Title: After the Falls: Coming of Age in the Sixties
Author: Catherine Gildiner
My Review:
After the Falls: Coming of Age in the Sixties is outrageous.
Outrageously funny, engaging, insightful, and touching. Catherine Gildiner is a talented storyteller and writer who creates a story so compelling and so real, I was completely engrossed. At times, I was moved to tears.
The fascinating aspect of After the Falls is that much of Gildiner’s youth was ordinary yet she retells it with extraordinary skill. While there is nothing (or not much, at least) that is outrageously funny, Gildiner is able to glean humor out of almost every situation. Take, for example, Cathy’s mission to rid her community of black lawn jockeys, also known as the Black Lawn Jockey Civil Rights Project.
“I was mystified as to why someone in Buffalo, New York, who had a tasteful large brick home with a beautifully landscaped lawn on a tree-lined street, would think, “Gee, our house isn’t complete until we have a statue of a black slave topped with a small jockey cap on our lawn.”
That caper marked an important turning point for Gildiner, as it was her first foray into civil disobedience, for the sake of civil rights. That would become an important part of her life.
It’s quite amazing how Gildiner is able to make readers feel not like spectators of her life story but like insiders. You’ll feel, as I did, as though you’re right alongside Cathy, as she faces a myriad of struggles — typical issues like adjusting to her new, smaller home in “Tiny Town,” fitting in at her new school, dealing with her parents, and navigating the trials and tribulations of being a teenager as well as far more fascinating ones that come with being a child of the 60s.
I loved this book, plain and simple. Reading After the Falls is a nostalgic experience. But it does leave you wanting. Wanting to read Too Close to the Falls, that is. And then perhaps re-reading After the Falls.
*I received a copy of this book to review but I was not financially compensated in any way. The opinions expressed are my own and are based on my observations while reading this novel.*
Giveaway
One reader is going to win a copy of After the Falls.
To Enter:
Leave a comment.
Bonus Entries:
- Subscribe to my blog by email.
- Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect.
- Blog about the giveaway and leave me the link.
- Follow me on Twitter and tweet the giveaway. You can tweet once per day. Leave me the link to your tweet.
- Like Simply Stacie on Facebook.
- Follow Simply Stacie on Networked Blogs.
- Join the Simply Stacie Blog Frog Community.
- Add my new button.
- Add any of my event buttons. Leave one comment per button.
- Vote for Simply Stacie on Picket Fence Blogs. You can do this once per day.
- Visit my Open Sky Store and tell me your favourite product.
Open to US & Canada.
Giveaway ends on December 2, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected by random.org and notified by email and will have 48 hours to reply back before a new winner is selected. Good Luck!
About Kristin
Joined the Simply Stacie Blog Frog Community.
I would also love to win this.
tweet; http://twitter.com/#!/fredalicious/status/8546797253300225
tweet; http://twitter.com/#!/fredalicious/status/8933912495521793
Thanks for the giveaway.
fmd518(at)gmail(dot)com
voted for you on Picket Fence Blogs today
yourstrulee(at)sasktel(dot)net
tweet; http://twitter.com/#!/fredalicious/status/9311369039978496
I would like to read this!
gfc follower
email subscriber
joined blog frog
voted for you
I like the FoldTuk Collapsible Bakeware and Roaster Combo Set in Red at your store
voted for you on Picket Fence Blogs today!
yourstrulee(at)sasktel(dot)net
tweet; http://twitter.com/#!/fredalicious/status/9649574008328192
You have just voted for Simply Stacie
yourstrulee(at)sasktel(dot)net
Would absolutely love to read this.
rsgrandinetti@yahoo(DOT)com
I follow as Renee G on GFC.
rsgrandinetti@yahoo(dot)com
tweet; http://twitter.com/#!/fredalicious/status/10033316786868224
voted for you on Picket Fence Blogs 10/01
yourstrulee(at)sasktel(dot)net
I was born in the ’60′s and love to read about how day to day life was when I was just a baby. Thanks for the giveaway!
I follow on GFC via my randominities blog.
Your button is on my blog, right side.
http://randominities-etsy.blogspot.com/
I would like to read this book!
email subscriber
rhondastruthers atyahoo.ca
Gfc follower
rhondastruthers atyahoo.ca
Like on facebook
rhondastruthers at yahoo.ca
I follow on network blogs
rhondastruthers atyahoo.ca
Sounds like a great book..would love to read it.
tweet; http://twitter.com/#!/fredalicious/status/10360068369285122
Thanks for the chance to win!
GFC follower already
Like you on Fb already
email subscriber aleksa91 hotmail
I’m a networked blog follower
This book sounds very interesting, I haven’t read anything by this author.
I would love a chance to win. Thank you.
email subscriber
I hope i win
I voted for Simply Stacie
i love to read, i would love to win!