Float

by JoeAnn Hart

When everything around you is sinking, sometimes it takes desperate measures to stay afloat. When Duncan Leland looks down at the garbage-strewn beach beneath his office window, he sees the words God Help Us scrawled in the sand. While it seems a fitting message-not only is Duncan's business underwater, but his marriage is drowning as well-he goes down to the beach to erase it. Once there, he helps a seagull being strangled by a plastic six-pack holder-the only creature in worse shape than he is at the moment. Duncan rescues the seagull, not realizing that he's being filmed by a group of conceptual artists and that the footage will soon go viral, turning both him and the gull into minor celebrities. And when an unsavory yet very convincing local, Osbert Marpol, talks him into a not-quite-legitimate loan arrangement, Duncan can't help but agree in a last-ditch attempt to save the jobs of his employees. For a while, it seems as if things are finally looking up for Duncan-yet between his phone-sex-entrepreneur ex-girlfriend's very public flirtations and the ever-mysterious terms of his new loan, Duncan realizes that there's no such thing as strings-free salvation-and that it's only a matter of time before the tide rises ominously around him again. A wry tale of financial desperation, conceptual art, insanity, infertility, seagulls, marital crisis, jellyfish, organized crime, and the plight of a plastic-filled ocean, JoeAnn Hart's novel takes a smart, satirical look at family, the environment, and life in a hardscrabble seaside town in Maine.

300 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

JoeAnn Hart is the author of the story collection Highwire Act & Other Tales of Survival, the true crime memoir Stamford ’76: A True Story of Murder, Corruption, Race, and Feminism in the 1970s, as well as the novels Float, a dark comedy about plastics in the ocean, and Addled, a social satire. Her novel Arroyo Circle is forthcoming from Green Writers Press in October 2024.
Her short fiction and essays have appeared in a wide range of literary publications, including Slate.com, Orion, The Hopper, Prairie Schooner, The Sonora Review, Terrain.org, and many others. Her work most often explores the relationship between humans, their environments, and the other than human world.

Reviews

[Sarah Patt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Float by JoeAnn Hart was well written with descriptive detail I felt I was in the book's setting. However, I am giving it three stars because I felt it was several stories put together and I found myself rereading to make sure which character I was reading about. In my opinion, that's where a good editor comes in and says we need to delete this and that because it's too wordy and/or irrelevant. This 281-page novel took me a while to finish because I kept putting it down. I did enjoy its happy ending and I love the fact that the storyline was based on the anti-pollution of the oceans. I certainly applaud books that deal with the environment and safeguarding it. I also met the author and she is a genuine soul so I plan on reading her other novel, Addled (2007) in the near future.

[Shel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful — and funny! My apologies to this book, which I left adrift on the shelf, thinking a drama about infertility, over-fishing and polluted oceans might not appeal. Fortunately, I picked it up first thing after listening to a TEDxRainier talk about ocean conservation by Seattle Aquarium President Bob Davidson.

I was delighted and, by the end, absolutely cheering the craft and wit. It's flows from sentence to paragraph, scene to plot with waves of cleverness and insight.

My only regret is that I read this in the middle of winter inland. This book may be the quintessential beach read. It has fun with serious issues and would make a great summer movie (pairs well with The Green and the Red by Armand Chauvel).

Well, here I am, gushing over another book. But, really, what's better than a great book that catches you by surprise and has you highlighting sentences? Clean oceans, maybe?

Writers read this for: setting (sea and seaside fishing town), character (fantastic sympathetic protagonist, antagonists and foils), use of metaphor (all spot on and thematic with the ocean theme - frothed to perfection and not overdone).

Quotes:
"You can make something out of anything, my friend, if you put your whole heart in it."
"If we want the rest of the world to stop trashing the water we have to set the example."
'What's good for the sea life is good for our life!"
"I felt that it was possible for the world to be saved as long as at least one person learns something and acts on it."
"'We can't do everything.' 'No, but we can do something.'"

[George Rosen · Rating 5 out of 5]

At its best, which is often, FLOAT reads as if written by the secret daughter of P.G. Wodehouse and Rachel Carson, at once hilarious and gracefully disturbing. A real delight.

