After the Falls: Coming of Age in the Sixties - Hardcover

Gildiner, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670022055 ISBN 13: 9780670022052

Publisher: Viking, 2010

Synopsis

The vivid and touching sequel to the bestselling memoir Too Close to the Falls.

It's 1960 and twelve-year-old Cathy McClure has just been thrown out of Catholic school for-among other transgressions-filling the holy water fount with vodka. In the hopes of giving Cathy a fresh start away from their small town, the McClures leave behind Niagara Falls and the family pharmacy to start over in suburban Buffalo. But life in a subdivision and a school filled with "pubescent cheddar" holds little appeal for a girl who began working at four and smoking at nine. As the quaint world of 1950s America recedes into history, Cathy dives headfirst into the 1960s. Along the way, she adopts many personas with gusto-vandal, HoJo hostess, FBI suspect, civil rights demonstrator- but when tragedy strikes at home, Cathy must take on her most challenging role yet.

As candid and compelling as Mary Karr's The Liars' Club and Jeanette Walls's The Glass Castle, After the Falls is an irresistible account of one girl's comingof-age during a tumultuous era and the moving tale of a rebellious spirit learning what it means to be a daughter.

About this title

About the Author

Catherine Gildiner has been in private practice in clinical psychology for nearly twenty years. She writes a monthly advice column for Chatelaine, a popular Canadian magazine, and contributes regularly to countless other Canadian newspapers and magazines. She lives in Toronto with her husband and three sons.

Reviews

At age 12, Gildiner and her family moved from their Niagara Falls home to a Buffalo suburb, leaving behind a family business, smalltown contentment, and the rebellious childhood chronicled in her first memoir, Too Close to the Falls. While her uprooted parents struggle to adjust, Gildiner stumbles in making new friends and edging into puberty. Her restlessness and a fundamentally outspoken and argumentative nature regularly catapult her further than simple teenage trouble, and she frequently fails at the standard American girlhood, often with comic results. The conflicts between the narrator's individuality and conformity propel her into her first relationship at the same time that the seismic shifts in American society, culture, and politics hit home with ever-increasing force. On the page as in life, comedy, tragedy, and elegy live right on top of each other, and as with most remarkable memoirs, the straightforward, honest voice and perspective are steady even in the most painful moments. (Nov.) (c)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

In this follow-up to Gildiner’s first memoir, Too Close to the Falls (2001), which became a surprise best-seller, she details the family’s move from small-town Lewiston, New York, to a Buffalo suburb. Used to working side-by-side with her father in the family pharmacy from the age of four, she now must refocus her considerable energy into fitting in with her peers. But once she conquers the clique of popular girls, which takes her little more than two months, she moves on to land a job in a gritty, working-class doughnut shop, which she almost burns to the ground. The second half of her memoir deals with her experiences at Ohio State University, where she enters into a romance with a black football player and becomes involved in civil rights work, which leads to a frightening encounter with the FBI. Her relationship with her father, once so close, becomes frayed until she realizes he is suffering from a severe health issue that requires her help. Throughout, the author’s offbeat attitude, born of her unusual upbringing and wide-ranging experiences, proves to be charming, amusing, and even inspirational. --Joanne Wilkinson

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670022055
• ISBN 13: 9780670022052
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368