Cathy Marie Buchanan: The Day the Falls Stood Still
Book Club Discussion

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Cathy Marie Buchanan

In the Author's Note you provide information about Red Hill who was your inspiration for Tom Cole. Can you describe how you took the life of a real man and shaped it into an elegant, fictitious story?

Initially I thought the story would much more closely follow that of the Hill family. I learned everything I could about Red Hill and his daring rescues, about his sons and the tragedies on the river that snatched away two of their lives. But once I started writing, I couldn't quite imagine the Tom Cole that I had set down on the page jumping into the barrel of a daredevil that he had hauled out of the rapids and completing the run himself. And it's exactly what Red Hill did. Try as I might, I could not understand the daredevil mentality. I suppose I consider it a whole lot more foolhardy than brave, and I wanted to write about someone who was brave and rational and shared the sense of awe that I feel while standing at the brink of the falls. And so I simply picked and chose what I wanted to use from Red Hill's life. The ice bridge and scow rescues are recounted in a historically accurate way. And he did haul countless bodies from the river and save stranded tourists and fishermen, and waterfowl and dogs. He headed overseas to fight in World War I. And, one last facet to incorporate into Tom: He raised all four of his sons to know and love the Niagara River.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Cathy Marie Buchanan

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Cathy Marie Buchanan

Bess is a character I will remember and think about long after I've closed this book. The life of a woman in the early 1900s was fascinating, and she was nothing short of a heroine in my opinion. She is courageous, steadfast, passionate, and resourceful. The one-line quote from Red Hill's real wife, Beatrice, "she hated the river, she was afraid of it," does not fit with your Bess at all. How did her character develop?

In the very first bit of The Day the Falls Stood Still that I wrote - it's long since been scrapped - Bess was an old woman, bitter and hateful of the river. I had conjured her up from the little I knew about real-life riverman Red Hill's wife. Red Hill risked his life by shooting the Whirlpool Rapids in a barrel three times. In 1951 the couple's eldest son died attempting to go over the falls in a barrel, and a year later another son was killed in a hydroelectric accident. Clearly, she had cause to hate the river, and she is where I started with Bess Heath. But once I decided not to incorporate the daredevil side of Red Hill into my riverman, Tom Cole, Bess evolved as well.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Cathy Marie Buchanan

The theme of nature's strength and majesty runs deep in the novel. Tom felt it, as did his grandfather before him, and his sons after. How did Tom's love for the river shape his fate?

Tom's love of the river meant that he would struggle with the only job available to him in Niagara Falls, that of helping to build the canal that would whisk water away from his beloved river and falls to the powerhouses where it would be used to generate electricity. It also meant that he would teach his sons about the river, which ultimately leads to his older boy, Jesse, rushing headlong into the whirlpool to rescue a daredevil whose barrel had become trapped there. When Jesse gets into trouble, Tom, against his better judgment, follows him into the whirlpool. And so Tom's love of the river did seal his fate. But I think his love of the river also brought meaning to his life.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Cathy Marie Buchanan

Bess struggled with the idea of God after the loss of Isabel. Does she make peace with her creator by the end?

At one point, after the loss of Isabel, Bess says, "It is in these moments of despair I most miss the idea of God, the idea that life has meaning, the idea that we are something more than the product of the random variations and natural selection Charles Darwin put forth." By the end of the book, she is moving toward being able to believe Tom and Isabel are still with her in the same way that Tom believed Fergus was with him. While she does not believe in the same God that she believed in at the book's outset, she is shifting toward once again accepting mystery and magic and the astonishing.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Cathy Marie Buchanan

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Cathy Marie Buchanan

Was Tom right in pushing against the hydroelectric company and progress? While it may have hurt the river, the electricity it provided did help the people. What is your opinion?

The decision to undertake the Queenston Power Project at Niagara Falls was all about producing cheap, abundant electricity. And yes, it made people's lives easier but it also ushered in today's era of thoughtless consumerism. Unlike today's power utilities, the Hydro Electric Power Commission did its very best to up the demand for electricity. And, with hindsight being twenty-twenty, it was a mistake.

Does that mean I think we should not divert water away from the Niagara River and Falls for the production of hydroelectricity? In 1950 the Niagara Diversion Treaty set the minimum flow over the falls at about 50 percent of the natural flow of the river during the daylight hours of tourist season and about 75 percent at all other times, with water in excess of the minimum flows being available for hydroelectric diversion. I suppose I am satisfied with the current arrangement. The falls are still wondrous after all. But given our seemingly insatiable need for electricity, our history of relentlessly chiseling away at the water going over the falls, and yet another tunnel being bored under the City of Niagara Falls, Ontario, today, I do fear for the future of Niagara Falls.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Cathy Marie Buchanan

Why did you include the bits of speculation that Boyce left flowers at Isabel's grave? What was its importance to the story?

In my mind, it was Boyce leaving those flowers for Isabel. I wanted to show just how desperate Isabel was when she went to the falls, which is surely the case for anyone who comes to the same end. Though she could not imagine an alternate scenario, the reader sees that with a little perseverance, the kind that both Bess and her mother have in spades, she could have landed on her feet.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Cathy Marie Buchanan

Can you tell us anything about your current writing projects?

I'm working on another novel, historical fiction set in Paris in the 1880s. While much of the story takes place in and around the Paris Opera, it focuses more on the underbelly of the city than its glamorous side.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Cathy Marie Buchanan