Catherine Gildiner's "Coming Ashore"

Catherine Gildiner’s childhood memoir Too Close to the Falls (1999) was a New York Times bestseller and on the Globe and Mail’s bestseller list for over a year. In 2010, she published a sequel, After the Falls, also a bestseller.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of Coming Ashore, her latest memoir:

My new book, Coming Ashore, is not a movie yet. It is the 3rd in my memoir series. The book takes place in three different places. The first third takes place in Oxford, England. It is about the American out of place in British culture. Because I am a vintage movie fan I often think of old stars and directors. However, since this is fantasy I will feel free to jump back and forth in time. First of all I will tackle the English third. The main character, who is me, will be played by Goldie Hawn when she was 21. She has remarkable comic timing. The male romantic lead would be played by Jude Law. I need someone who can be warm but then switch to ice cold. The second third of the book takes place while Cleveland Burns in 1968 and I am a teacher in the burning ghetto who is escorted to class by the police. Almost everyone in this section is black and I would borrow many of the great actors from the TV show The Wire. I would need teenagers and those kids would be perfect. I would also include Idris Elba as a 16 year old. The last third is about coming to Canada during the time of the FLQ ( Quebec uprising) and meeting the love of my life. I would have that love be Adrien Brody. I need a Jewish character actor and he fits the bill as a character actor who is handsome in his own way but not in that boring 'leading man' kind of way. I would have Jane Campion direct because I think she can do period pieces and after all this is 50 years ago and I think she captures the female voice.

Visit Catherine Gildiner's website and blog.

The Page 99 Test: After the Falls.

Writers Read: Catherine Gildiner (December 2010).

--Marshal Zeringue