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In
Flood, the highly acclaimed author of
Wish Me Luck and
The Grave tells the story of a boy's confused search for what family and home really mean. The flood that begins this problem novel for young adolescents washes away 11-year-old Andy Flynn's entire world: house, mother, stepfather, even Andy's clothes. Found battered and naked in the arms of an uprooted cedar tree, Andy reaches out to the one person he thinks might truly care about him--the charming but dissolute father who walked out of his life six years before. When his unfeeling guardian, Aunt Mona, reveals that his dad, Vinnie, is not dead (as Andy thought) but alive and up to no good in Halifax, Andy gives his aunt the slip and escapes into the seedy underbelly of his new-found city to find him.
Andy's reunion with his petty-thief dad and their brief life together in the cockroach-infested Mayo Rooms makes for utterly engrossing reading. A charismatic ruin of a man, Vinnie hawks stolen cigarettes and subsists on almost nothing but tea and whiskey, yet always leaves a dish of raisins out for the "Little People." For a while Andy tricks himself into believing that everything will turn out all right if he can just make a few changes in his dad's life. Unfortunately, the deadbeat dad is so compelling that when he performs a disappearing act towards the end of Flood he leaves a hole that none of the other characters (even Andy) is capable of filling. As for the chorus of "Sheehogue," or Irish fairies, who comment on the action and occasionally stir up mischief, they add comic relief but not enough else to this intriguing if not entirely satisfying novel. (Ages 10 to 14) --Lisa Alward
Books in Canada
James Heneghan's Flood is also the story of an unhappy family. Andy Flynn finds himself at the mercy of adults after the death of his mother and stepfather. His rigidly cold aunt Mona has come to take him across Canada to live with her and his uncle Hugh, relatives he has never met before from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Most surprising of all, Andy learns, is that his father, who was supposed to have died when Andy was just a baby, is alive and well and also living in Halifax. Andy makes up his mind during the flight that he is not going to be stuck with Aunt Mona and, having wheedled his father's whereabouts out of his opinionated aunt, he decides to run away and does.
But Vinny Flynn isn't the white knight Andy so desperately needs to cope with his mother's death and his sense of abandonment. He's a boozer who can't hold down a proper job, lives in a rundown flea-bag hotel infested with cockroaches as well as the odd rat, sells stale cigarettes and whisky on the streets, is in debt to a pair of mafia thugs and has no notion of how to look after an 11-year-old boy. Andy soon realizes that he's got to take responsibility for himself. He tries his best: He tries to turn Vinny into a good father. He tries to get Vinny to provide the kind of life he was accustomed to in Vancouver. But Vinny isn't able to, ultimately, and for every promise he makes, he breaks another.
When a run-in with the mob leaves him with a broken leg, he calls in Aunt Mona. Andy is determined not to get along with his stiffly starched aunt, but, after recovering from a nasty flu, he begins slowly to give way. He discovers that what makes a good home and a loving family are adults who care and are willing to make sure that children can be free to act their age.
What is wonderful about Flood is that Heneghan shows us the life that Andy and Vinny live almost entirely from Andy's perspective-it's only afterwards, with Aunt Mona's arrival that we see the extent to which Andy was neglected under Vinny's care. It's subtle and more powerful for not being an in-your-face portrayal.
Finally, there's a side to Flood that is whimsical and charming. Heneghan has a group of Sheehogue, the fairy folk of Celtic mythology, travel with Andy from one coast to the other, acting as guardian spirits. Vinny, a fine storyteller himself, is for all his faults a great believer in the fairy folk and even leaves out nightly offerings to appease them. It's a wonderful touch in this powerful and provocative novel about parental responsibility. Jeffrey Canton (Books in Canada)
