After the Falls By Catherine Gildiner

Images from Chapters.Indigo.caMy friend bought me Catherine Gildiner's first book "Too Close to the Falls" as a birthday present when I was still in high school. Years later I still have some vivid memories of the book, I think it was the first memoir I had ever read.

I was excited when I finally got After the Falls from the library. As soon as I started reading it I fell right back into the quirky life of Cathy and her family.

Cathy's story more or less continues where it left off in the last book, but all too soon Cathy begins to grow up and as she does her view of the world and the innocence with which she once viewed it begin to falter.

The book starts off strong but seems to lose it's focus as we get to Cathy's university years. She seems less candid with her thoughts at this point and the personal memoir starts to feel more like a recount of politics in the sixties.

The author seems to try and reel everything back into focus at the end by focusing on her family again, but the effect is very abrupt and leaves the story unfinished.

Was it worth the read?

Not for me. I would have rather left my memories of Cathy and her eccentric family back in Lewiston, where life was a little less complicated.