The Disobedience of Water

by Sena Jeter Naslund

Evoking passion and heartbreak., intelligence and unapologetic humanity, these eight beautifully crafted stories explore the boundary conditions between the self and others. Although social realities -- racial and ethnic tensions, sexual harassment, and abuse -- make up their background, these are really love stories in which people discover and forgive one another. A daughter finds her father's kindness extends beyond her and their family; a wife discovers and forgives the affair between her husband and best friend; and, in the title story which takes the form of a letter to an almost-lover, the narrator winds through swirling eddies of memory and language to relate her present and past lives and the loves that have informed them.

Written with a masterful sureness of hand and heart, these captivating, intimate stories display Sena Jeter Naslund's extraordinary presence as one of today's most rewarding writers of fiction.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Sena Jeter Naslund is the New York Times best-selling author of five novels, including Ahab's Wife (1999) and Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette (HarperCollins, 2006). She is currently Distinguished Teaching Professor and Writer in Residence at the University of Louisville and program director of the Spalding University brief-residency Master in Fine Arts in Writing. Recipient of the Harper Lee Award and the Southeastern Library Association Fiction Award, she is co-founder of The Louisville Review and the Fleur-de-Lis Press. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky."

Reviews

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1999, I stood in line at my favorite bookstore to have my book, The Disobedience of Water signed by Sena Jeta Naslund. And what a beautiful book of short stories and novellas this was. In my effort to read the many books on my library shelves, I am happy to have plucked this one from the shelf. There were so many of these stories that resonated with me, making it extremely difficult to review this lovely book.

But while there were many of these short stories and novellas that impacted me, I will just tell you a little about my favorite novella, The Death of Julius Geissler. This beautiful tale touched me on so many levels. It is the lovely reminiscing of an aging world class violinist, Julius Geissler living in the era of the Great War as a young man going on to fame and performing throughout the world with his classic Stradivarius. But he had an old suit and he would go to the city parks in the places he played and would mingle with the people delighting in their appreciation of his music, as in Golden Gate Park or Sausalito when he would perform in San Francisco. At the heart of this beautiful and haunting novella is the Tartini Sonata in G Minor: The Devil's Trill. The legend goes that the Devil came to Tartini in a dream. He stood at the foot of his bed and played the sonata on a violin. When Tartini awoke he wrote it, but he couldn't remember it perfectly. It's a piece full of difficult trills. The violinist trills with some fingers and plays the melody with others at the same time. Tartini was famous for his ability to play trills, and so he makes them so diabolical as possible.

"So I began. . . my fingers--they were wonderful, like devil-dancers, like hummingbirds beating over the strings. . . .It was very good. The Egyptian came in for the last chords, then they shouted and applauded and handed me two steins of beer. . . And I was ecstatic with triumph."

While I have read most of Sena Jeter Naslund's historical fiction, this book of short stories and novellas gives one the incredible range of the beautiful and searing writing of this writer. I am glad that I had the foresight to go to my favorite independent book store and meet her; I'm just sorry that it has taken me so long to read this book.

[Joseph Sciuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throughout most of my life, I have been a big fan of the short story, yet over the last 5 years, for no reason at all, I have read very few short stories.

The short story, when crafted and composed correctly, is as powerful as any poem, novel, play, essay, or letter. Many great writers have failed when it comes to the short story, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Whereas other writers like Edgar Alan Poe, Hemingway, Joan Didion, Truman Capote, and John Updike have excelled and produced pure magic. Hemingway literally transformed the art and after finishing one of his stories, I would sit slightly numb and dumbfounded trying to figure out the characters' next moves. To quote a very famous writer, "Hemingway was a thinking man's writer."

Sena Jeter Naslund's, "The Disobedience of Water," is a wonderful collection of short stories and a few are absolutely gems. In the short story, 'The Shape You're In," Sarah, a young twenty-five year old artist, takes a job at a Montana University and at first the new environment is so different from the environment that she lived in back in Atlanta that she is fascinated by all that she sees. Slowly, the fascination turns into a deadly, paranoia, where behind every tree she feels danger and with every conversation with another person she tries to figure out their motives and what they truly intend on doing with her. This short story has remnants of Hemingway, especially the way it ends.

