Book Thoughts: The Hundred-Year Flood by Matthew Salesses

The Hundred-Year Flood by Matthew Salesses
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some books you read, and its an immediate page turner - it grabs you from the first page and off you go. Others, never grab your attention and you struggle to the end. Some, nothing grabs you immediately until you become invested in a character due to the author's development of said character. The Hundred-Year Flood feels like a combination of the first and third of these - as during the first quarter of the book I thought I wasn't going to like it, but then it continues to build its characters and plot so that the entire experience is to intense and powerful to put the book down.

The book is set shortly after September 11, 2001 and the attacks on the World Trade Center. The primary character, Tee (Thomas), is of Korean descent and was adopted by an American couple. At the beginning of the novel, Tee's uncle has committed suicide, seemingly in response to an affair between his wife (Tee's Aunt) and Tee's father. In response, Tee travels to Prague, seeking to find himself and his place in the world. Once in Prague, he becomes entwined with Pavel, an artist who is at least somewhat famous for his role in the Velvet Revolution of 1989, Pavel's wife Katka, and their friend Rockefeller.

Early in the book, I thought I might put the book down. Not because of the writing, which truly is beautiful. But Tee was downright annoying at times. This is perhaps an unfair criticism to lay on a character who, as a college student, is still just a kid trying to figure things out - but Tee's self-obsession about his past, his identity, and how it warps how he views those around him, gets a tad annoying.

But I'm glad I kept reading. Its not that Tee undergoes any fundamental change (whether Tee experiences this change, or is on the path, I think is one of the great questions posed by the novel). Its the question of whether Tee's self-obsession and inability to deal with the past will lead to tragedy or some other outcome. And that question rests on his passion and relationship with Katka. Without any spoilers, suffice to say that the dynamic between Tee and Katka, and their action and inaction with response to the pending flood in Prague, makes this novel, for lack of a better word, captivating; it gives it purpose and substance, and makes you yearn for more, and makes you have to know how it all ends.

Because of the small set of characters (really 4 throughout the bulk of the novel with some small ancillary characters throughout), the novel is personal, almost intimate. The author's writing is striking throughout, and shows the inner dimensions and unique depths of each of the primary characters. More than anything, The Hundred-Year Flood will be a book one will be glad they read.

View all my reviews