Too Close to the Falls: A Memoir

by Catherine Gildiner

Welcome to the childhood of Catherine McClure Gildiner. It is the mid-1950s in Lewiston, New York, a sleepy town near Niagara Falls. Divorce is unheard of, mothers wear high heels to the beauty salon, and television has only just arrived.

At the tender age of four, Cathy accompanies Roy, the deliveryman at her father's pharmacy, on his routes. She shares some of their memorable deliveries-sleeping pills to Marilyn Monroe (in town filming Niagara), sedatives to Mad Bear, a violent Tuscarora chief, and fungus cream to Warty, the gentle operator of the town dump. As she reaches her teenage years, Cathy's irrepressible spirit spurs her from dangerous sled rides that take her "too close to the Falls" to tipsy dances with the town priest.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Book Club, Biography, Biography Memoir, Canada, Humor

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Catherine has written two best selling memoirs. The first is called TOO CLOSE TO THE FALLS and was on the best seller's lists for two years. It is about working full time from the age of four.

Her next memoir AFTER THE FALLS covers her teenage and college years where she got involved in civil rights and was investigated by the FBI.

COMING ASHORE, her final memoir is coming out this fall. It is about her years at Oxford, The U.S. and finally Canada. This book shares the joy of those few years in your twenties after you leave home and before Adult responsibilities crowd in.

She has also written a novel, SEDUCTION, a thriller about Darwin and Freud. It was chosen by DER SPIEGAL as one of the ten best mysteries.

She is a unique writer in that she was a psychologist for many years and only became a writer at the age of 50. Shows anything is possible.

She lives in Toronto with her husband and has three grown sons.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the surface, Catherine Gildiner has written a "memoir" of growing up near Niagara Falls and her experiences as an overly precocious, conspicuously intelligent only child with a talent for athletics, philosophy, reading, and just about everything else, apparently. On another level, what we have here is an over-the-top sales pitch on what an unusual and extraordinary life young Catherine led.

When reading a memoir, I automatically assume that most of what the author writes is actually fiction. Sure, it's probably based on actual memories (which are themselves imperfect, diluted by time and prone to subjectivity) but recollections alone do not a good book make. They must be embellished and expanded in order to form a fully-developed narrative. I'm fine with that. I do, however, take issue when an author other than the Rain Man insists, as Gildiner repeatedly does, that she remembers VERBATIM what someone said in any given situation. It felt like she was trying way too hard to convince me of her narrative authority while not letting her experiences stand on their own two feet.

Mostly, though, I was turned off by the last twenty or so pages when Catherine, as a pre-adolescent, spends the day and evening on an outing with a Catholic priest, where she manages to get drunk, climb down some craggy path overlooking the Falls, and experience an apparent sort of epiphany regarding the futility of Catholicism and religion in general. It seemed so contrived, and so utterly unbelievable (there were apparently no consequences for this questionable excursion either for Catherine from her parents or for the priest from the Church...at least not that the author cares to write about) that I was left with a bad taste in my mouth for the whole book. Up until that point I had been more or less happy to go along for the ride...Gildiner writes well and at a satisfying clip, and her parents seemed like truly interesting people...but the ending was too jarring and the overall tone too self-indulgent for me to really buy into this particular recollection collection.

[Jdemartigny · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book should be in the fiction section. If you do the math Cathy was coming to philosophical conclusions about family, life and religion at the age of 4. She was 5'7 at the age of 9. She also mentions she had been working in the drugstore for several years before entering kindergarten at the age of 5. Hmm. The family had a housekeeper but there was no food in the house. They sent a 9 year old to NYC without an adult chaperone. She was out making housecalls to prostitutes on Christmas eve. She could remember arguments, word for word, her parents had when she was 5.It just doesn't add up. I enjoyed the book as a fictional account but cannot believe many of the facts. I'm surprised by how few reviews question her story. Do we believe everything we read?

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was very slow, but it compensated by being full of charm. I was reading some heavy-duty books alongside it, so I decided to take my time with this and do a chapter or two a day before bed. It was like a little dessert.

