The Day the Falls Stood Still - Cathy Marie Buchanan

[bookgazing]

It is hard to explain just what elements Cathy Marie Buchanan has utilised to create such a confident and instantly likeable narrative voice in ‘The Day the Falls Stood Still’:

‘The stone walls of the Loretto Academy are so thick I can sit curled up on the windowsill, arms around the knees tucked beneath my chin. It stands on a bluff not far from the Horseshoe Falls, and because I have been a student long enough to rank a room on the river side, I have only to open a pair of shutters to take in my own private view of the Niagra. Beyond the hedge and gate marking the perimeter of the academy, and the steep descent leading to the wooded shore, I can see the upper river and the falls. Endless water plummets from the brink to the rocks below, like the careless who slip, like the stunters who fail, like the suicidal who leap. I nudge my attention downriver, to clouds of rising mist.’

Is it the narrator Bess Heaths’ knowledge of her surroundings and the ease she affects when she first leads the reader into her private space to gaze at her private view? Does the solidity and the power of the imagery presented in this first description and the decisive way in which Bess describes the scene outside her window place ideas of certainty in the reader’s mind? I suspect a little of both, combined with the carefully crafted lengths of the sentences which sit together in this block may be why after two, or three pages I was so committed to Bess’ story. Or maybe it’s because I’m just a sucker for a love story.

Bess’ father has been let go from the Niagra Falls hydroelectric power plant, which means she must leave her exclusive girl’s boarding school, the Loretto Academy. As she makes her way back to her parent’s aristocratic home Glenview, Bess meets the river coloured eye of Tom, a young, working class man who helps her carry her trunk home. This is the beginning of a romance between Bess and Tom that crosses class boundaries and distances Bess from those around her. It may require a little suspension of believe that such determined and lasting feelings can erupt from one encounter, but readers are probably practised at this from reading many other ‘love at first sight’ stories (at least I know I am). Tom it turns out is as romantic a hero as readers could hope for. He is the grandson of Niagara Falls famous river man Fergus Cole, who possessed an uncanny affinity with the river and saved many people from the Falls. Tom also possesses an intuition about the river and cares deeply that it is being exploited so by the electricity companies. His connection with such a powerful force of nature has made him strong, brave and tender, just the kind of calmly masculine beau Bess needs.

Bess returns to a crumbling house of privilege. Her father now drinks excessively at a local hotel and her sister refuses to eat after being jilted by her fiancé, when her father got sacked. Her mother has been providing for them by sewing dresses, but accustomed as she is to an easy, rich life she can’t accept that her family might find happiness in reduced circumstances and tries to cling on to Glenview and her fine life. Bess helps with the dressmaking and while her mother is proud of her work, the reader can see her scheming to use Bess to improve the family’s circumstances, when a solid, unintelligent family friend shows he is romantically interest in Bess.

The story of a young woman being asked to compromise her romantic dreams for the sake of her family, is a well known plotline of historical fiction, but in ‘The Day the Falls Stood Still’ Bess’ mother is not asking her to save her family from ruin, she’s asking Bess to preserve their privileged status as one of the elite families in Niagara. When a family tragedy makes Bess run to Tom and publicly embarrass her fiancé it is hard to feel sympathy for her father and mother, after they have decided to parcel their youngest daughter off, rather than work hard to rebuild their lives. This theme of people believing they need more to be happy reoccurs later when Tom and Bess marry and reflects Tom’s disgust as the hydroelectricity plants drive up demand for electricity by advertising new appliances people have never known to want before. In Buchanan’s novel progress equates to a fancy lie that people use to justify wanting to own more.
With this idea in mind Buchanan seeks to portray a more natural lifestyle as an ideal. Much of Tom and Bess’ courtship takes place in a glen and in later life their relationship works best when Tom is free to work with the river. Untamed nature is set alongside the progress that exploiting nature can bring and loses, as is shown through a series of news clippings about Fergus Cole’s river rescues, which clearly indicate that the Falls is angry about the damage being done to it by construction. Religious faith is aligned with Niagara Falls, which appears to be a vengeful force that must be respected, but is almost a second home to Tom who loves and understands the river. However, Buchanan wants to remind readers of the sinister lure that ferociously beautiful landscapes can inspire. Tom is unable to resist the water in a way which seems brave and healthy, until considered from Bess’ point of view. Others give into the pull of the water in their weaker moments, jumping or ‘dropping’ their children in. She makes the river represent the spiritual, but also at times the malevolently supernatural, or perhaps she is attempting to portray the two different kinds of God that most people waver between believing in, the loving God and the vengeful God. This familiar juxtaposition inspired by gothic natural spectacles like Niagara Falls is expressed with a delicate kind of grace, through the characters of Tom and Bess, which makes the ideas seem more connected to human realities, rather than abstract spiritual concepts.

‘The Day the Falls Stood Still’s central interest can be described as spirituality, or nature versus progress, or even the idea that all human beings are strangers to each other, but personally I found the weight of the expectations of others the most interesting idea explored in this novel. Bess’ father begins drinking when he fails to live up to his wife’s expectation that he will provide a stable home, while Tom goes to war and then takes a job that violates his principles partly because of other people’s expectations, partly because of the pressure he puts on himself when he thinks he has guessed their expectations. Even Bess finds herself a victim of other’s expectations, as she disappoints the town by marrying Tom and then tries to conform to his idea that she must be a thrifty, understanding wife when she thinks about owning an electric iron and keeping him from going out when people call for his help. The ending of the book and the family tragedy I mentioned above (I will try not to spoil these for you) both revolve around how characters tend to second guess what other people’s expectations are and act accordingly, which often brings tragedy.

There are some rough spots in this debut novel. Some of the secondary characters, for example Bess’ father, suffer from a lack of development and it can be hard to understand just who they are. There is no relevant counter argument for Tom’s claims that hydroelectricity is destroying the river. Characters step forward to tell Tom that progress is inevitable and electricity makes life easier, but these arguments are easily dismissed as they are spouted by foolish, or greedy characters. A character who argued for hydroelectricity as a way of avoiding scarring the land by digging out coal might have made the opposition a little more complex. While it’s clear there’s going to be some tragedy in a book set near such a prime sight for tragic mishaps as Niagara Falls, the final calamity of the book felt unnecessary, as if the author had overloaded the novel a little. Also does anyone know why Bess’ father is sacked? If it’s mentioned in the novel I missed it. Edit: The author dropped by and pointed out where it is mentioned, early on in the book, so this was all me. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn great, far more intricate and emotionally interesting than a few often publicised novels of history and romance that I’ve read this year. I’m really looking forward to more novels from Cathy Marie Buchanan in the future.

Other Reviews

Peeking Btewenn the Pages
Book Chatter and Stuff
Historical Tapestry
Linus’s Blanket
Medieval Bookworm
Presenting Lenore
Back of the Book
Incurable Logophilia
The Betty and Boo Chronicles