The Day the Falls Stood Still

The Day the Falls Stood Stillby Cathy Marie Buchanan

1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near Niagara Falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she had left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, her vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating--and harboring a secret.The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to him--against her family's strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the power of the falls for themselves. As their lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future. (goodreads.com)

If you remember, this is my duplicate book. The one I got both from the library and in the mail on the same day - within 20 minutes of the other. I can now tell you that I am absolutely thrilled that I have a copy to keep for my very own because I know had I only had the library book that I would be desperate to run out to the store to pick up a copy for my own once I finished reading.This book is beautiful, heart-wrenching and powerful. I was completely immersed in the life of Bess Heath. I found myself reading about historical events and terms that I vaguely remember being forced to learn about when I was in high school with no care about them then. This book made me wish I remembered more about them, or cared more when I was 14. But when I was 14 I was going to be a Rock Star and I didn't give a hoot about what sort of Hydro Electric pacts were being made over the falls in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Whatevs! - I would scoff.I cared deeply for Bess and her sister Isabelle and was heart broken when Bess was heart broken throughout the story. I found Bess's relationship with Mrs. Anderson endearing and touching and I often had to remind myself that as she was married on her 18th birthday, the three years that had passed while her beloved was at war made her only 21. Bess lived through more in those 3 years than I feel I have lived in my 34.Toward the end of the novel I turned to my husband and said, "This is a book they should teach in English classes in Canada." And I mean it, I would have probably scoffed at the historical parts when I was in 10th or 11th grade (in Quebec high school is grades 7-11) but I would have fallen in love with the characters and therefore cared about what happened to the falls or to the people who drowned in them or made their livelihood from them. This book is steeped in very important Canadian history and yet it is woven so gracefully into the plot as a whole you do not feel like you're being forced to read a stuffy ol' history text book.It has the same sort of feeling that Anne of Green Gables had, or the Little House on the Prairie series. You grow to love the characters and what they care about and you weep with them over loss as you have come to adore those that have passed away just as much as the characters do.I myself have only been to Niagara Falls once in my life, and I don't really remember much other than that none of the boots or raincoats fit me for the Maid of the Mist boat ride and that my parents wouldn't take my sister and I to the wax museum because they said we were too young. I think I might have been 7 or 8 on this trip, 9 at the oldest. I have often said I would like to go back one day, but sadly it's very much a tourist trap these days and I don't like the crowds and of course everything is cordoned off for safety. I would love to see the falls as they were back in 1915.The next book that Cathy Marie Buchanan puts out I am picking up without any hesitation. She created a world out of history that was so enrapturing that I was sad when I was finished with the story. I thought I was starting a new chapter when I realized that I was reading the Author's Note. Oops! I was still reeling from events that had just come to pass and wasn't paying attention to the chapter numbers! Even now I am still grieving for fictional characters that I will never get to know.Brilliant novel that made me discover a new appreciation of Canadian history.(Thank you, HC Canada!)