Originally, I picked up Coming Ashore by the same author. I'd previously read her book Good Morning, Monster. Loved it. It's stayed with me ever since I read it. The only thing I didn't care for in that book was the number of times she mentioned her memoir. I forgot about that part for a couple of years, but recently Good Morning, Monster came back on my radar and I noticed that about my review. I got curious and decided to check out this memoir because I loved her book so much. I was shocked to see it was written in three volumes. I would not call that a memoir but an autobiography! But I'd come this far down the rabbit hole, so I started with the first book.

Her life story starts at age four. She's recreated what she thinks she saw and felt at that age. Honestly, I only have a handful of memories from that age, so I have to think Gildiner's got a superb memory (in comparison to my presumably average memory). At this point, because it's a child narrator, and because it's the recreation of a child's thoughts, perspective, and voice, I consider this portion to be somewhat unreliable. However, I still enjoyed it and laughed throughout.

Her life unravels year by year until about age nine, and then it suddenly jumps to high school in the last chapter. Not sure what happened in those years in between, but that last chapter really took me on a rollercoaster. I thought the title had to do with living near Niagra Falls and the author being a bit of an independent thinker a risk taker, but the title source is revealed at the end. It was worth waiting for, because it ends with a cliffhanger that is worth pondering.

The town she lived in was called Lewiston, and it's supposedly a very small town. However, there were some very big names in this little place, including the Dupont family and Marilyn Monroe. It is also where kids lose their appendages, priests can get defrocked, a Supreme Court case originates, bullies are taken down, compassion is learned, and Catherine Gildiner finally learns that she is not the center of the universe.

Highly enjoyed this book. Looking forward to reading the second volume! Rounding up to 5.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Catherine Gildiner must have a photographic memory to have recreated scenes from her childhood as early as age 4 with such startling clarity. Her ability to recall conversations, gestures, sights, smells, and feelings brings the reader right into her small town by Niagra Falls, and into her childhood mind. Each character from her father and mother (I fell in love with her mother--a mother who referred to her daughter as "novel" when everyone else called her "strange."), her mother who allowed a young daughter to do just about anything with anyone at anytime from a very early age without so much as a second glance. This lack of supervision seems nothing short of crazy now, but having grown up in the 50's, I know it was so. Cathy's descriptions of Catholic school and the disciplinary tactics used by the nuns and priest also filled me with memories of my own Catholic childhood.

I loved Cathy's unrelenting curiosity, her blatant honesty, her brilliant mind that could see deeply but sometimes not see what was right in front of her. And I loved her runaway imagination that is so like many young girls. "I felt like Scarlett O'Hara trying to help the thousands of wounded Confederates in Atlanta!" I found her relationship with Roy so interesting and tender. Roy, her unlikely childhood best friend and surrogate parent. There is so much to love about this book: the setting, the characters, the sense of wonder and tension of the times. I was not prepared for the ending and that made it all the more delicious. Fantastic writing, fantastic story!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fast, easy read. I, too grew up in that part of the country (city of Niagara Falls, to be exact) a generation later. I also grew up Catholic. I read this mainly because I grew up there. I became slightly obsessed with where what she calls the Rainbow Inn, a restaurant on the edge of the Falls supposedly on the American side, actually was. I can ask my dad that one. Other than that, I have serious problems believing a lot of this. There were a few possible discrepancies in names, places, and dates that I of course didn't bother to research. But really, that her parents let her pal around with their black delivery driver, all over Niagara County, in the 1950s, I'm just not sure I'm buying it. And their supposed encounter with Marilyn Monroe when she was there filming "Niagara"? How about some corroboration? Like a signed receipt? Surely her parents would have kept something like that. At that time, Marilyn was probably close to being the most famous female movie star in the world. Not sure I believed an alleged encounter on the Rez, either. That's the Tuscarora Indian Reservation. And the "Miranda" stuff is simply far-fetched. Like I said, lots of questions, and this one goes way over the top too many times to feel genuine.

