Blackwater, Part IV: The War

And the drama that is the Craskey family in Perdido, Alabama continues...

 

Book IV in the Blackwater series is simply entitled The War - and, if you've been following the lives and times of the Caskey family and the citizens of the small town of Perdido, you'd know that this refers to the Second World War, in which the United States made its entrance in December 1941.  This means that the years are passing for the Caskey family; the children are growing up, the adults are getting older, and things are changing for everyone.  And author Michael McDowell continues to integrate just enough supernatural and horror into the story to remind the reader that this is not just a simply story of the lives and times of a prospering family in the South.

The War picks up two years after the death of Mary-Love Caskey, who had been the matriarch and head of the Caskey family.  Life is moving on, as it usually does after someone passes, and Elinor slowly begins to assert herself as the new head of the family.  James is retired from the mill, and Oscar has taken over completely.  Sister Haskew has not returned to her husband, but instead has stayed on with Miriam in Mary-Love's house under the pretense that Miriam needs someone to care for her and the house.  Miriam, on the other hand, heads out each and every day to go to the beach.  In an unexpected turn of events, she up and invites her sister, Frances, to go with her one day.  And that's when everything begins to change...

Frances, who was previously ill and bed-ridden, finds that she not only loves the beach, but she actually comes alive when she goes into the water.  Without realizing it, she finds that she can spend hours and hours in the water, swimming literal miles out from shore, and she never gets tired or hungry!  Miriam barely takes notice, and at first, Frances does not realize how unusual this is.  She doesn't suspect that there is anything abnormal about her love of the water and her ability to swim beneath the surface for hours and hours.

Meanwhile, things are beginning to change for the rest of the family.  Queenie's son is arrested with a friend of his for armed robbery of a small store outside of Perdido.  Grace returns home from teaching and decides to live with her father, James.  Queenie and James strike up a rather intimate friendship, spending more and more time together.  Once the war start, business picks up at the mill, and Oscar finds that the only customer he needs is the military.  Danjo decides to join the military, much to James' sorrow.  Frances meets a nice military man with whom she develops a relationship that leads to marriage.   And poor Lucille - she faces the worst of them all when she is raped by her own brother's friend, who breaks out of jail and comes back to Perdido to seek revenge on Malcolm's family for helping to put him away - only, his revenge is short-lived, for he (as well as everyone else) is completely unaware that young Frances, who discovers Lucille after the rape, is much, MUCH more than what she appears to be!

McDowell once again keeps the horror subdued and understated, but that only serves to make it that much more terrifying.  Travis Gann's death at the hands of Frances (or, rather, at the being that is sometimes Frances) is not overly graphic, but it is definitely grotesque - even if he does deserve that and so much worse for what he did to poor Lucille.  It's a grim reminder that just below the surface (of the water and of the story itself) lurks something dark and deadly, something that could easily change the course of every life in the story.  

One thing that did bother me about this part of the series, though, is the author's apparent attitude towards his gay characters.  So, it turns out Grace is a very masculine lesbian, which is blatantly admitted when she returns home after having broken up with her latest girlfriend.  The family seems to accept her homosexuality with no real issues, despite the time period in which the story is set.  At the same time, The War reveals more about James' "feminine" side, and while Queenie and the others gloss over it, James is presented as having unnaturally strong feelings towards Danjo (his adopted son), and even goes so far as to wanting to find another baby boy to take his place.  While it's unclear whether his intentions are simply that he's a man who wants a son or a gay man who has feelings for a younger man (who happens to be his adopted son), what IS clear is that the author represents Grace as a strong person accepted in the community, while James is a weak man who is to be pitied for not being "normal."  This stark contrast between the two leaves one to wonder about the author's own beliefs (the stereotypical straight male's fantasy of two women being accepted and even sought after, while two men is abhorrent and totally unnatural).

Nevertheless, despite this questionable representation, the story seems to be building speed, as Frances now knows who an what she is, and the family continues to grow, both in prosperity and in numbers.  World War II is over, and at the end of The War, one of the Caskeys passes on (but his spirit, perhaps, lingers on...)

RATING:  9 ladybird lullabies out of 10 for building the tensions of a family struggle, while keeping supernatural undertones right at the edge of the story so the reader never forgets that horror is just around the corner...