The Levee (Blackwater #2)
Published February 1983 by Avon Books, Paperback 191 pages
Elinor Dammert abandoned her first-born child in a bargain with Mary-Love Caskey of Perdido, Alabama, and set in motion a series of strange familial entanglements. Her goals: power, money, her way.
In her way, she would begin to suck power from the weaknesses of the family she had entered through marriage. Her power would be felt again and again even if it meant murder - or a horifying ancient ritual death. Elinor Dammert must win.
User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Low on drama yet high on impending doom, Book #2 of the Blackwater saga continues to have me captivated and obsessed. This family is such a trip, and mixing in the mysterious river woman is the perfect catalyst to epic disaster. Not ready to give it 5 stars, because McDowell's really got to stick the landing to justify this much build-up, but it won't surprise me if the complete serial novel ends up being one of my all-time favorites.
Rating: really liked it
This Southern Gothic soap opera of a series continues to be a blast!
A levee is built. A distant family member arrives much to the consternation of everyone in the family. That was not the only addition to the Caskey family either.
The central mystery continues on in this entry and becomes even deeper as this book draws to a close on some very graphic notes. WOW.
This series is so much fun so far and I'm already a quarter of the way through the third volume, The House.
Recommend for fans of Southern Gothic, 80's horror and damn good stories!
Rating: really liked it
5 STARS — Much like Volume I, Volume II of Michael McDowell’s magnum-opus Blackwater is a literally treat the likes of which are on the slimmest side if seldom. The Levee gives us escalation, but in a very lulled-speed that befits the town of Perdido, Alabama circa 1930.
Full Review to come for this and Volume III shortly..
Rating: really liked it
THE LEVEE is the second book in Michael McDowell's Blackwater series. I found this section to focus primarily on the dynamics between the people of the town, and in particular, the relations in the Caskey family. Elinor has really begun to assert herself behind the scenes as Oscar's driving force and motivation. New characters are brought into the town that begin to play prominent roles, and--as the title indicates--the town begins the building of the levee in order to hopefully avoid a future flood. There were several good, cringe-worthy scenes in this section; although very little additional light is shed as to the mystery surrounding Elinor, other than what we learned in Book 1: The Flood.
I find the fact that the Caskey's and only two other families compose the entire "elite" in this town to be of particular interest. The "siding" of residents with certain members, and the politics of the way men conduct their business transactions was insightful as to how things will go in the future "books".
I plan on starting the next installment of the BLACKWATER series, immediately.
Highly recommended!
Rating: really liked it
The building of a levee to prevent further town-swallowing floods serves as a backdrop for the second installment of
Blackwater, but the real action takes place on the front porches and at the dinner tables of the Caskey clan: a baby is traded for autonomy, a gaudy in-law comes looking for handouts with her sleazy and dangerous husband not far behind, passive aggression and gossip are used as weapons in a slow-burning battle between a cunning matriarch and a shape shifting lake creature for control of the family and its wealth. The patient and evocative prose is simply delectable as it fuses together sweeping narration, witty banter and convincing depictions of supernatural terror and violence. May feel more like a magical realist family drama than a horror novel to the person on the street, but to the game reader awaits a singular reading experience that goes down as smooth as sweet tea and blood sacrifices.
Rating: really liked it
I didn’t think this could top
The Flood, but top it it did! The second volume in Michael McDowell’s legendary Blackwater saga is a feat, a marvel of tightened storytelling and compelling drama.
I think what McDowell does best here — oh, he does so many things perfectly in these books — is his evocation of the setting. The reader truly
feels he or she has been transported back to southern Alabama circa 1923, humidity and mosquitos and small town gossip and southern hospitality and all. And I’m totally not biased because I live here.
And McDowell’s understanding of family dynamics and classist politics is quite apparent here: he manages to make Dickensian commentary on these topics in only a fraction of the pages it took England’s favorite son.
I apologize that this is a less of a review and more of me fanboying. But this series of novels is worth all the praise it has gotten over the years, and more. I am truly enthralled now!
Rating: really liked it
The chronicle of the Caskeys continues, as new players arrive on stage from unexpected directions, the levee comes into being, a grim prediction for the future of the town is made, and the supernatural entity that has made Perdido it's home continues to defy classification, as elusive as trying to nail down a drop of mercury, leaving the current of mystery at the heart of this tale deceptively deep beneath it's seemingly placid surface, suddenly sucking the reader under with moments that will leave them gasping.