"The Death of Julius Geissler," is an absolutely beautiful short story about the magnificence of music. It is lyrical, enchanting, and heart throbbing.

My favorite of all the stories is the final one titled, "The Disobedience of Water." It is in this story that she reaches the pinnacle of her craft. The one thing that distinguishes a good writer from a great writer and that is "HONESTY." The honesty in this short story is so powerful that at times it tears you apart. It is in this gem of a story that we discover the writer, Ms. Naslund. The writer who differentiates herself from Hemingway, Capote, and all the great short story writers I mentioned above.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the least Sena-like Sena Jeter Naslund books I have yet to read. By this I actually mean very good things. Whether she's better with the form of a novel or the form of collected short stories like this, I honestly can't say, and technically speaking, there are only two stories in this whole book (The Shape You're In and The Disobedience of Water) that were original to this book. Every other story was either first published somewhere else and 2 were already printed the exact same in The Animal Way To Love and Ice-Skating At The North Pole. However, on some level that's fine considering those two were in no way bad. The best way to put it is that I felt like 2/3rds of this book were alright, somewhat interesting, and 1/3rd was some of the best fiction I have ever read from her in that it is perfectly exactly the kind of short story that you read, it contains everything it needs to, and then you just think about it forever.

[rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Undistilled Jeter Naslund. I say this quite neutrally. “Free State” and “Julius Geissler” are two of her best works.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh. except some bits from the very last short story (eponymous).

nevertheless, some quotes:

* “I envy the nakedness of fish.”

* “And I will know one thing about the heart—that it can break endlessly.”

* “I am trying to write to you…to write you out of myself as I sit outside my house, looking at bare, black branches, myself bunched up against the chill.”

* “You entered as language, as voice, and I would send you away as language. But stories subvert stories…”

* “As much as these children, when I was a child I felt the need to be given a second chance at being a child.”

[Siouxsie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I LOVE her novels. I've read Ahab's Wife twice, wept at Four Spirits, and tore through Abundance in one glorious sitting. But.... I just wasn't into these short stories. I didn't really care about any of the characters, and became easily frustrated by their actions. I'll wait for the next novel.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would be rather difficult to give this book a 5 star on the controversy of the stories alone. The way she writes some of the ugly truths... Nobody would give those truths 5 stars. I believe she intended for people to hate the writing as much as they couldn't help but appreciate it.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous writing. Lush detail and not too much of it. I swooned over the last, eponymous story.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful sentences. Maybe her long form works hang together better.

[Marika Gillis · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I love about reading short stories is the variety that you can get. You never know after finishing one story what the next one will hold!

There are eight short stories in this book. Naturally, some were better than others. I Am Born is about a young boy who sneaks into his father's car and unknowingly accompanies him to the home of his teenage patient. The boy develops a new perspective after helping his father give birth to the young lady's baby. Burning Boy tells the story of a six-year-old African American boy in Birmingham in the 1960s who receives a surprising gift of beautiful brown lace-up oxfords from the white man who owns the grocery store where the boy has been working. The Death of Julius Geissler explores a complicated relationship between a world-class violinist, his young new accompanist, and his older envious manager. In my favorite story in the book, The Shape You're In, Sarah travels to Montana to serve as a Visiting Professor at a university. She loves the beautiful cabin where she stays but is haunted by memories of the crazy boyfriend she seems to be running from. Finally, in the title story, The Disobedience of Water, a mother composes an unwritten letter to the man she loved most. In the letter, she recalls her former loves, thinks fondly of her son, and remembers a terrible catastrophe from her childhood.

