Catherine Gildiner
Too Close to the Falls (1999) is the story of a precocious, hyperactive girl born to a pharmacist father and non-traditional mother. Set in the 1950s in Lewiston, N.Y., the memoir provides a look into the history of that time and place along with insights into the innovations of the time and the thinking in psychiatry.
More by Catherine Gildiner
The First Man in My Life: Daughters Write about Their Fathers. 2007. [Ed. Sandra M. Martin, contribution by Catherine Gildiner, ”The Loafers.”]
Seduction, 2005.
About Catherine Gildiner
Official Web Site
Interview
“Penguin Reading Guide,” Penguin Group USA.
Awards for Too Close to the Falls
British YoungMinds Book Award, nominee, 2003.
Drummer General's Award, 2000 [from A Different Drummer Books, Burlington, ON]
Trillium Book Award, Nominee 1999 [Winner, Alistair MacLeod]
Reviews of Too Close to the Falls
Alberts, Melanie, “Story Circle Reviews Books about Women’s Lives,” Story Circle Network, October 26, 2002.
ArtVoice of Buffalo, May 17, 2001.
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/bookmarks/bk01/0517falls.htm
Berry, Michelle. Quill & Quire, January, 2000.
“Bookmarked,” Orillia Public Library.
ECWPress
Fenton, Jeremy, “Word on Books,” The Northern Rivers Echo.
Thomsen, Elizabeth, “Pursuits.”
Niagara Falls and Area
Although Gildiner grew up in Lewiston, N.Y., Niagara Falls and vicinity do seem to be a part of her landscape, perhaps because they’re only 11 kilometres (7 miles) apart. She was witness to much history, including the disaster of Love Canal, and the expropriation of Tuscarora land in Lewiston Heights for the building of a massive hydroelectric power plant by Robert Moses, chairman of the New York State Power Commission.
Gibbs, Lois Marie. Love Canal: The Story Continues… 1998.
Historic Lewiston, NY
Niagara. [DVD] [This is a movie starring Marilyn Monroe that was being made when Gildiner was a little girl. She and her father’s employee, Roy, had to drop off a prescription to Monroe at the movie set.]
Niagara Falls [DVD – a PBS movie about the Falls]
Niagara Falls Public Library Local History Department
Oates, Joyce Carol. The Falls. 2004. [Fiction]
The Role of Women in the 1950s
Catherine Gildiner’s mother, while dressing the part, did not conform to the expected role of the 1950s woman. She looked like something out of Good Housekeeping, but she refused to do any housekeeping chores, including cooking. She was much more interested in scholarship.
Collins, Gail. America’s Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. 2004.
Douglas, Susan J. Where the Girls Are: Growing up Female with the Mass Media. 1995.
“The Good Wife’s Guide,” Housekeeping Monthly, May 13, 1955.
McLean, Helen. Details from a Larger Canvas: A Memoir. 2001.
Meyerowitz, Joanne, ed. Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in the Postwar America, 1945-1960. 1994.
Parenting
Anyone who reads this memoir agrees that the parenting style is highly unusual, particularly for the time.
Cain, Chelsea. Wild Child: Girlhoods in the Counterculture. 1999.
Kowalksi, William. Eddie’s Bastard. 1999. [Fiction]
O’Neill, Heather. Lullabies for Little Criminals. 2006. [Fiction]
Scofield, Sandra. Occasions of Sin: A Memoir. 2004.
Weiss. Jessica. To Have and to Hold: Marriage, the Baby Boom, and Social Change. 2000.
New Technologies
Gildiner talks about her father’s lucrative investment in Kleenex (a name that “would never catch on”) and subsequent investment in the not-so-successful ‘Paper Pants.’ They also had one of the first televisions in the neighbourhood, which Catherine spent a lot of time investigating. New technologies were an obvious and ever-changing part of their lives, and have continued to be so for the developed world ever since.
Dyson, James. A History of Great Inventions. 2001.
Evans, Nicholas D. Consumer Gadgets: 50 Ways to Have Fun and Simplify Your Life with Today’s Technology—and Tomorrow’s. 2003.
Haig, Matt. Brand Failures: The Truth about the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time. 2003 [Includes “Bic Underwear”]
Mankoff, Robert, ed., in association with Cartoonbank.com. The New Yorker Book of Technology Cartoons. 2000.
Reynolds, Glenn. An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths. 2006.
(Created with the help of the Ramara Township Workshop participants. All Web sites accessed July, 2007.
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