Author: John Broderick
Title: The Flood
Description: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd 1987 Hardback, 367pp. The immemorial life of the Irish village of Bridgeford, fondly portrayed in this charming novel set in the 1930s, seems unchanging and eternal until an invading English speculator moves to buy some beautifully situated land on the banks of the Shannon. Little does he knownor does anyone hasten to tell himthat the land is flooded for almost half the year. Nothing much comes of it, nor does this much matter. What does is the genial country humor, the picturesque scene, the shrewd observation, the tolerance of human foible, and most of all, the parade of characters, even if they are a trifle stereotypical. Sometimes the humor runs to quaintness in the names of some of the village's pillars: pub-owner Fenny O'Barrell (really Benny O'Farrell), Mrs. 'Pig' Prendergast, widow of the late pig butcher, the toothless old crone 'Gummy' Hayes; a woman at last pregnant after a barren lifetime who matches her garters to the colors of the liturgical calendar (which is one kind of piety) and the beauteous lass lusted after by those who should know better. Set in one decade, it could just as well have been set in another before or after: life goes on undulating as the Shannon, and Broderick (The Rose Tree) is its ingratiating cartographer. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. Dj. Good.

Keywords: Fiction


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