Each story is unique but Naslund's writing style is ambiguous and hard to follow. It was difficult to completely understand what was happening in these short stories. Each of them seemed to revolve around the characters and their development, yet the disjointed thoughts of those characters, the random insertion of seemingly unrelated memories, and the frequent unexplained change of emotions often left me feeling confused. When I would finish a story I often wondered if I should re-read it, thinking I must have missed something. The stories were often confusing and, as I've discovered by writing this review a week after finishing the book, increasingly forgettable.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some truly lovely moments with language. Some of the stories I wanted to see grow into novels, and part of that was because there didn't feel to be enough in the brevity, as if something crucial were missing, and I knew she was driving at it but didn't reach the point. I especially enjoyed the opening story, "I Am Born," which has a young daughter follow her father to a birthing in another part of town, her observations and curiosity, though I do wonder, if it grew any more than the size it was, if it wouldn't be too much like To Kill a Mockingbird to be original. I have had Ahab's Wife on my to-read list for quite some time, though I want to revisit Moby Dick first, and that might take some time.

[Erica-Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A master of the novel, Naslund's talents sometimes feel limited by the short story format. Her vast thoughts seem cut and crammed at times, her characters wanting the kind of fleshing-out she is so good at. Even so, there is real poignancy and unexpected authenticity ("I Am Born," "Burning Boy"), and eccentric and unsettling situations ("How Do You Do, Mr. Cat?"). It's interesting to see how a novelist of epic, historic subject matters handles the narrow worlds she has created in this collection.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a troubling book for me to review. A collection of short stories and novellas written by an amazing writer in so many ways... yet Naslund falls into the temptation to throw in some tawdry, crude experiences in some stories. One in particular ("Into the Free State") disgusted me, frankly. Others I really enjoyed. She has a wonderful style and voice, just chooses subject matter I'd rather not read about.

[Heyrebekah Alm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. It just seemed like every story sort of danced around, not pinning anything down. It was a challenge just to figure out what the heck was going on in some of these stories. And not a rewarding challenge either. I think Naslund tried too hard to describe everything in a fresh and unique way, but too often neglected to set the scene so that her readers could appreciate what she was saying.

[Isla McKetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a rule, I don't read short stories anymore. They don't give me time or space to immerse myself in the characters and too often the things that happen in them are too small or uninteresting for me to care.

This book proved me wrong on all accounts. The worlds are gorgeously written and full, the characters are deeply nuanced, and I was so immersed that I actually cared about the small and big things that happened.

[Deidre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sena Jeter Naslund. The Disobedience of Water. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.
This was a strange collection of short stories about generally very well educated, intelligent people. It was also about betrayal – people who cheat on each other and children who are sexually abused. She was good with words - a good writer, a challenging writer - but definitely strange.

[Kathleen Valentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing in each of these stories is superb though I found some of them far more engaging than others. Sena Jeter Naslund writes with a depth and maturity that is rare in contemporary literature. I think my favorite story was The Death of Julius Geissler a brilliant violinist who effected people both with his music and his unique and mercurial personality.

Lovely collection.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved reading these short stories, especially after having met the author last fall. I enjoyed hearing her voice again. The structure of these stories is surprising, all of the characters are compelling & the last story is so good that I feel sad the book is very. I will have to read another book by this author soon.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was difficult finding my pace with this book of short stories, but that says more about me right now than the book. Loved "Madame Charpentier and Her Children" and the title story had a Molly Bloom sort of feel which I could appreciate more than enjoy.

[Billie Hinton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Naslund's novel Ahab's Wife but hadn't read this collection of stories and novellas until this week.

Her writing is beautiful in all these pieces but I especially loved the title novella. The prose really ripples and sings and I was captivated by the storyline itself

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sena Jeter Naslund has a way of bringing words to observations and ideas that, for most people, remain in the sub-conscious. These short stories are nice examples of her wonderful writing.

[Annie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Loathed all of the stories.

[Susan Vreeland]

Sena Jeter Naslund is a wonderful writer. I appreciated her prose in Ahab's Wife so much that I'm loooking forward to reading her stories.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting stories, but none really had an ending.

[Heather Beall]

left it on a plane, not all that disappointed

[Maureen]

This is well worth getting into. A little slow at first, but the stories are haunting.

[Pam from Maine]

Started did not finish. Don't go for short stories much.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

? don't remember this very well