[Maura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Duncan Leland has troubles: his personal life seems to be in shambles and his business isn’t much better. A random message written in sand below his office window starts a chain of events that ultimately saves him, although it’s hard to recognize salvation at times. Set in a small Maine waterfront town, the issues he faces demonstrate the intertwining needs of communities that rely on one resource, in this case, fish.

[MaryEllen Holbrook]

Think “Arrested Development” but set in a coastal Maine town, without Jessica Walter’s well-delivered barbs or Tobias Funke’s notoriously Freudian predicaments. All the same, the cast of characters still held my interest and delivered a laugh or two; along with the intrigue of where the socio-economic commentary was going next.

[JR · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out with good character development but the plot unraveled by mid-book. The end was just silly.

[Genevieve Montcombroux · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disjointed novel.

[Gene Helfman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parts global warming/sea level rise prophesy, dysfunctional family portrayal, star-crossed lover romance, knowledgeable sailboat racing zealots, animal welfare and rescue advocacy, failed business plan, reduce/reuse/recycle mantra, organized crime nuance, anti-pollution rage, all in a New England seaside setting filled with eccentric characters and you can see why some readers wanted a tighter story line. But JoeAnn Hart pulls it all together in a dramatic, storm-tossed climax. A fun read.

[Dharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Float is a multifaceted gem of New England life. Duncan Leland, called home after his father's death by drowning, is running his family's fish parts processing plant in coastal Maine...running it into the ground. His life is falling apart. His wife has been trying to get pregnant and cannot put up with his dithering dreaminess. His ex high-school girlfriend has her eyes on him again. His business is bankrupt and the only money available comes from a stranger who is undoubtedly connected to the Boston mob.

Add to this a mother who lives a nautically themed fantasy life, and has not left her house in several years; and a brother whose main goal in life is fulfilling his mother's sailing fantasies. She is powered by perhaps hallucinogenic mulberry wine which has been marinating in the cellar for several decades. Did I forget the mysterious death of an "installation artist" who disappeared from town 20 years ago?

JoeAnn Hart brings her skills of insight and humor to this whirlwind of relationships, and adds a classic Nor'easter to the mix to get things up and floating. One of the great pleasures of this novel are the minor characters with major issues who swirl around Duncan and his family. Slocum, his best friend, is a chef whose seafood creations represent the edge of culinary experimentation and risk. The employees of the fish parts factory are alternately helpful, or bent on sabotage. Josefa is the addled savior of seagulls, and Osbert the mobster quotes Winston Churchill.

Driven by humor, and propelled by high winds and water, Float is a fine entertainment for a week on the shore, or a loud laugh while reading alone.

[Janet Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked, but didn’t love, this novel. It’s the story of Duncan Leland of hardscrabble Port Ellery, Maine. The family business is falling apart fast, his marriage may be falling apart even faster, his mother’s sanity is in question, and the town’s most unsavory citizens seem to be closing in, hungry vultures circling the wreckage of his life. And that’s before he ends up an unwilling YouTube star and town laughingstock when he’s filmed saving an injured seagull in a highly undignified manner. The characters and situations are fun, and the environmental message important (if a little heavy-handed in its treatment). The book’s blurb bills it as a “tale of financial desperation, conceptual art, insanity, infertility, seagulls, marital crisis, jellyfish, organized crime, and the plight of a plastic-filled ocean.” And therein lies both the strength and the weakness of the book. It’s fun to watch the author toss all these varied balls into the air, but they don’t all stay in the air with equal finesse or come back down with equal grace, so when it all wrapped up at the end it wasn’t entirely satisfying to me. (Rounded up to four stars from three and a half.)

Thank you to the author and the Goodreads First Reads program for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Angie ~aka Reading Machine~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Duncan Leland's business and marriage are drowning in a sea of forgetfulness. If Duncan soon doesn't do something he'll lose them both. Duncan is caught rescuing seagull on camera becoming something of an overnight sensation. Duncan and his wife Cora are trying to get pregnant through invitro fertizlation. Duncan has strange relationship with his mother and brother. Duncan is offered a way to save his company and jumps at the chance reluctantly. Can Duncan's business be saved? Can Duncan's marriage be saved as well? Will Duncan remain in a sea of forgetfulness? Your answers await you in Float.

