Catherine gildiner author biography samples

I was in the shower, she retorts.

Catherine gildiner author biography samples: Catherine Gildiner has been in private

Even in England one has to be naked in the shower. But this doesn't seem to compute to them, and the men around Gildiner -- because it is almost all men -- seem to view her assault as something that she should, if not be ashamed of, be ashamed to talk about. It's just not done. Her telling of Oxford revolves largely around class and social structure, but with detours frostbite!

Jimi Hendrix! It is difficult to decide when childhood ends. The death of my parents, leaving the United States, and marrying a man from Europe are all turning points that occurred after the conclusion of Too Close to the Falls. Gee, as I'm saying this I'm wondering if I should write a sequel! In your book, you alluded to the fact that both of your parents died relatively young, and possibly from illnesses related to industry in surrounding Lewiston.

Was there ever a point where that was the focus of your memoir? Did you undergo a shift in emphasis while writing your book? I decided to write a childhood memoir and end it at the age of thirteen, when my family moved to Buffalo and my father sold the store.

Catherine gildiner author biography samples: A Conversation with Catherine

It would have been too difficult at that point to introduce new characters. My parents' illness occurred after that move and was not a part of the carefree mood of what I felt was my childhood. This, of course, changed abruptly when my parents were ill and eventually passed away. My life in the s in Lewiston was light years away from my life in public school in Buffalo.

Just as the '50s were politically innocent and carefree in the Eisenhower years, so was my life. The s and '70s were full of political tumult, as was my life. In fact, the events in my life mirrored the political arena as we all watched Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Those of us who had never questioned the U. How long did it take for you to finish Too Close to the Falls?

Did you keep a journal growing up? If so, was it helpful in crafting this work? It took me seven months. I never kept a journal as a child other than the useless kind that had a key and wide lines called "my ponytail diary. It was blue plastic and matched "my ponytail jewelry box" and "my ponytail tote record carrier. I wrote one chapter and sent it in.

Do you think that it is necessary for memoirs to incorporate certain elements of fiction? Is it "fair" to fictionalize memories? Where do you draw the line? A memoir is different from a history or biography.

Catherine gildiner author biography samples: Catherine Gildiner is the author

Memory is made up of many unconscious elements and each psyche filters or distorts reality differently, or maybe I should say, experiences reality differently. Whatever has happened to us as children is filed in our memories and then gets used as a kind of kaleidoscope in viewing and interpreting subsequent events. Age plays another important role in a memoir.

The way a child experiences things is certainly different from how an adult sees them. However, I experienced my childhood home as large. Should I describe my home as I experienced it then or as it seems to me now?

Catherine gildiner author biography samples: Catherine Gildiner gives readers

Growing up, your friendships seemed to fall into three phases: Roy, the Bloods, and Miranda. How did these friendships mirror and shape your development? Which friendship felt the most comfortable to you? We know that Roy left Lewiston, but have any other of the friendships in the book been sustained throughout your adult life? Roy is gone, but he still travels within me in that whenever I feel judgmental or avaricious, I think of how Roy would have behaved and snap put of it.

When things happen that are minor tragedies, I look at it through his eyes and try to see the humor in it. Sometimes when bad things happen I pretend I'm telling the story to Roy, and then within a few minutes, I'm laughing at some absurd part of the tale. I cherished my years with the Bloods. There is nothing as marvelous as the open air and riding bicycles on the first day of spring.

There is catherine gildiner author biography samples so freeing about leaving your parents in the morning, hopping on your bike, and exploring. I never remember having as much fun as we had building the snowball forts and leaf forts, making battle strategies in our clubhouse, and doing idiotic daredevil stunts by the river. Like many friendships between males except that I was a femalemy relationship with the Bloods was defined by the activities we did together and our shared sense of adventure rather than emotional closeness.

Roy provided a role I think each child should have: someone who is not a parent and not a friend but something in between, through whose example you learn but who is far more a confidante than a parent ever can be, the kind of friend who knows more than you but never judges you or your questions. The Bloods were my attempt to belong to a group, a club.

I saw them as the route to adventure in the wilds of Lewiston. They were also a means of belonging, e. Miranda was the symbol of my emerging female identity and the beginning of my teenage rebellion years. Aside from everything else about her, she was genuinely amusing and she was my first introduction to irony. I had no idea that jadedness existed until I met her.

Of course, as I'm saying this, I'm realizing that my mother was the queen of irony. I also admired how she understood the world and what made it tick. I knew I had a lot to learn and that with her I was at the foot of the master. I haven't maintained close ties with Lewiston as I no longer live in the country. However, the Schmidts the Bloods have been very supportive.

They have come to every reading in the vicinity and have come up to Canada to see me. The youngest brother, whom I was closest to, lives a block from his parents in Lewiston, is married with children, and works at the power plant, as did his dad. When we get together we have many laughs about how crazy we were and the Schmidt brothers marvel at all the silly details I remember, such as the "decor" of our clubhouse.

After the book was published, Mrs. 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. With Seduction, Catherine Gildiner gives us not only a gripping detective story full of shifting characters and fast-paced twists but a remarkable intellectual thriller.

Through the letters and papers of Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin and the venerable Wedgwood family, Gildiner brings the personalities and ideological conflicts of the past to life in the present. Along the way we meet an assortment of characters, from social misfits to the demure but resolute Anna Freud, who is still living in the London house where she brought her ailing father for the last year of his life, and where she actively guards his legacy.

The story takes us from Toronto to Vienna, London, the Isle of Wight, New York and back again to Toronto — each locale seen through the eyes of Kate, who relishes in the beauty of a world that has been denied to her for a decade. Catherine Gildiner shares the next chapter in a story that has already captivated many readers.