Zoe Somerville: The Night of the Flood

This was tremendous. I’m going to start with some comments of a more general nature and then move on to details that struck me, many of which back up and validate the more general remarks that I make.

Then whole story is remarkably gripping and involving and there is an excellent balance and interrelationship between the characters, their nature and actions and the environment where they live. This central importance of the environment recalled Graham Swift’s Waterland with its symbiotic relationship between character, personality and environment. The very opening with its strong and focused atmospheric writing sets the mood and tone for the whole book and the use of the physical storm in tandem with the emotional drama is masterly – and the actual descriptions of the floods are masterly as are the human reactions to it.

The final chapter is marvelously sad and satisfying – there’s a superb balance between sadness and a desire for optimism with just enough of a hint of ambiguity for comfort – and I loved the echoes in the final paragraph of the final words of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

These are very general remarks and they have come about as a result of specific thoughts and comments about specific scenes or paragraphs so to show this I am now going to refer to page numbers in the current hardcover edition) as my markers and trigger passages. And of course some of these may well be of a more general nature and apply to the book as a whole. Hope this makes sense.

3: Structurally very effective signposts device here and throughout. It also, for me, gave a good sense of the inevitability of time marching on. Events and feelings can change but the actual dates and their everlasting processing on do not change.

29 & 31: Super details that give slightly sinister hint. ‘smoking’, ‘vulpine’ and ‘a slight hesitation’.

35: Effective, if a tad obvious, foreshadowing of the future with the final sentence.

46: Nicely ironical (as deliberately clichéd I think in terms of style and content), view of ‘an American’ through a very provincial Brit’s eyes.

55-56: The ambivalence of her view of the American is very nicely conveyed on these two pages.

59: A fine continuation of the above. Nicely, subtly ambivalent view of Jack through the eyes of an artist where there is uncertainty about what you see and how you will depict it.

62 & 65: Again, masterly depiction of ambivalent feelings building on the preceding

72-73: Masterful and remarkably vivid little scene. Conveys a LOT about Muriel who, I feel, is one of, if not the, most intriguing characters in the story. It would be interesting to see all of the events solely through her eyes. There is almost a hint that there is something supernatural and sea-based about Muriel compared with the rest of the land-bound characters.

79: Two great descriptive paragraphs here where the foreshadowing is excellent and subtle. Of feelings

83-85. More excellent and sensitive dissection of feelings.

95: Language here a good mix of the dramatic and scientifically factual

99 : REALLY did not like this paragraph description of Verity and am still trying to decide if the very clichéd language and imagery is being used ironically (why?) or as we are seeing her through Arthur’s eyes. But its just that the whole paragraph really jars stylistically…

120: Second paragraph. Same point as above…

144: Marvelously vivid and precise scene. All elements perfectly balanced. Style and content in perfect accord.

294-296: Wonderfully striking, vivid and erotic. The lipstick detail is marvelous…

336ff: Masterly chapter that confirms how fascinating a character Muriel was/is. She is TOTALLY of the area yet is also an outsider.

So, great work Zoe!