cover image THE FLOODMAKERS

THE FLOODMAKERS

Mylene Dressler, . . Putnam, $23.95 (176pp) ISBN 978-0-399-15163-7

Midway through Dressler's third novel (after The Medusa Tree and The Deadwood Beetle ), narrator Harry Buelle, the frustrated gay son of Dee Buelle, a famous Southern playwright, recalls his own first production, a one-act play in graduate school: the actors rely on improvisation and "a current should be palpable between them," but is not. His father derides Harry's efforts as "a waste." This flashback is a snapshot of the Buelle family dynamics—and unfortunately, it also mirrors the lack of current between the novel's key players. Harry is summoned from his home in Houston by his stepmother, Jean, to make an appearance at his father's home on the Gulf Coast, where Dee is old and ailing. Harry's younger sister, Sarah (an epileptic filmmaker), is also arriving with her husband to finish her documentary on her illustrious father. The usual tensions arise: Dee expounds upon the "life of the artist" and criticizes his children; warm and competent Jean, a former golf champion, tends uncomplainingly to his needs; and both siblings harbor long-simmering resentments. Deep family secrets are revealed (often in flashback, diluting much of their effect), and sister Sarah has one big revenge fantasy to play out—but somehow, this tightly wound group never quite comes to life. The narrative moves slowly, despite the brief chapters, and the spare style makes the blowups and revelations, when they come, seem implausible. Harry is a tortured soul trying to grapple with an odd family legacy, but Dressler's fans will find little here to grapple with themselves. Agent, Paul Chung. (Apr.)