[Sue Rice · Rating 1 out of 5]

A bizarre account of growing up near Niagara Falls in the ‘50’s-‘60’s.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catherine Gildiner was an amazing little girl. She was born in the mid 40's grew up in the 50's and 60's in a small town very near Niagra falls. She was smart, precocious, and a little high strung, so her family doctor suggested her father put her to work in the family's pharmacy....when she was four. She began making deliveries with her trusty sidekick Roy, who didn't know how to read, so she learned how to read, including maps. She knew much about the drugs they delivered, and about the people who received them. She saw life from many different vantage points, and it certainly shaped who she would ebcome and how she viewed the world, or at least her little small window of the world. This memoir is funny, interesting and at time fantastic, yet it never carries a false note, even when some of the situations she gets into seem unbelievable, she is such an amazing child, you believe. I'm not sure how she'd have survived, had she been born 30 years later, in the age of Ritalin and the intrusion of *Human Services*, and i am thankful she wasn't. It's a fun story, and I'd love to meet her someday.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very mixed feelings on this one! I enjoyed the book (until the last part when it took a serious dive) but I do not believe it is really an accurate account of the author's life and shouldn't be listed as a autobiography. The dates of events do not match up (one example: she and Roy start delivering together when she is 4, Roy supposedly leaves when she is in 6th grade which would be 8 years at most but later she says she and Roy delivered meds to the Dupont girl for 12 years), the memories she supposedly has from the time she is 4 years old are too detailed and mature for someone that young, etc.

Nonetheless, I was really enjoying the book just for the humor until she starting talking and philosophizing about her altercations with the nuns and priests at her school and the events that led to and followed her being expelled from the Catholic school and her loss of faith. The chapter on the priest that taught her philosophy class really didn't seem to fit the rest of the book and left me with a much lower opinion of this book. I am not Catholic so my opinions were not influenced by that factor.

[Caitlin Conlon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This memoir was certainly compelling, especially reading as someone that grew up in Western New York and could identify/recall many of the locations mentioned in the book. Something, though, felt missing. I almost wish this was told from the perspective of an adult looking back, rather than from a child’s point of view. There were a lot of stories that I think would’ve benefitted from that older perspective. Additionally, I think it ended a bit abruptly. In the q&a with the author she mentions that she chose to end the memoir right before her family moved out of Lewiston — I would’ve liked an essay about the move, for closure’s sake.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catherine Gildner's memoir of her childhood in a small town near Niagara Falls is an unusual story. It is honest, charming and truly memorable. She writes about growing up in the 50's, an only child and educated in a Catholic school by nuns. It was a captivating, easy, entertaining read. ( especially if you were educated by nuns).
I am looking forward to reading After The Falls!

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why but I am drawn to Niagara Falls. Maybe because it is just such a strange place in real life. I am pretty in love with the Great Lakes, but I find the town of Niagara Falls (ON) rather offensive and sad. It's such a bizarre juxtaposition of natural beauty, an area of natural wonder that I feel so strongly positive about, mixed with a horrible tourist trap that I feel so strongly negative about. That's the best way I can explain it. All to say, I get excited about books that are set there. This one takes place across the border in Lewiston NY.

I read Catherine Gildiner's professional memoir (Good Morning Monster) in December and LOVED it. I was excited that she'd written three personal memoirs as well and this is the first.

I am sorry to say that I almost gave up on it after three chapters but SO glad I didn't. This seems to be one of those books that had some extra chapters slapped on or heavily rewritten immediately prior to publishing because the quality just didn't match the rest of the book. The timelines were messed up and it seemed like whole chapters "switched places." I was so confused until about 4-5 chapters in and all that had been heavily alluded to as if I already knew about it in the first few chapters was finally revealed. After that the writing was much better. I think an editor somewhere royally screwed up the final draft.

The second two thirds of this book was so good! The "Warty" story especially was incredibly moving. This woman had an extraordinary childhood to say the least. I noticed a few other reviews criticizing or even accusing her of making up the majority of this book which "couldn't possibly be true." Isn't that what makes an awesome memoir though, when someone's life was so different from yours that you can't even imagine yourself in their shoes?

Can't wait to read the next two!

[Kerfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, I thought this was a novel. Then I thought: "another memoir by a spunky girl with an unusual family"--and, in a way, that was what it turned out to be. But also more, and better.

