Too Close to the Falls

This memoir by Catherine Gildiner is the story of her childhood in the small town of Lewiston, New York during the 1950's. It is a endearing book that moves deftly between humor and poignancy and paints a sometimes charming, sometimes disturbing picture of 1950's America. Four year old Cathy is diagnosed by her pediatrician with too much energy and he recommends that she be put to work in her father's pharmacy. The characters that she meets in her job delivering prescriptions with her black co worker and best friend Roy are memorable and often dangerous. But she brings these eccentric characters to life and I enjoyed getting to know the majority of them. ( I especially enjoyed her mother; despite being a 1950's housewife, she only used the oven to warm mittens) It reminds me in tone of A Girl Named Zippy (Haven Kimmel) and The Liar's Club (Mary Karr) especially in the way she views her world, not allowing an adult perspective to interfere with her memories. It felt very real. 2001 354 pages