Roger Hall enthuses about a book he has just finished.

TOO CLOSE TO THE FALLS is the memoir of Catherine Gildiner's childhood, brought up in Lewistown, a small town close to Niagara Falls on the American side in the 1950s.

Her mother was somewhat eccentric. She NEVER cooked one meal in ten years, and the family ate out for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and she was always ready for any appointment one hour ahead of time.
If visitors arrived unexpectedly, the family was trained by the mother to fling themselves on the floor so as not to be seen, and to remain there until the vistors went away

Cathy, the narrator, has an extraordinary childhood, a lot of her education received from Roy, who delivered the prescriptions from her father's pharmacy... Cathy helped him from the age of four, learning a huge amount about life from the people they delivered to.

Add to this, a repressive Catholic education plus a meeting with Marilyn Monroe (filming Niagara) and you have the makings of something out of the usual run of the mill memoirs. It's insightful, and extremely funny (I was reading it on the plane and embarrassed myself by guffawing and chortling throughout much of the flight).

Finally, Catherine Gildiner writes like a dream and each chapter is a masterpiece of structure.
(I'd love to turn it into a play).
Every home should have two copies: one to keep and one to lend. RH

Roger Hall pic from NZ Book Council website.