In her memoirs of her 1950s childhood near Niagara Falls (Too Close to the Falls) and her turbulent teen and college years (After the Falls), psychologist Catherine McClure Gildiner captured the baby boomer eras with humor and spot-on details. In Coming Ashore, she invites readers into her years studying at Oxford, teaching in inner-city Cleveland and finding love and her career in Toronto.
Gildiner began her life in upstate New York, where, as a precocious only child, she challenged her parents, who exhorted her not to play "too close to the Falls." Metaphorically, Gildiner seemed continually to wander close to the edge--as an outspoken teen, a blonde co-ed dating a black man at rural Ohio University, and as an Oxford student, where she was unusual both as an American and a woman.
As Coming Ashore opens, Gildiner needs to flee Ohio and the FBI agents who are questioning her association with activists, so she applies to a postgrad program at Oxford. It's a long shot that pays off. Once in England, the irrepressible (and obviously academically gifted) Yank makes her mark; her hilarious escapades include orchestrating a friend's dying wish to have sex with Jimi Hendrix.
Gildiner's poignant reflections on her family and her childhood recall her earlier work, but Coming Ashore is a worthy stand-alone memoir, especially for the laugh-out-loud anecdotes, witty chapter titles ("A Shrew in Shrewsbury") and vintage photos of the author that open each chapter. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, manager, Book Passage, San Francisco