أفضل ما يمكن قوله أنها رواية لم تنل ما تستحقّ من الشهرة.. فقد تكون جميع أعمال أغاثا كريستي معروفةً على ناطقٍ واسعٍ بطبيعة الحال، إلا أن ركوب التيار تحديداً لم تلقى تقديراً خاصاً من النقاد. ربما يكون ذوقي في الروايات غير اعتياديٍّ إلى حد ما، لكن بالنسبة لي... فإن هذه الرواية هي أفضل أعمال أغاثا كريستي على الإطلاق.أروع ما في الرواية ليس جانب الجريمة، إنَّما الجانب الإنساني، وطريقة الصّراع "من تحت الطاولة" الجاري بين أفراد العائلة. تتميز الرواية بجوّ مثيرٍ للغاية لا مثيل له، خصوصاً في النزاع المتصاعد بين ديفيد وأخته وأفراد العائلة الآخرين، الذين ينظرون إليهما كدخلاء غريبين، لكنهم يضطرون باستمرارٍ إلى التعامل معهما ويدخلون في الكثير من المواجهات الاجتماعية. غالباً ما تدور هذه النزاعات بملاسناتٍ ذكية غير مباشرة ممتعةٍ جداً، حيث يكون جميع المتحادثين يعرفون أن الطرف الآخر لا يطيق النظر إليهم، إلا أنهم جميعاً مُضطرَّون إلى الجلوس على طاولةٍ واحدةٍ احتراماً للتقاليد الاجتماعية والتزاماً بها، كما في محادثة ديفيد ولين في بداية الرواية. وقد تمكَّنت أغاثا كريستي على نحوٍ مدهشٍ من صياغة هذه الحوارات بدقّة بالغة، بحيث أنها جاءت أقرب للحقيقة منها إلى الروايات.الأمر لا يقتصر على هذه النزاعات، بل على جميع التفاعلات الإنسانية الأخرى، الكثير من الشخصيات لها عمقٌ بالغ، وشخصيات فريدة ومميزة، وتنجح الكاتبة في إيصال هذه الشخصيات إليك وعرضها بشكل رائع، كما تُصوِّر الرواية أكثر من قصة إنسانية مختلفة، وتحكي الكثير عن سمات وطباع البشر. الجانب الجنائي من الرواية، لا يقلّ متعةً عن الجانب الإنساني، وإن كان نصيبه أقلَّ في تقييمها الكلي: فمجرى الأحداث مثير وغامض، والحبكة معقدة وفريدة جداً جداً، والنهاية صادمة. من اللحظة الأولى وحتى السطر الأخير، تعيش في الرواية جواً لا يوصف من التشويق والإثارة في جميع الجوانب، إنسانية واجتماعية وفلسفية وقصصية.لكلّ تلك الأسباب، فإنني أشدد على قناعتي بأن رواية "ركوب التيار" هي أعظم أعمال أغاثا كريستي على الإطلاق، وهي لتستحقّ أن تصنف كواحدةٍ من أفضل الروايات في التاريخ!
In 1944, as the German bombs are falling, Hercule Poirot is safely ensconced in the Coronation Club, when he first hears of the Cloade family. It seems the family patriarch & millionaire, Gordon, was killed when a bomb hit his London home, but his young wife was spared. As it turns out, the wife had previously been married to a Robert Underhay, who had mysteriously disappeared in Africa and was presumed dead. Two years later, Poirot receives a strange visit from one of the Cloade family of Warmsley Vale who has received a message from the spirit world that Robert Underhay is not really dead. Not long after, he reads about the death of an Enoch Arden in the same village. Christie then takes the story to Warmsley Vale, and introduces the Cloade family. It seems that all of them were financially dependent on Gordon Cloade, and that this young wife, Rosaleen, has thrown a bit of a monkey wrench into the situation. Living now in Gordon's home with her brother David, Rosaleen was the sole beneficiary to Gordon's vast estate, and David stands between the family and financial assistance. Rosaleen, it seems, is eager to help, but David despises the rest of the Cloades and refuses to lend them a penny. Things go from bad to worse when a mysterious stranger, one Enoch Arden (the namesake of a poem from Tennyson) appears with a bizarre story about Robert Underhay. Pretty soon someone ends up dead. It is Poirot's job to not only figure out who the murderer is, but to get to the bottom of the whole mess. This won't be a simple task.With several suspects to choose from, Taken at the Flood is one of those stories where the truth is unraveled bit by bit, so that the reader is not really sure of the whodunit until the end. There are plenty of red herrings to sort through -- and just when you think you know who it is, something else pops up to make you think again. Throughout the novel there is a buildup of suspense as you wonder what is really going on here.Not my favorite of Agatha Christie's novels, it is still an enjoyable read. There is a small peek at some of the hardships of postwar British life that enhances the sense of the desperation of these characters, and Christie manages to keep the underlying tension running throughout the novel. Taken at the Flood is Poirot's 27th adventure - and he's still going strong, although the earlier Poirot novels of the 20s & 30s were more to my liking. Recommended for fans of Poirot and for Agatha Christie readers in general - these books may be old, but they're still worth reading.
