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Too Close to the Falls Catherine Gildiner

Too Close to the Falls By Catherine Gildiner

Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner


$10.00
Condition - Very Good
Only 4 left

Summary

A prize-winning, best selling, rivetingly dark and funny memoir of a most unusual girl.

Too Close to the Falls Summary

Too Close to the Falls: A Memoir by Catherine Gildiner

A prize-winning, best selling, rivetingly dark and funny memoir of a most unusual girl.

It is the mid-1950s in Lewiston, a sleepy town near Niagara Falls, famous only for the invention of the cocktail. Divorce is unheard of, mothers wear high heels to the beauty salon, and television has only just arrived. But with no siblings to provide role models; a workaholic father chosen by most of her class as Lewiston's present-day saint; a mother who looks the part of the perfect 1950s housewife but refuses to play it ('We ate all of our dinners in restaurants...Our fridge contained only allergy serum, coke and maraschino cherries. Our oven was only turned on to dry wet mittens on the door and the only cooking smell I remember from my youth is that of burning wool'); and a gambling-obsessed best friend, Roy, who is thirty years older, perhaps it's hardly surprising that Cathy grows up a little eccentric. Especially considering that the family doctor's prescription for her hyperactivity is a full-time job in her father's pharmacy - at four.

Cathy is rarely out of trouble whether it's asking why seeing Elvis below the waist is a sin, stabbing the school bully with a compass, breaking through police cordons to interview the Tuscadora Indians or swapping holy water for vodka to test the local priest's alcoholism. She even delivers Nembutal to a sleazy Marilyn Monroe who promptly makes an assignation with Roy. Her highly unusual adventures make compulsive, often moving, reading, but are always hilariously counterbalanced by all the conventional concerns of 1950s small-town life - TV and rock 'n' roll, matching mother and daughter outfits, teenage rebellion, communism and catholicism. Like all really good memoirs, 'Too Close to the Falls' sneaks up on you; at first you're just reading it quietly to yourself and suddenly you're having to restrain yourself from reading great chunks out to everyone around you.

Too Close to the Falls Reviews

'The writing is spot-on, Gildiner at her best and funniest describing the palpable happiness of her chaotic childhood...and escapades so incredible that I turned back several times to make sure this really was a memoir.' Laurie Graham, Daily Mail

'Singular and wonderful.' Time Out

'A memoir of considerable charm.' Sunday Times

'This coming-of-age memoir cries out to be read aloud. Gildiner writes as if still a precocious, hyperactive child who knows no boundaries and is forever up to escapades, both comic and tragic...A dizzy, enchanting read.' Publishing News

'Charming and funny...the ideal book for escaping into someone else's family if you've had enough of your own.' Sunday Express

About Catherine Gildiner

Catherine McClure Gildiner has her PhD in psychology and is in private practice in Toronto. She writes an advice column for Chatelaine magazine and publishes articles in various newspapers and magazines. She has been married for thirty years and has three sons. Too Close To The Falls is her first book.

Additional information

GOR000583770
9780007152834
0007152833
Too Close to the Falls: A Memoir by Catherine Gildiner
Used - Very Good
Paperback
HarperCollins Publishers
20030303
368
Short-listed for YoungMinds Book Award 2003
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Too Close to the Falls