Coming Ashore
A Memoir
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The third and final volume in the spirited and witty memoir series
Picking up her story in the late ’60s at age 21, Cathy Gildiner whisks the reader through five years and three countries, beginning when she is a poetry student at Oxford. Her education extended beyond the classroom to London’s swinging Carnaby Street, the mountains of Wales, and a posh country estate. After Oxford, Cathy returns to Cleveland, Ohio, which was still reeling from the Hough Ghetto Riots. Not one to shy away from a challenge, she teaches at a high school where police escort teachers through the parking lot. There, she tries to engage apathetic students and tussles with the education authorities.
In 1970, Cathy moves to Canada. While studying literature at the University of Toronto, she rooms with members of the FLQ (Quebec separatists) and then with one of the biggest drug dealers in Canada. Along the way, she falls in love with the man who eventually became her husband and embarks on a new career in psychology.
Coming Ashore brings readers back to a fascinating era populated by lively characters, but most memorable of all is the singular Cathy McClure. The BackLit bonus content includes a reader’s guide, Q&A with the author, and more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Readers who met Cathy McClure Gildiner in her memoirs Too Close to the Falls and After the Falls will be thrilled to have another opportunity to follow her life in the third and final installment. She's a gifted writer with a stunning memory for detail. Here, Gildiner describes her experiences in the late 1960s and early '70s, a time when she studied at Oxford University, taught high school in Cleveland, and relocated to Canada to study literature at the University of Toronto. Tenacious, outspoken, and intelligent, Gildiner was a magnet for adventure. While in the U.K., she hiked down Welsh mountains in the darkness and dined among the country's wealthiest. As a teacher in Cleveland, she worked to inspire a love of poetry in kids whom the rest of society appeared to have given up on. In Canada, she inadvertently found herself sharing living quarters first with Quebec separatists and later with one of the country's biggest drug dealers. Gildiner depicts herself as a hard-headed, risk-taking young woman who spoke her mind and fully embraced life. For readers, following that life is an irresistible roller-coaster ride full of humor, wise insights, and poignant reflections.
