crabbygirl reviewed After the falls by Catherine Gildiner
Review of 'After the falls' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
uneven.
having thoroughly enjoyed her first memoir, Too Close To The Falls, i wanted to like this book. it started well - with a firm departure from her childhood town (and her childhood years): on to the tumultuous teen years. and here's where it faltered for the first time: without a sufficient emotional connection between her and her father established (unless you just finished reading Too Close to the Falls), she drops a bomb on page 43 that her father's recently changed attitude and behavior is a result of financial ruin (which in turn was caused by his generous heart) as a reader, there isn't enough time for us to be invested in this relationship. and this relationship is supposed to be reflected upon at many time throughout the novel.
the junior high years are funny. this part has the same vibe from her first book where she's …
uneven.
having thoroughly enjoyed her first memoir, Too Close To The Falls, i wanted to like this book. it started well - with a firm departure from her childhood town (and her childhood years): on to the tumultuous teen years. and here's where it faltered for the first time: without a sufficient emotional connection between her and her father established (unless you just finished reading Too Close to the Falls), she drops a bomb on page 43 that her father's recently changed attitude and behavior is a result of financial ruin (which in turn was caused by his generous heart) as a reader, there isn't enough time for us to be invested in this relationship. and this relationship is supposed to be reflected upon at many time throughout the novel.
the junior high years are funny. this part has the same vibe from her first book where she's the odd-man-out looking in at these strange creatures we call human beings. but then it gets dicey - she does an about-face over sororities supposedly over racism but that just happens to coincide with their rejection of her due to her acne. suddenly, she's a mishmash of contradictions. after she gets to college, she continually acts as if she is seeing racism for the first time (over and over). then the author has to hide the fact that she is no longer wearing her sweater sets from her mother because her mother had spent so much money on her fashion - but she also says her mother knew the pretense of normalcy using clothes was absurd. so which was it?
often times the plot point were confusing. her car is blocked in by a pick-up truck and an altercation seems imminent; a punch is thrown and then the car speeds off. how? when did the pick-up truck get out of the way?
other times, her behavior seems 'explained away' in a manner i did NOT find convincing. like the time she worked in a donut shop - she took the time to wash her hands and arms, clean her nails, change uniforms AND redo her hair before she discovered the kitchen fire she started. or when she was the only white person to use the black power salute at a baseball game; she says it was for unity with all black people and her black boyfriend but she never asks him afterwards why he didn't share his plans for doing so.
there are too many people in this memoir, and many that could have been ignored altogether. for example, if you decide to put on a play - must you mention that you knew a friend named X and that she had friends Y and Z in town and they wanted you to see a play and you thought it was bad and that you could do better? lastly, the book overplays her love affair with a black man and her civil rights actions. it smacked of: i'm not a racist and here's my proof.
that said, i found this book to be an exercise in nostalgia in so many ways - a father, in his pyjamas, kneeling for the family nightly prayers is a scene taken from my own young life... being asked to exit from a car while parked on a busy freeway for poor conduct (she didn't obey, but i did, when it happened to me)