After the Falls: Coming of Age in the Sixties by Catherine Gildiner

Viking Adult, 2010

Review by Rhianon Huot

After the Falls: Coming of Age in the Sixties is Catherine Gildiner’s follow up to the New York Times bestselling memoir, Too Close to the Falls, which tackled her childhood years.

Now twelve and on the cusp of becoming a teenager, Gildiner’s life changes dramatically. Her family loses their home in Lewiston, New York, and is forced to move to a much smaller place in Buffalo. Her father, once a proud pharmacy owner and community figure, suddenly finds himself with a lot of time on his hands and with deteriorating health. Gildiner’s naturally reclusive mother loses all faith in socializing after Kennedy’s assassination. As her father’s health problem becomes more evident, Gildiner must pull the family together and face what her life has become.

Gildiner was wrapped up in teenage angst when her father’s health began to decline. Reading her words of regret and of her resolve to focus on the true and caring moments of their relationship can be an exercise in learning to forgive ourselves for the individual horrors of our teenage years.

The 1960′s are a crucial part of our country’s collective consciousness. Of course, many of us never experienced them firsthand. Reading After the Falls gives one the chance to walk through Gildiner’s quintessentially 1960′s experiences. I felt the excitement, the waking possibilities of change, and fell in love with a gorgeous, young black intellectual. Gildiner has given us an account of her coming of age in the sixties that is all at once charming, exciting and heartbreaking

Her Circle Ezine will feature a Q&A with Catherine Gildiner, along with a book giveaway, in November on The Writer’s Life blog. Please, follow The Writer’s Life blog for more details about After the Falls: Coming of Age in the Sixties.

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