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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Day the Falls Stood Still,
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This review is from: The Day the Falls Stood Still (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
It was hard to believe that this book was the author's first. It was very well written. The setting is 1915-1923 Niagara Falls, Canada. Loosely based on an historical figure, it also details the history of the Falls and the beginning of the Hydro-Electric powerhouse with the spread of the use of electricity during this time frame. But more than that, it is a story of love and passion between two people, a 17 year old year girl, Bess, and the river man Tom. Tom not only has love and passion for Bess, he has a deep and abiding passion for the Niagara River and the Falls and is dismayed at how the river is being diverted for the making of electricity. He is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, also a river man. Both had became well known for their astounding ability to understand the river and their ability to predict danger and being able to rescue people and bodies out of the river.
This book is a wonderful glimpse into the lifestyles of this period in time when so much was changing in our world. Tom goes off to serve in the war that we now call World War One while Bess stays home to raise their son and earn their living dressmaking. We see how the electric companies worked to show people how much better their lives would be with all the electric appliances that would be possible is only they were permitted to divert even more water from the Falls for making electricity. Some going so far as to thinking that it wouldn't be a big deal if the Falls were drained dry to make the electricity. If you have every seen the Falls aren't you glad they didn't succeed? This book is about real people going through real struggles with finances, personal philosophy and ethics, caring friends, crumbling friendships and betrayals, and passions that rules their lives and homes. Although there were sad moments in the book, there were also those wonderful moments of triumph as they turn those bad times into growth of character. This is an excellent novel unlike many that seem to think the only way to write a novel is to see how depressed they can make the reader. This book makes you want to cheer on the characters as they stood steadfast on their own moral ethics no matter if they were the lone voice crying in the wilderness. As I finished the book, I thought how much fun it would be to take another trip to Niagara Falls and see if we could find and see them through the eyes of the books' characters. Unfortunately, our world has become closed tighter and we no longer can take a day trip to the Falls without a passport.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really enjoyed this book!,
By
This review is from: The Day the Falls Stood Still (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I picked this book on a whim, and I am so glad I did! I thoroughly and unexpectedly loved this book. I found the two main characters, Bess and Tom, to be sympathetic and likable people. The background setting of Niagara Falls was very interesting and I even enjoyed the tidbits about dress making. While I did not necessarily love them, I also liked the way the author included newspaper articles about some of the events surrounding the Falls- cool detail I thought. The book definitely had some very sad details, mainly regarding Bess's family, but the book moved right along with ups and downs. I will definitely recommend this book and I feel that it would also make a good Book Club selection.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Started strong, but limped to the end,
By
This review is from: The Day the Falls Stood Still (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
The Niagara 1915-1923 is the setting of Cathy Marie Buchanan's debut novel, The Day the Falls Stood Still. I would call it a naturalist's love story. Bess, seventeen years old, notices not all is right in her world as her school year at Loretta (a Catholic women's boarding school) draws to a close. Her father and sister are not there to bring her home. A kind stranger offers to help her with her trunk, and her world is further set askew. Tom Cole enters her life as she finds her home in ruins: father jobless and taken to drinking, sister abandoned by beau and recluse in her room, and her mother as taken to dressmaking from her one time friends in high society Niagara (Canada). Mystery and secrets about this new home life give way fast, as the story rushes through subplots and characters, just as swiftly as the river. Defiance pays off, relationships change or end, and society changes in a span of several years. But above all the human foolishness is always the river and the falls dominating.
Buchanan fictionalizes real life river man, Red Hill in the character Tom Cole. Many stories and myths about the river are real, although told through some fictional characters. This was the best part. I found the beginning to be rushed, trying to grab the audience's attention, but revealing too much too soon. The middle lagged a bit, but I anticipated a wowing end. Instead I got a limping story looking for an end, and it felt like Buchanan settled. Environmentalism and love of nature saturate this story, which is fine, but it dragged the momentum of the human drama numerous times. This book reminded me continually of Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club). Not only because it is about a woman during and after WWI, but also because it is about family secrets, forbidden love, the natural surroundings, and it eventually got tedious towards the end until it finally did end, and it was rather weak. It was not a bad book. It was difficult to read. I just expected more drama. The myths and descriptions of the river were wonderful. Especially in today's world where environmental concerns are at a high, it was a nice read. The beginning was engaging, but it just could not carry out the plot. It got boring and tedious. I wanted to like it more than I did. With such a beautiful, dynamic, and inspirational muse as the Niagara, I expected more.
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