Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2006
Abstract
Jane Varley's Flood Stage and Rising opens with what becomes the haunting echo of the narrative, "how far north should we go?" The "north" of the Great Plains impresses itself on Varley's consciousness immediately when she observes, "the land was flat. So flat it looked bizarre." In order to begin her PhD studies, she and her husband Gary move from one landscape (the lush greenery and hills of Virginia) to the rich diluvian river bed of Grand Forks, North Dakota. A Great Plains town that inspires tall tales, Grand Forks is built on the edge of the Red River, the last remnant of the great Agassiz Basin. Undeterred by such a contrasting landscape from what they have known, and ready for adventure in a new location, Varley and her husband learn both the beauty and bizarreness of life on the Great Plains.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 26:4 (Fall 2006). Copyright © 2006 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.