A NICE PIECE OF FLYING

Flood’s posthumously published collection of stories revolves around its characters’ service in World War II.

The end of war doesn’t cancel every debt, as the characters in the late author’s tales learn, often with surprising results. Armed conflict never fails to leave its mark on all who serve, as Michael O’Reilly hears from his father in “Reunion,” before the younger man confronts a general about a grievous error that led to his capture: “War accelerates everything. Heightens every feeling. Magnifies every event. Intensifies every encounter. Destroys time.” It’s a bracingly honest yet blunt sentiment, delivered with an economical ring that doesn’t feel out of place. It’s also the type of quiet, understated style that makes these stories, written between the late 1970s and early ’80s, feel all the more remarkable. For Flood, who died in 2001, crafting them “was one way of dealing with what was left inside thirty-some years after WWII,” as stated in a foreword by the author’s son, Kevin, who edited this collection. “It took a while for [the author] to make useful sense of what had happened.” Once the author satisfied that urge, no other writings followed, but this book contains his attempts to understand, through literature, the greater meaning of his wartime experiences.

The title story turns on a deceptively simple premise, focusing on a harried insurance company owner who impulsively steals a P-51 from a county airport to relive his combat flying days: “Whatever happened when he returned to earth, it would be a price well worth paying.” “The Christmas Tree” showcases an equally lean storytelling style; the tale needs just over a dozen pages to deliver a comeuppance to a snobbish man who seeks to shield his daughters from those he deems their social inferiors. (“He made me think of the leathery ‘cattle barons’ I used to see in the old-time Western movies,” notes the narrator.) An equally unexpected twist distinguishes “The Undefeated Rough and Tumble Champion of Kansas,” whose brawling bar owner, Cowboy Swensen, faces a situation that a crowd—and the narrator, a former U.S. Army ironworker—never see coming. But the real jewels are the aforementioned “Reunion” and “Mr. Birnbaum,” the latter of which focuses on the periodic postwar encounters of a teenage narrator and a door-to-door insurance collector, who end up united in mutual tragedy. (“As the song says, ‘Your life is what happens to you.’”) In “Reunion,” Michael vows to forget his commander until he learns that he’s now a general, causing his rage to smolder anew and force a confrontation that he’d been dreading. (“Now Hardee had surfaced, and Michael felt himself again in danger of being shot down.”) It’s the type of intimately but tautly crafted moment that suggests that the author might have created more fine works, had he decided to pursue them. As is, readers will be grateful for and fully engaged with the results of his brief writing journey.

An expressive set of works that offer one man’s insights into wartime service.