The Day the Falls Stood Still

In her beautifully written book, The Day The Falls Stood Still Cathy Marie Buchanan weaves a complex tapestry of history, folklore, romance, and social commentary that left me breathless with its depth.In 1915 Bess Heath looks down on the Falls from her room in the convent school where she is being groomed to be a lady. But her days of privilege are about to end because her father has been publicly disgraced and her mother is now supporting the family as a dressmaker. Soon seventeen year old Bess joins her mother in trying to support the rest of the family, a father who has taken to drink and a sister, Isabel, who has taken to bed in despair after being jilted by her fiance.Bess has captured the attention of Edgar, a promising young man from a good family. The marriage would relieve her family's woes but Bess's heart has been captured by Tom Cole, a riverman, grandson of the legendary Fergus Cole whose daring rescues and remarkable knowledge of the great Niagara River are revered by the locals. Young Tom seems to have inherited his grandfather's love of the river and his incredible skills.Their courtship and the subsequent changes to Bess's family and to the people of the region plays out against the backdrop of World War I and the advancement of industry that harnesses and binds the power of the river and the Falls to serve an ambitious society.I loved both Bess and Tom and found them vibrant, believable, fully-developed characters. The story is beautifully balanced between the great shifts going on within a culture and the day-to-day problems and joys of a young family. Bess follows in her mother's footsteps as a skillful dressmaker and is soon a darling of the local society ladies. Back from the war, Tom wants to live as his grandfather did. He is horrified by the corruption of the river he loves and yet the only way he can support his growing family is to go to work for the very people who are abusing it.In many ways this is a story about corruption. What happens to a natural wonder when man decides to use it to serve him? What happens to a man of integrity when the only way he can support his children is by betraying his values? Even Bess feels the sting when the society lady who is her primary patron, withdraws her patronage because Bess refuses to transform a gown her mother beaded to suit the woman's fancy.Like  The Sea Captain's Wife: A Novel , another book that I loved, this story is told with lovely attention to the day-to-day necessities of a woman's life: planting gardens, tending babies, sewing for a family, caring for elders. The gentle, romantic story of Bess and Tom trying to build a life interweaves with the drama of war, industry, and a shifting society. There is heart-break and tragedy but always a sense of love and hope.The book is enhanced by some wonderful vintage photographs of the Niagara region and parts of the story are told by antique newspaper clippings. This is a beautifully-told story which left me with a lot to think about and to dream about. Very well done.

My five star reads are pretty far between but when I fall for one, I fall hard. I loved everything about this book. This is why I read literary historical fiction. From the moment Bess begins speaking, I was swept away in her story and I enjoyed it all, even the bittersweet, poignant end. It didn't take very long at all to fall into her voice and exist in those moments with her. The author was skilled at giving a sense of Bess and her internal voice while still allowing the reader to be an intimate spectator.As always with books I love most, I have the least to say. There's something about the emotions stirred in reading them that really speak to me that make me want to shy away from saying much to the detriment of the experience of it all for other readers. Suffice it to say that for every travail that comes calling at Bess' door and her ability to get on even when she doubts her ability to do so and has no idea what pushes her forward, she is at every turn interesting and worth getting to know. The other characters, her parents, Tom, Isabel, Kit & the host of others we meet along the way were well drawn and compelling. The addition of the Falls is not a backdrop but an enduring character in its own right. Having been to the Falls & fallen in utter love & sheer awe of it, I am always interested in stories of how people of the area have lived and been shaped by the river, power companies and all the politics that have surrounded it. Something about abiding with a natural wonder that is constantly being tamed by man fascinates me. Truthfully, I know that the Falls flow at 50% and I find it so mesmerizing, potent and a little horrifying, that I can't quite wrap my brain around what it would be like full on. I was often torn like Bess, on wanting the progress of industrialism to tame it a bit (I wanted Bess to have her electric iron & stove as much as she did)and on the other hand, I wanted it to be allowed to flow unfettered and free (I completely understood Tom's feelings & plight). The archival photos added another layer to the story and served as good hallmarks along the way. Perhaps I was predisposed to love this story from the start but I think it would have been a lesser telling in writing less solid and clear.For me, this is the best sort of historical fiction. Characters who breathe, a vivid landscape, depth of emotion and struggle and even though happy endings aren't always present, the satisfaction that the story has ended as it must have. Honest, true and ever enduring. This will be one of the best I've read ever and easily one of the best of this year, I've had the pleasure of spending time with.

Young Bess Heath, protagonist of Cathy Marie Buchanan’s remarkable novel “The Day the Falls Stood Still” abruptly emerges from a childhood of easy wealth to glimpse her life on the edge of a roaring whirlpool. The force of Nature, symbolized by the story’s setting in Niagara Falls, eclipses Bess’ personal difficulties and she focuses on the preoccupation of all young women: she falls in love. Here too conflicts thunder with the force of the Great Niagara Falls. The writing in this book is superb. The detailed attention to nonfiction information, including a history of the Niagara Power Company, the myths involving some of the daredevils and River men who have populated Niagara Falls, Buchanan’s home town, her ease in describing the beautiful, treacherous power of the Falls and the Escarpment in different seasons, her clarity about the effects of World War One on the lives of those who served and those who remained behind, even her superior breadth of knowledge about the baroque craft of sewing flow seamlessly throughout the novel, blending fiction and nonfiction in a single whole.

Nicely written book. Good to see a little of Canadian history. Good description of how one at the edge of the social middle class can fall easily and in the early 1900 out of favour with the rest of that level of society. Very strong Mother who actually shows her daughter how to be strong and weather the "storms". The heroine is a very determined and strong young woman whose life changes because of the father's entrepreneurial view but not protecting the family and also the fact that she falls in love with a "fishmonger". Like all couples during the war, the separation makes the woman even more independent and stronger as they give birth to their first child and raise him without the father for years until the return. As many will attest to PDT is evident when the husband returns but magically our heroine manages to help him get healthy. There is a terrific twist at the end of the book which I will not spoil. It's a good story and well written.

This book was easy to read and held my attention throughout. It was informative in its history and made me realize how necessary it is to preserve our natural wonders. We must respect our environment and find a balance between depleting our resources and preserving them. Many suffer when decisions are taken quickly without investigation and research. Lives are lost one way or another either because of fool hearty risks taken or through consequences from our actions. Life is precious and should be respected in every aspect.

This is a book I would recommend just for the historical value: here we have an interesting account of the hydro electric development of Niagara Falls with the issues of progress vs environment, as well as sentiments surrounding WW! - patriotism, fear, and loss, and the role of women, religion and status as Canada approached its sixth decade.

I LIVED IN SOUTHERN ONTARIO MOST OF MY ADULT LIFEAND KNOW THE NIAGARA PENINSULA WELL; SO IT WASSO WONDERFUL TO FELL THE SPRAY TO THE FALLS ON MY FACEAGAIN READING THIS WONDERFUL BOOK.THE STORY OF TOM COLE AND BESS HEATH IS FILLED WITHLOVE, DUTY TO FAMILY, AND DANGER IN THE GUISE OF THE FALLS.I HAD NO IDEA THE EXTENT OF THE HISTORY INVOLVED IN THEWRITING OF THIS WONDERFUL BOOK.I WAIT WITH BATED BREATH FOR YOUR NEXT EFFORT CATHY MARIE.