Cathy Gildiner's small upstate New York town upbringing was stultifyingly normal, or typical, or it tried its best to be. The veneer was patriotic, religious, insular, narrow-minded. There were Rules and Roles that were followed and not questioned. Add Catholic School and a precocious naivete to the mix, and a child who saw the contradictions and asked about them was heading for a hard time.

One of the big disillusionments of growing up is the realization that what is said and what is done by adults, communities, religions, and nations are often quite different, even opposite. Navigating this treacherous socialization process without succumbinhg to a life with blinders, cynical manipulation, or total rejection is difficult. When and how to compromise? When to dig in and fight? How to maintain integrity and still be part of a hypocritical and imperfect social community? How to break or sidestep Rules creatively? How to look Correct and yet also do what the conscience says is the right thing?

Cathy has some good teachers, in both a postive and a negative sense. One of the strengths of these stories is the way the author reveals her subjects' complicated layers of humanity and hidden dignity.

Bright yet not wise in the deceptive ways of fitting in and getting by, Cathy, working in her father's pharmacy from the age of four, lacked the normal prejudicial filters for much of her early exposure to the full range of adult life in Lewiston. How hard it is to duplicate when grown older and jaded that openness to the world.

[Randy Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m split with this book. The first three quarters were great, funny, quirky, a wonderful boomer story from the 1950s, kind of like Bill Bryson’s “Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid” (though not quite that funny). Catherine is a great character as well as her mother, the delivery driver Roy and several others. Some passages bend believability to the breaking point, but it’s a good story and feels at least like it was based on true events. At that point, a solid four stars. And then the last couple of chapters take a radical turn in tone and content. All humor is gone. And when things don’t go her way, she rejects her childhood faith. The nuns’ threats of damnation and guilt trips have lost their power to frighten her into conforming. And the last chapter dives deep into a young priest’s hypocrisy and sexual immorality. Not a fun ending. Two stars, maybe. I don’t know where Catherine lands in her beliefs but I would say attempts to be right with God through a works-righteousness plan, never work and never will, because as Cathrine discovered, we are not good and deep down we know it, and our efforts to balance the scales in our favor so God will accept us, simply doesn’t work. The true Gospel of God’s grace is completely opposed to this kind of thinking, offering a free gift based on God’s perfect work, His unshakable promises and character. For a smart and searching person like Catherine, I would only hope she would see that some day.

[Charlie Mumford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first half of this book. I liked very much several interactions and dialogue with characters in the second half of this book. The meanderings of Cathy the young child got to a point where I did not want to continue following Cathy down her rabbit hole of stories. I'd rate this book a 2.5 at most. I am actually much more interested in her other book Good Morning, Monster which I am eager to read. I would not necessarily recommend this book, however.

[Stephanie Daige · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a child, Cathy was like a real-life Amelia Bedelia, evidently. Despite being a precocious child, so many figures of speech just flew right over her head. She was a genius in some ways, but absolutely clueless in others.

These (possibly embellished) stories from her unusual childhood were entertaining, but not nearly as compelling as her book "Good Morning, Monster." She worked in her dad's pharmacy, performing tasks such as delivering prescriptions, from the age of four. She described Marilyn Monroe as a floozy for answering the door in her slip.

[Robin Mandell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent writing!

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I had a number of laughs, while reading Catherine Gildiner's story. It is an entertaining and thought provoking memoir about a very spirited and independent young girl in a small Niagara Falls community. I think we would have been great friends, if we had grown up together. In fact, she would have fit in nicely with my own childhood friends who didn't want to conform to certain "rules" and preferred a more adventurous life and straight forward opinions in matters. I loved her trips around town with the delivery guy, Roy, and the interesting cast of characters that she so wonderfully wrote about. Glad I read this book.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gildiner's memoir of her very unusual childhood is vivid and hilarious. From the age of four she worked in her father's drug store in Niagara Falls, NY. Her best friends were the store employees, especially the delivery man, Roy, with whom she spent hours ferrying medicines to the locals and learning a lot of their secrets.