What do You think about Taken At The Flood (2015)?
* * * 1/2Gordon Cloade is the wealthiest member of his family. He assures his siblings and their spouses and children that he will always be there to provide for them, even when he is gone. Unfortunately, he is gone too soon, killed during the Blitz, and even worse, he married shortly before his death and did not make another will, so all of his estate passes to his wife. If the relatives felt murderous, she could be in grave danger. But how surprising when a murder occurs and she is not the victim…This was one of those Agathas where she presents all of the clues, but it's not until Poirot explains his deductions that you shout at the book, "AUGH! That's so obvious! How did I not notice?!" Poirot seems to take a leaf out of Miss Marple's book in this one, focusing more on village gossip as his way of ferreting out the truth. He works alone, too; no Hastings to stumble onto vital clues or make seemingly obtuse but actually brilliant observations.(view spoiler)[The only thing I had a problem with was the very end, where Rowley threatens to kill his fiancée, Lynn, and apparently that's what ends up convincing her that she ought to marry him after all…? She had entertained thoughts of leaving him because he was too "safe" and dull for her after her experiences during the war, but then when she said she was leaving him for someone else he tried to strangle her and said that "if he couldn't have her, nobody could." That is unspeakably creepy and soured the book for me, happening as it did on pretty much the last page. (hide spoiler)]
—rabbitprincess
I'm not much of a Christie fan -- for me, reading one of her novels tends to be a bit of a filler between other things, an opportunity to mark time -- but I really quite enjoyed this one.The mystery part of it was excellently worked out (although I'm slightly miffed that one of the clues that I spotted was so much in plain view that I assumed it was a microplotting glitch), and I very much liked the fact that it was so firmly part of its immediate-post-WWII milieu, with shortages and rationing and acres of new forms to be filled out and new taxes and people having to work hard to adapt their old attitudes to a changed world and people coming home changed from the war and . . . For the most part, too, the characterization works well, although one appealing semi-major character seems rather to get forgotten toward the end.I'm in two minds about the central romances. I'd figured fairly early how they were going to turn out, and they did something quite different. That's a piece of novelistic sleight-of-hand that I hugely admire. But the way that one of the romances turned out other than expected not only seemed completely to subvert everything we'd been given to understand about a character but also to dash the high regard we'd built up for that character, as if what we'd put into the oven as a souffle came out a suet pudding. I'm not sure the pleasurable twisting of anticipations was worth this huge disappointment.I doubt that Christie will ever become a favorite author for me, but reading Taken at the Flood has made it much more likely I'll pick up another of her novels sooner rather than later.
—John
Then came a change, as all things human change.--Tennyson, "Enoch Arden"Interesting way to construct a mystery -- all the characters are plausible as the murderer! Great twist(s). Point off for having one of the worst of generally-weak classic mystery romances. (view spoiler)["When you caught hold of me by the throat and said if I wasn't for you, no man should have me--well--I knew I was your woman!" And no, that's not some masochistic kink: her fiance just tried to strangle her to death. Romantic! (hide spoiler)]
—Miriam
