"Surviving the Flood"

(Reviewed by Judi Clark SEP 16, 1999)

If you ever tried to imagine what it was like being on Noah's Ark, then you must read this book!  And then add in this nugget -- what if you were Noah's teenage son?   Imagine the embarrassment as your father starts to build a huge boat and you live nowhere near the water. And here you are just starting to get interested in girls... 

As the New York Times so aptly put it, "This wry novel belongs to that category of books whose purpose is to set the historical record straight. In this case, the Official Report is the Book of Genesis."

I gave this book to my Dad to read after my sister finished with it. My sister Wendy loved it. My Dad felt there was a little too much sex going on. So thought I'd warn you... I did say Noah's son was a teenager didn't I?

• Amazon readers rating: from 2 reviews

Read an excerpt from Surviving the Flood at Ploughshares

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Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)

• Chill of Dusk (1964)
• Crossings (1975)
• Ghost Images (1979)
• Surviving the Flood (1986)
• Bending Time (1997)

Nonfiction:

• Three Genres: The Writing of Poetry, Fiction and Drama (1965, updated 2002 7th Edition)
• Literary Nonfiction: The Fourth Genre (October 2002)

Related:

• The Idaho Review (1999)

 

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Book Marks:

• University of California website for Stephen Minot and his books

 

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About the Author:

Stephen Minot's short stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine and The Paris Review. He is the Winner of two NEA fellowships for fiction and has taught at Bowdoin College, Trinity College and Hartford and is Professor Emeritus of the Creative Writing Department at University of California Riverside.  He is the author of Three Genres: The Writing of Poetry, Fiction and Drama which is text for many creative writing classes.

Stephen is Professor Emeritus at University of California in Riverside. He teaches Creative Writing.