The fraught and fractured past of Panic River finally catches up with Corey Flanagan
image: Edward Hopper’s Groundswell / 1939
THE SECOND BOOK IN THE PANIC RIVER TRILOGY
After fleeing from Panic River four years earlier, Corey Flanagan has now changed virtually everything in his life—where he lives, how he creates art, his routines for work and play, and even his last name. The only true constants are his best friend Billy, his mother Ginny, and frequent, troubling dreams about the shootings he ran from and for which Corey was never held to account.
Now living in California, Corey passionately paints landscapes in the style of Edward Hopper, while seeing his life and his surroundings more clearly and generating award-winning art. Another life change surprises Corey as well—an unexpected romance with a younger man, Miguel. This is a relationship that will challenge Corey to finally become a person of complete honesty, both with those he loves and also with himself.
The fraught and fractured past Corey ran from four years earlier eventually catches up with him in unforeseen ways, dragging Corey back to the Midwest for a reckoning with his unresolved former life—healing his estrangement from long-time friend and once-lover Carol, settling scores with his twenty-year partner Nick, and confronting the guilt and responsibility for the accidental killing a trucker with whom Corey had a regrettable one-night tryst.
Other unexpected discoveries and life changes revealed while he toils in the Midwest will forever after affect Corey’s life as well as those he loves the most. Yet through it all, Corey’s personal journey toward healing, honesty, understanding, and love will carry him along the path of becoming a man, and to places from which he no longer needs to run.
ENDORSEMENTS
“Reckoning Waves is a gripping, emotional, and thought-provoking journey into love, loss, and ultimately redemption. Foster beautifully captures not only his protagonist’s struggle in this page-turning thriller, but also other characters’ journeys to find forgiveness for and from others; and then, hardest of all, realizing they may never be forgiven, but instead need to find it for themselves.”
Nicole Sobchack, award-winning writer and producer of “Please Tell Me I’m Adopted”
“When you have what you want most—love, a passion for art, a home in paradise—you think you've outrun your past. But without honesty, life is fragile. RECKONING WAVES tosses its protagonist right back into his guilt, where he might lose everything. Foster writes with deep heart and keen specificity.”
Sandra Scofield, American Book Award winning author of Swim: Stories of the Sixties and The Last Draft
"Equal parts thrilling and tender, Reckoning Waves is a triumphantly important novel about what we carry with us and how it might be possible to seek redemption for our sins. Once again, Foster has written another must-read."
Robert James Russell, author of Mesilla and Sea of Trees
“In Reckoning Waves, Corey Flanagan's art imitates life and his life imitates art. Foster deftly weaves together an artist’s struggle to paint the perfect scene with his struggle to navigate a reckoning with his past. In page-turning suspense, readers follow Corey’s journey toward truth, both in his art and in his life.”
Ronald C. Nelson, Executive Director, Long Beach Museum of Art
“Reckoning Waves picks right up where Panic River left off. Foster’s effortless prose and creative suspense shine through yet again in this new work. Readers will be swept up in a thrilling tale of new love, old friendships, and the delicate bonds of family where each of those relationships is tested in unexpected ways. Reckoning Waves summons readers deeper into the resonant yet unique life of the novel’s protagonist, Corey Flanagan. Foster delivers on the ultimate literary trifecta—compelling characters, a gripping plot, and drawing readers in to a captivating story.”
Catherine Dehdashti, author of Roseheart and Our Daisy Sale Won't Last Forever (coming in 2022).
Azriel Hope
Peter Geye
Sue Zumberg
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Listening to great advice. That, along with a bit of time and effort, is why you are holding this book. During a Loft Literary Center master fiction class in the Fall of 2015, I responded to the teacher’s writing prompt by crafting a two-paragraph scene involving a gay couple arguing at dusk during a deer hunt. With significant encouragement these past six years from that teacher, award-winning novelist Peter Geye, those two paragraphs became a twenty-page short story and ultimately the Panic River trilogy.
In 2016, I spent a year writing and developing this story line under the wise guidance of my writing group: Rosanna Staffa, Susan Schaeffer, Amit Bhati, and Drew Miller. Then, a miracle. I connected with Sandra Scofield, winner of the American Book Award, finalist for the National Book Award, and an amazing MFA teacher. Under her tutelage, Corey Fischer’s story turned richer and deeper in unexpected ways.
Two years later, another great writing guide, Ian Graham Leask, literally tore off the final 80 pages of my manuscript and told me two things: write me a new ending to Panic River, and then use these pages to form a sequel. Mind you, I’ve been working on a wholly different novel since 1994, but twice I begrudgingly followed the advice of wise writers to set it aside. Now there are two unexpected novels to show for it, and another one is in the works—the finale to the Panic River trilogy. I am profoundly grateful for all these teachers as well as the influence of other instructors during my frequent summertime sojourns to Iowa City, including Robert James Russell and Garth Greenwell. I’ll get back to that 1994 novel, eventually.
Reckoning Waves was also made possible through the amazing encouragement of my friends, readers, and the wider Midwest writing community, notably Sue Zumberg at Subtext Books and the staff at Moon Palace. My family too cheered me on, providing constant inspiration and love as well as the time and space to pursue this all-consuming and solitary passion. For Marco, Isaac, Jason, Hayden, Ken, Carol, Patty, and a pair of supportive writing hounds—Louie and Gus—I am immensely and forever grateful.