Catherine Gildiner’s childhood memoir Too Close to the Falls (1999) was a New York Times bestseller and on the Globe and Mail’s bestseller list for over a year. In 2010, she published a sequel, After the Falls, also a bestseller.Gildiner applied the “Page 99 Test” to her new book, Coming Ashore, the third title in her memoir series, and reported the following:
The choice of page 99 is prescient. On this page Clive Hunter-Parsons, an English upper crust Oxford Student declares his love for Cathy McClure the brash American. It is the only page in the entire book where love is declared. He announces that he has been in love with her since he met her. He marvelled at her inappropriate attire at high table and the other follies she was involved with since coming to Oxford. He was astonished and impressed that she drove through the post office on her bike when she couldn't find the brakes and 'wasn't even sorry.' It is, in a way, a back handed compliment because Clive acknowledges he has made an 'inappropriate choice' but he can't help loving her. This passage, of course, turns out to be what is wrong with the relationship. He 'loves' her but wants her to change. Never a recipe for happiness.Visit Catherine Gildiner's website and blog.
The Page 99 Test: After the Falls.
My Book, The Movie: Coming Ashore.
Writers Read: Catherine Gildiner.
--Marshal Zeringue
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