Rating: really liked it
great characters, superb storytelling. just read this series!
Rating: really liked it
This is the second book in The Blackwater Series. The town people are debating whether they should build a levee to protect the town of Perdido from being flooded again. Everyone is for the levee except Elinor. She says that the river will never rise like that again. Elinor was out voted and the levee was to be built. With the levee in it's planning stages, an engineer name Earl Haskew comes to towm. Mary Love offers Early room and board at her house just to spite Elinor. Elinor has gained a great deal of power, since she married Oscar Caskey. Sister starts to reevaluate her living situation with her mother and thinks that maybe Early could be her escape goat. Mary Love hates Elinor and would do anything to make her looking bad. This set up a great power struggle for control of the Caskey family. Each book is better than the last one. I highly recommend this book!
Rating: really liked it
Part 2 in the Blackwater Saga continues the inter-family disputes of those living in Perdido while focusing on the construction of the levee in town. As a complete story with its own arc, part 2 didn't live up to the intro of The Flood, however this felt like an important bridge between where we started and where we're going. That being said, I'm far more excited about those possibilities of where this is headed than the particular story that was told within The Levee. Still absorbed enough in the characters, traditions, and the mystery with Elinore's character to keep charging through, and love McDowell's organic prose and the character his setting has become as part of this story.
Rating: really liked it
It was a bit lacking in building up the same tenseness as the first one.Still,The second installment is AMAZING!!!!.
But can Miss Mary-love for once stop making absolutely terrible and wrong decisions because it makes the supposed evil character(Elinor) in this book seem innocent and its getting on my nerves that everybody is sympathizing with her.
Rating: really liked it
Unsettled in the end.
World: The world building is strong. It lulls readers in a false of calm and then the unsettling things come into play. The tone of the world is slow and quiet and something is not quite right.
Story: A solid continuation of the last book with the building of the levee. It's a nice little plot device that puts characters at odds and the new pieces that come into play are interesting. I will say that the plot did not go as I planned and that's good.
Characters: The characters are strong, they are slowly built and the mains have depth and a sense that there is more that readers cannot see. It's done well. The new pieces are also interesting but lack depth, only enough to serve the story.
Unsettled.
Onward to the next book!
Rating: really liked it
In “The Levee”, the second book in Michael McDowell’s chilling Southern Gothic horror series
Blackwater, the town of Perdido, Alabama has hired on an engineer to build a levee that would hopefully mitigate or prevent the devastating effects of flood similar to the one several years ago, in 1919, which was also the year that Elinor Dammert mysteriously showed up. Everyone in town seems to be for it, except for Elinor, who believes that the river won’t let them build it.
No one knows or suspects that Elinor isn’t quite human. She is a creature linked inextricably to the river, borne from the fetid black water of the Perdido, and the river demands blood sacrifices now and then.
This is a weird series, and I mean that in a good way. McDowell, born and raised in the South, clearly has a kinship with fellow Southern writers like Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, and William Faulkner, all of whom had a vivid and existential love-hate relationship with the South.
The best Southern writers all tend to strike a similar chord about the unique nature and, well, personality of the region. The land, the culture, the type of people that choose to live there: all these elements intertwine into a tapestry, which the keenest of regional authors help to weave.
McDowell has done that masterfully in his Blackwater series, capturing the hot sultriness of the Alabama country, the psycho-sexual tensions of a post-Reconstruction era, and the insane family dynamics of a wealthy white Southern legacy family.
Whether one is Southern or not shouldn’t matter when it comes to appreciating this series. When you read McDowell’s words, you are, temporarily, a Southerner.
Rating: really liked it
I find each time I read this book I read it faster and faster (hooray for the summer months where reading in the sun is still possible)
This book builds on the cast list first presented with the roster growing by the page. You are never quite sure where allegiances lay or who or what agenda you are witnessing now. The gothic feel to the story give a refreshing edge to the family politics and power plays. It would be so easy to dismiss this story (and the others in the series) as a family soap opera but you know that bubbling under the surface tensions are eager to burst out in to murderous actions and supernatural forces are constantly shifting pushing and manipulating events. I remember reading this book and wondering where it will end and with who - only to find that rather than thinking - well thats that, I had to rush out to find the 3rd volume and see where next we ventured. Even today I find this a unique series with few if any to compare to the atmosphere and creativity of the story.
Rating: really liked it
[ "It wasn't Miss Elinor's face that returned his gaze (hide spoiler)]
