The Flood
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๏ปฟLonely Philip Papp cuts a sad version of Michelangeloโs David. But that doesn't seem to matter post-deluge and he manages to attract a small crowd of spectators, most days, from his first-floor window.
After the flood, Betty Swain's old, arthritic fingers are free to work their magic with impunity and (bless her heart) for no fixed fee. Bereft, bemused widowers are happy to pay her a fair rate. Ask Bill the policeman.
Who sent the mysterious flood? Decided which people would perish? Did all ambition, judgement, and censure recede and evaporate with it?
Jon Ferguson's novel holds a mirror up to a West that's all but saturated with covetousness, media, and law enforcement. Humorous and joyful, with fat droplets of pathos...is it a utopian or dystopian vision? The thing is, your need to judge and then pigeonhole might not even survive the narrative.
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Jon Ferguson was born in October 1949 in Oakland, California, into a devout Christian family, much like his favorite philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. In fact, as a child, church services were held in the family living room. At age 17, his passion for sport was almost usurped by a keenness to save the world when he enrolled at the Mormon-owned Brigham Young University. Little by little, though, he realized that if Jesus couldn't do it, neither could he. His faith in divinity began to crumble. With an adieu to the US academic world where heโd been immersed in anthropology and philosophy โ and with a desire to engage with the world at large โ Ferguson hopped on a plane in 1973 and by chance ended up in Nyon, Switzerland where he was soon playing basketball in the top Swiss league, becoming a key player in what fans consider to have been the golden age.
Half a century later he is now just as well known for his writing (eighteen books published in French) as for his coaching (thirty years' worth). He won more games than any coach in Swiss basketball history, but he likes to remind people that he lost more than everyone else as well... He has written over twenty novels and a book on Nietzsche, Nietzsche au Petit Dรฉjeuner (โNietzsche for Breakfastโ) and a book on the history of Swiss basketball,Of Hoops and Men. For twenty-five years he also wrote a bi-weekly column in the Lausanne newspaper called โAinsi Parla Schmaltzโ. His novel Farleyโs Jewel (Cinco Puntos Press, 1998) won a Barnes & Noble โDiscover Great New Writers of Americaโ prize