Honestly this book took awhile to pick up it's pace. I had trouble keeping my mind on what I was reading which is something that I usually don't have a problem doing. Personally I think some more editing needed to be done to make a better book. I found no grammar and punctuation errors in the book. I appreciated the author's efforts this just wasn't the book for me.

[Catherine Parnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Float is a deftly written novel that manages to deliver an important environmental message about plastics and pollution even as it maintains a darkly humorous narrative line about the pecadillos of family life. From the beginning, when Duncan Leland finds God Help Us scratched into the sand, to the end, when Kelp Day brings all the story lines together, readers are going to feel deeply and painfully Duncan's dilemma—his business is tanking, his marriage is floundering, his mother and brother are living in an alternate sphere. Hart's wise and witty language delivers a punch, the twists and turns of the narrative will keep you laughing (and sometimes crying) – but readers will not be able to forget what really drives this story: an overriding concern for the natural world. Run to your nearest Indie Bookstore and grab a copy.

[Mindy Mejia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The epigraph at the beginning of Float immediately warmed me to the story that followed:
"To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float." -Alan Watts
Watts has long been one of my favorite philosophers and his words are the perfect guide to this fresh, funny, and earnest book about a man who seems to grab at the polluted water of his own life. Duncan Leland is an endearing bumbler trying to save his failing business, marriage, and family in the oceanside town of Port Ellery, Maine. The novel touches on everything from conceptual art to jellyfish plastic to ocean pollution without losing its fluid momentum toward a spectacular tsunami of an ending in which Duncan finally learns how to float. A satisfying and engaging read.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written, but occasionally it seemed like there were too many characters and too many threads for a relatively short book. Duncan's marriage, Duncan's job, Syrie, the crazy mother, Nod's issues, Slocum's food, mobster theories, Adoniram, Josefa and Kelp, the special floor...and then while the storm provided a fantastic climax, the ending with Everard the wealthy attorney finally making the mom's life magically meaningful again seemed too easy. And the thing with the dad's body kind of came out of nowhere. Really, the final chapter was unnecessary (why do we need to know what happens to the banker or that Syrie is part of his midlife crisis?) and chapters 20 and 21 could have been condensed into one.

[Rubery Book Award · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd Prize Winner in the Rubery Book Award
This is a gloriously funny and perceptive book with an unpredictable plot, populated by unique characters. Cleverly titled, it’s about impending financial ruin, the abundance of plastic that washes up on beaches, a rescue centre for seagulls and art – amongst other things. A terrific read, unfortunately let down by the fact that half the pages are falling out!
From the judges at Rubery Book Award

[Gordon Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Totally got me into her world, her characters so wonderfully flawed. Great turnaround by the end and also great criss-crossing plots to get there. But the writing is truly excellent, like a great skier coming down an impressive mountain. I read it, read another book and half way through put it down, went back and read Float a second time. Even better. More, please . . .

[Terrie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Plot sounded really interesting but I couldn't get past the first chapter. Absolutely drowning in excessive adjectives and similes like "marriage began to spiral down the drain" and "those worries began to bloom like algae in a stagnant pond".

[Jeanne Agee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story. Once I was finally able to sit down long enough to really get into this I couldn't put it down. Story was very entertaining. Many parts funny and others seemed like things that anyone could find themselves stuck in. You need to read this book!!!

[MB (What she read) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Creative and complicated

[Suki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very creative, great message!

[Laura Harrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laugh out loud funny about a chilling topic. The environmental disaster that is plastic is handled with wonderful dark humor.
A great companion to this book would be "Plastic Free."

[Rachel]

Pretty good book. It got boring at some parts, but overall, not that bad.

[Lorine Kritzer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A humorous take on families, art and the environment, but there is too much going on and I predicted the surprise early on.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost hopeless enough that I stopped caring about him, there was enough crazy that I wanted to see where it all ended up.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done! Enjoyed the mystery behind the story.

[Zora]

promised to be amusing, by 30 pages was not.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this story and it's wonderful tidbits of advice. I found humor and startling events that made the book very entertaining.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan! While it was well-written, I did not like the characters. Everyone was weak and weird. Not my cup of tea.