THE FLOOD

by Carol Ascher ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 1987

Ascher's (Simone de Beauvoir: A Life of Freedom, 1981) first novel is a tender, if flawed, reminiscence--an uneven psychological study of a Kansas girl grappling with the thorny issue of prejudice in 1950's America. At ""nine going on ten,"" Eva Hoffman ""liked to ask those questions which. . . had very difficult answers."" The daughter of Viennese Jews who had fled Hitler, Eva doesn't understand why her fretful mother is upset by a line of railroad cars, or why her disaffected father cries only when playing Mahler at his piano. But their peculiarities don't disrupt her happy home until two events intrude--the impending Brown vs. Board of Education court case (which would outlaw segregation in public schools), and a catastrophic flood--and push her parents' behavior to ambiquities she cannot grasp and extremes she cannot endure. Her father mysteriously refuses to take an outspoken stand on integration, even though a portrait of a black worker graces their liberal home. Her mother, in a frenzy to help the flood victims ""who lost everything,"" takes in boarders who turn out to be hatefully anti-Semitic (""Jews smell bad,"" their little girl tells Eva's younger sister). Her mother knows about their attitude but allows the boarders, ""who would hate us if they were not living in our house,"" to remain. It all becomes too much for Eva. She runs away. In the limp and murky resolution, Eva learns to accept that some questions have no answers, and she begins to form her own political conscience. An earnest, well-intentioned effort, and the portraits of Eva's parents are touching and vivid. One wishes, however, that the end were less sentimental in this book that tends already toward the peculiar tendernesses of the YA.

Pub Date: April 15, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Crossing Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION