book. I must sadly write, Staggerford Flood is not one of my favorite Jon Hassler novels. I'm a big Hassler fan; I've have read most of his books, but I feel this latest offering pales next to others. The characters are not as well developed, and the plot (7 or so local residents are holed up in the protagonist's house during a flood) did not hold my interest. The flood and its physical consequences are not described with much detail. The book focuses more on the flood's psychological influence on the characters. If you plan to read this book, I would suggest reading 'Staggerford' first. Not only is Staggerford a superior read, but it will also help you to better identify with the characters of `Flood.'

Rating:
Summary: Not one of Hassler's better novels...
Review: I was really looking forward to reading this book. I must sadly write, Staggerford Flood is not one of my favorite Jon Hassler novels. I'm a big Hassler fan; I've have read most of his books, but I feel this latest offering pales next to others. The characters are not as well developed, and the plot (7 or so local residents are holed up in the protagonist's house during a flood) did not hold my interest. The flood and its physical consequences are not described with much detail. The book focuses more on the flood's psychological influence on the characters. If you plan to read this book, I would suggest reading 'Staggerford' first. Not only is Staggerford a superior read, but it will also help you to better identify with the characters of 'Flood.'

Rating:
Summary: Like attending a reunion in your old hometown.
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: Short and Sweet
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A lovely summation of Hassler's career
Review: Though this slim novel may be a bit of an oddity to those who have never read Jon Hassler, the book will be a wonderful read for his fans, as it brings together many of the characters from his previous novels - not just the Staggerford series, but every one of his books, related to Staggerford or not. Hassler's divine gift of characterization and his love for humanity continue to shine through, and it is a delight to meet again beloved characters from his previous books and find out what has become of them. If you have not read Hassler, do yourself a favor and start with Staggerford, which is truly one of the best American novels written in the latter part of this century. Staggerford, his first novel, is breathtaking, and will begin a journey for a reader through Hassler's work that wraps up beautifully - and as always for Hassler, simply - in The Staggerford Flood.