Niagara native has new novel wrapped in local history.
By Michele DeLuca michele.deluca@niagara-gazette.com
Reposted from Niagara Gazette
Nov 25, 2016
Decades ago, Linda Grace remembers her high school English teacher saying it was odd no one has written a great novel about Niagara Falls. “That was the seed,” said Grace, a Falls native, about her new novel, “Niagara.”
“I’m not saying I’ve written it, but she was right,” Grace added. “Nobody has really grasped the essence of Niagara Falls yet and that’s a goal to reach for.”
Grace, a retired communications professional now living in Ithaca, will sign her book from 2 to 4 p.m., Dec. 3 at 24 Below Gallery and Cafe. During a recent phone interview, she answered a few questions about how she came to write “Niagara.”
QUESTION: What do you recall of growing up in Niagara Falls?
ANSWER: ‘Idyllic’ is a word you can only use looking back, but it was a city with a lot of people who had jobs and were very strongly related to their families and their churches. Living in a neighborhood of young families, we grew up rather feral, not at all like it is now. We were able to roam the way children are not able to roam now. For us to ride our bikes to Goat Island and hang out was a normal thing. It’s like the whole Falls was our playground. I don’t want to make it sound like it was perfect, but looking back it was a vision of what American society was and is no longer. There was not the kind of class resentment you have now that is so stark. We didn’t know we weren’t rich. It was a very vibrant time.
Q: When did you start writing?
A: I’ve always written. My first job was at the Niagara Falls Public Library when I graduated high school. My second cool job was working at the Niagara Gazette during college. Don Glynn was one of the editors…There was a cool guy named John Hanchette who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for reporting. You could not ask for better teachers.
Q: What’s the story of ‘Niagara’ in a nutshell?
A: People in Niagara Falls are always on the brink. The power plants along the river are technology wonders, but Niagara Falls is surrounded by myths and legends that are still playing out, especially what happened to those in the Tuscarora community, whose homes were taken away for the power plant reservoir. There are also stresses on young people to find their place in the world. One main character is really between two worlds. Another young girl doesn’t care about school … she would like to find celebrity and success so she enters the Maid of the Mist beauty pageant. It has repercussions. What was important to me was getting the history right and portraying how the falls can seep into your soul.
EXCERPT FROM “NIAGARA” BY LINDA GRACE
As he walked down Falls Street, Wallace saw a column of pure white mist hovering over the trees in Prospect Park. He was drawn to it, as a pilgrim is drawn to a shrine offering purification and salvation. He hurried past the train station, and kept going, past the Cataract movie theater, which was showing “Vertigo” and the Strand, where “South Pacific” was running. He went past the small souvenir shops, the newsstand, the french fries counter, Neisner’s, Beir’s department store and Sears & Roebuck. Past the Main Restaurant, the bus terminal and the bars; then he dodged the cars cruising slowly on Riverway to reach the park’s green shade. The tall oaks and maples created a haven, another world. He walked among the honeymooning couples, strolling hand-in-hand past tidy gardens of brightly-colored tulips and jaunty daffodils.
People posed for pictures; everyone seemed to have one of the new small Kodak cameras and everyone wanted pictures of every view of the approach to the falls. Wallace felt more and more calm, as always, as he walked toward the source of the mighty roar that shook the ground under his feet. The river was as yet undiminished by water diverted for American power. When he stood at the brink of the American Falls, he watched the green-tinged torrent roar over its rocky brink to generate the clouds that displayed its force. He stood there a long time. He remembered Abraham Lincoln’s words, when he first beheld Niagara: “My God! Where is all this water coming from?”
Wallace felt his clothes dampen and stick to his skin; droplets of mist washed new blood down his face. As he stood there watching the most famous waterfall in the world, Wallace thought it impossible that even a man as powerful as Robert Moses would be able to diminish Niagara’s cataracts. Yet even as the water’s roar overwhelmed his senses, Wallace realized how fragile it all was — the falls, the river, his home. The Monster would eat the land, and drink the river, too.
Nothing was ever the same after Moses got the Tuscarora’s land. He didn’t get as much as he wanted, but he got enough to fracture the native community’s home, enough to end the days of fishing for blue pike in Gill Creek, enough to break many hearts. But not Wallace’s will to fight on. He remembered the words of Hugo Black, one of the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who disagreed with its ultimate decision to give Moses a big hunk of Indian land: “Great nations, like great men, should keep their word.”
“Niagara,” by Linda Grace, can be purchased at www.amazon.com.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Book signing of “Niagara,” by Linda Grace
WHEN: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 3
WHERE: 24 Below Gallery & Cafe, 435 3rd St.
CONTACT: For more information contact the gallery at 304-1990