In her Catholic school the too-smart-for-her-own-good, hyperactive Cathy would try anything except studying. When the boy behind her wouldn't stop pulling her hair out, she stabbed him in the hand, leading to a conversation with a psychiatrist that had me laughing out loud. Her parents obviously worried a lot, but they respected her individuality and provided only the gentlest guidance. Cathy's intellectual mother spent her days reading and researching esoteric subjects. She never cooked a meal or cleaned her own house and had to teach her daughter how to behave when she visited friends whose meals were prepared and eaten at home. This mom deserves a book of her own. (Much about her becomes clearer in the sequel.)

Cathy's unusual upbringing and her uninhibited spirit led to many hilarious incidents, as well as some dangerous moments. All are vividly recounted by the author, a psychologist-turned-writer who created one of the most entertaining reads I've had in a long time. I immediately went on to the sequel, Too Close to the Falls.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Memory is a funny thing. Did I attend Game Six of the 1975 World Series, when Red Sox player Carlton Fisk hit that homer that just barely made it's way to the correct side of the foul pole ? No, I did not. Would I write in my hypothetical memoir of my childhood that I was actually there, instead of asleep on my parent's sofa while the game was on ? Maybe, maybe not. I get the impression that maybe, maybe, if given the choice Gildiner would decide to write that she was at that famous World Series game, even if she was not really there. Maybe that makes for a better story, though it depends on who is telling the story, and how well they are telling it. I'm not sure I would be able to tell the story of Fisk's home run as f I were there well enough so that anyone would believe that I was there, but maybe a better writer than I could.

Who can remember exact conversations they had many, many years ago, much less conversations that their parents had, witnessed as a very young child ? And how many kids are reading proficiently at age 4 ? Well enough to help out with delivering pharmacy orders ? Hmmmm... I'm skeptical. As long as you can suspend any disbelief, this is a quick and somewhat enjoyable book.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book, light and enjoyable. Found it in the discard bin at my local library and after just a few pages was hooked. Other reviewers had some concerns about the validity of some of the stories and I too had some disbelief about her age and ability to recall and reason as the episodes indicated but the writing was great and weather it is true memories or cobbled together stories did not detract from my great enjoyment of this early life history. Would recommend it, especially if you grew up in the early 1950's and want some great reminders of that day and age.

[Ginnie LoRusso · Rating 1 out of 5]

Loved this book when I thought it was true. But since have read this article from The Buffalo News http://buffalonews.com/2015/01/11/cat... which calls into question whether these events actually did happen to her. I am disappointed to be led astray and will not read her two follow-up memoirs. I am convinced that they are a work of fiction.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 rating.

Again, didn't play pick this for myself, but it was pretty good. A very entertaining memoir of the interesting life of a young girl in 1950'd Lewiston. My only real complaint is the last chapter "Father Rodwick". There the book went from 0-100 real fast, and ended on what could justly be called a cliffhanger. Seemed like a bit of an abrupt ending for me, but overall a good read.

[Ann Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous romp through small-town life as seen through the eyes of a smart and feisty narrator. Loved it.

[Genna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great! It's the sort where I felt compelled to read big chunks of it out loud to whatever poor sap was in the room with me.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book ... a childhood as seen through a childs eyes.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this memoir! So unique and charming and full of memorable characters.

[Wisewebwoman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful quirky memoir of a clever child growing up in Lewiston New York with so much energy that she's working in her father's drug store at the age of 4, stocking shelves and stacking newspapers and delivering prescriptions.

The one problem I had was with the ending. it rang false. Whether that was the change in writing style or the fact she was obviously a schoolgirl (still in her uniform) and was served drinks and taken as a newly wed at a fancy hotel, it left me suspending my disbelief.

But a fun frolic prior to then.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

being generous

Read for book club

Like James Frey, A Million Little Pieces, many of the recollections in this first part of three books turned out to be false.

This could also go for a selfish character in one book challenge prompt.

[Shkhalliday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny but also shocking at times to read her insight into catholic school and history in the Niagara Region. I will never feel the same way when I hear about Niagara Falls or The Maid Of The Mist.

[Orla Hegarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book (memoir) made me laugh out loud many times. All of the characters (ie real people) sprang to life. What a gifted writer Ms. Gildener is! I look forward to reading her next two memoirs.