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The Day The Falls Stood Still (Paperback)

by Cathy M Buchanan (Author)

4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (Aug 17 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1554683270
ISBN-13: 978-1554683277

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #39,211 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

"I grew up in this area and I know every whirlpool that is described. Buchanan is right-on in her description and the lore. She deals with the important themes of progress versus environment and also the class system in a period setting that is perfectly rendered. The main character, Tom Cole, is truly the Rhett Butler of the Cataract. He is a great Canadian hero. The romance is more mesmerizing than the whirlpools. Anyone who cannot read this book in one sitting has a heart colder than Niagara Falls in February." --Catherine Gildiner -- critically acclaimed author of the national bestseller Too Close to the Falls.

Product Description

Steeped in the intriguing history of Niagara Falls, this is an epic love story as rich, spellbinding and majestic as the falls themselves.

1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near the falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, Bess's vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating and harboring a secret.

The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him against her family's strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the falls for themselves. As the couple's lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future.

Set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls, at a time when daredevils shot the river rapids in barrels and great industrial fortunes were made and lost as quickly as lives disappeared, The Day the Falls Stood Still is an intoxicating debut novel.

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, Aug 28 2009

By	N. Manning (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

I'll start off by admitting I may be a little biased. There is something captivating about reading a book when you recognize the street names, know the buildings mentioned, have been to the natural landmarks and live a block away from the church the family attended. But when I also find myself reading a brilliant epic love story I think my insider knowledge is more of a bonus than a bias.

Bess and Tom come from different classes. Bess is the 17yo daughter of an influential man at Niagara Power and lives in Glenview Mansion. She attends a Catholic Girls Academy (even though the family isn't Catholic) and leads a sheltered life. Tom is about 22 and is the local riverman. He catches fish for pay, pulls dead bodies out of the river, works a few nights in the saloon he has a room over and is always on hand when help is needed down at the river. When these two meet each other it is love at first sight but many things stand in their way including themselves.

While the beautiful love story is the main plot there are many other themes running through the book. The plight of women during this period is masterfully woven into the story with unwed pregnancy, suicide, women working during the war, and women being given the vote during WWI if they had a husband or son overseas. The effect the war had on the women as they stayed home and wondered if their husbands would ever come home and the plight of the men who did come home who were wounded beyond repair and others who had unseen wounds, those of the mind that don't heal so easily.

It is also a story of the environment as the whole history of the harnessing of the power of the Falls for electricity takes place during this time period. Sir Adam Beck, the government, the big business and everyone else it seems is so excited about more and more electricity at less cost that nobody seems to know what it is doing to the river itself, nobody but Tom that is, who knows the river like the back of his hand, and what he sees scares and saddens him. The characters all stand out wonderfully but it is Tom, a true hero, who captures your heart.

A riveting book. I could hardly put it down and read it very quickly. It is emotional; there is sadness. I almost cried at the end, with a lump in my throat, mad, for a moment, at this tragedy we call life. An astounding first novel! Ms. Buchanan is a talented writer with a future ahead of her. I will be interested to see where she goes with her next novel. Highly Recommended! This one is certainly going to make my top ten list this year.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!, Sep 7 2009

By	Anne (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

Simply put: I loved this book. I smiled, I cried, I didn't want it to end. Not since reading Margaret Atwood's ALIAS GRACE have I felt so emotionally connected to the setting,characters and story. THE DAY THE FALLS STOOD STILL is one of those rare literary finds that you simply cannot put down. I highly recommend this book to historical fiction buffs or anyone who simply wants a fabulous read.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Yes, um. Well...uh..., Sep 14 2009

By	Schmadrian - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Before they begin telling a story, every writer should realize and accept what they've bitten off. (Although sometimes aspects of the tale surprise, end up becoming far greater than expected, or something unanticipated injects itself, transforming the piece utterly.) If, for example, I'm going to write a novel about, say, Niagara Falls, then it behooves me to understand that the potential connected to a story set against this backdrop is sizable. Immense. Intimidating.

As well, every writer should understand the strengths and weaknesses inherent in each narrator option: first-person, third-person omniscient, etc. For those writers choosing to tell a story from the first-person perspective, my belief is this: in order for this to work effectively, the either the voice must be a strong one, or what that voice is saying must be of a strong enough substance to make for a compelling experience for the reader, in order for the novel to work, to attain its potential, to 'max-out', given all of its particulars.

Unfortunately, Cathy Marie Buchanan's 'The Day The Falls Stood Still' doesn't really acknowledge these two fundamentals, and as a result, is less the novel than it could have been.

Regarding the latter, Bess, the tale's narrator, is not an interesting enough observer/ruminator to engagingly tell the story. (Putting aside for the moment that the story itself is a problem.) There's insufficient energy, or distinctness-of-voice, insight, observation coming from Bess...and when you combine this flaw with the particulars of the tale being as weak as they are, then you have a bland novel.

Regarding the former, the period in history in which the story is set is one of the most vibrant imaginable, the setting, though parochial, a vital one in Canada's development...and yet Ms Buchanan/Bess does such a poor job of relating it all that it's easy to wonder just how so great an opportunity was, in the end, passed up. My constant harping about 'editorial guidance' seems apropos here.

Ms Buchanan can write. She can write capably. As for her storytelling skills? The ability to engagingly relate characters, show their frailties, their strengths, their humanity? Well, at least coming out of Bess's mouth, the answer to all of these questions is 'No'.

There are massive themes here, ones that relate directly to today's world, one chock-full of environmental crises and cause-and-effect imbroglios. The motivations of so many of the movers-and-shakers are simply never really investigated, and what might have been a tale in which the reader might easily get lost, is one that in so many ways, leaves the impression of superficiality.

(In truth, much of what fails in the book can be ascribed to the author not having chosen a third-person omniscient narration. The intimacy that I'm assuming Ms Buchanan thought she'd gain with having Bess tell the story was never a hallmark of the novel, and much was lost because of this foundation choice.)

'Getting the story right.'

'Telling the tale with the best voice possible.'

'Executing with a clear vision.'

Simple elements leading to success that in the case of 'The Day The Falls Stood Still' simply weren't addressed. And the reader's experience is lessened because of it.

(Personal rating: 6/10)

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