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Coming Ashore: A Memoir
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.
408 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2014
57 people are currently reading
1563 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Gildiner
11 books692 followersCatherine has written two best selling memoirs. The first is called TOO CLOSE TO THE FALLS and was on the best seller's lists for two years. It is about working full time from the age of four.
Her next memoir AFTER THE FALLS covers her teenage and college years where she got involved in civil rights and was investigated by the FBI.
COMING ASHORE, her final memoir is coming out this fall. It is about her years at Oxford, The U.S. and finally Canada. This book shares the joy of those few years in your twenties after you leave home and before Adult responsibilities crowd in.
She has also written a novel, SEDUCTION, a thriller about Darwin and Freud. It was chosen by DER SPIEGAL as one of the ten best mysteries.
She is a unique writer in that she was a psychologist for many years and only became a writer at the age of 50. Shows anything is possible.
She lives in Toronto with her husband and has three grown sons.
Her next memoir AFTER THE FALLS covers her teenage and college years where she got involved in civil rights and was investigated by the FBI.
COMING ASHORE, her final memoir is coming out this fall. It is about her years at Oxford, The U.S. and finally Canada. This book shares the joy of those few years in your twenties after you leave home and before Adult responsibilities crowd in.
She has also written a novel, SEDUCTION, a thriller about Darwin and Freud. It was chosen by DER SPIEGAL as one of the ten best mysteries.
She is a unique writer in that she was a psychologist for many years and only became a writer at the age of 50. Shows anything is possible.
She lives in Toronto with her husband and has three grown sons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
April 18, 2025
I’ve really enjoyed all three volumes of Gildiner’s life. Sure thought of herself as an oddball, but I loved her spunk from the first page of Too Close to the Falls. This is the third and final book she writes autobiographically, and I’m so glad I got over myself and read them. (I loved her book Good Morning Monster, except for the many repeated references to her memoir, and so I resisted reading them for several years. I was also surprised she would call a three-book reflection a memoir, especially since they chronicle her life ages 4 to 27.)
Volume one, Too Close to the Falls, was very charming. Volume two, After the Falls, was both traumatic and scary. This last one was more mature, more fun, and bittersweet. Dr. Gildiner had lived several lifetimes by the end of this third book. She also had a lot of adventures and run ins with celebrities and very notable people, including Marilyn Monroe, one of the first women to help other women access abortions before they were legal, there DuPont family, the FBI, Bill Clinton (he always makes net feel icky just by saying his name - ew!), Jimi Hendrix, and more.
I’m even more impressed by how much education she got. Under grad in Ohio and at Oxford, graduate school for Victorian literature, and a PhD in psychology from Canada. All this before the end of this book when she’s only 27. I was exhausted just reading about all her schooling.
One thing she got wrong. She said of the US presidency, "even if you get a total lunatic running the asylum, it will only be for four years." So wrong. We have 45/47 as proof of that, and if he gets his way, it'll be 47 until he dies...(why won't he choke on a hamburger already????).
Thoroughly enjoyed all three books. Would like to see if I can find a copy of her fiction Seduction.
Volume one, Too Close to the Falls, was very charming. Volume two, After the Falls, was both traumatic and scary. This last one was more mature, more fun, and bittersweet. Dr. Gildiner had lived several lifetimes by the end of this third book. She also had a lot of adventures and run ins with celebrities and very notable people, including Marilyn Monroe, one of the first women to help other women access abortions before they were legal, there DuPont family, the FBI, Bill Clinton (he always makes net feel icky just by saying his name - ew!), Jimi Hendrix, and more.
I’m even more impressed by how much education she got. Under grad in Ohio and at Oxford, graduate school for Victorian literature, and a PhD in psychology from Canada. All this before the end of this book when she’s only 27. I was exhausted just reading about all her schooling.
One thing she got wrong. She said of the US presidency, "even if you get a total lunatic running the asylum, it will only be for four years." So wrong. We have 45/47 as proof of that, and if he gets his way, it'll be 47 until he dies...(why won't he choke on a hamburger already????).
Thoroughly enjoyed all three books. Would like to see if I can find a copy of her fiction Seduction.
November 19, 2014
It is a true literary tragedy that Catherine Gildiner is not going to write another memoire. I can't think of anyone past or present who has led a more interesting life. Of course she met Marilyn Monroe, of course it was Bill Clinton who encouraged her to cheat in a rowing match at Oxford. Of course she set up her friend with Jimi Hendrix, and of course she hung out with Northrop Frye. Was she held hostage by a knife wielding crazy man in the bowels of an insane asylum? Of course! She is the non-fiction, female Forrest Gump. I am thrilled that she calls my country, home!
December 12, 2014
I won this book as a door prize at an Author Brunch sponsored by McNally Books in Toronto in October 2014. The author spoke at the brunch, and she was very amusing. Her book was even more so. At first I was skeptical that anyone could write three books of memoirs while still in her 60s -- how many lives did she lead, for heaven's sake? But this third book which describes her life in her 20s, was really funny and since she is almost the same age as me, I could identify with much of it. I'm planning to read the first two books now. Thanks to Ben McNally for this opportunity, and to the author for writing such an entertaining book.
July 16, 2014
Gildiner's memoir reads like a chatty, choice selection of her best-of memories -- which is impressive, considering that this is her third memoir. Hers seems to have been, if not a charmed life, an adventure-packed one. Studying at Oxford when Oxford was very much an old-boys club; biking through a glass window; almost dying of exposure while hiking in Wales; teaching Ginsberg to students at an inner-city school; unknowingly moving into a housing complex for the blind; unknowingly moving into a house full of Quebec separatists; unknowingly moving into a big-time drug dealer's apartment (are we sensing a theme here?); making forays into her boyfriend's old-world Jewish family...
About half the book covers her time at Oxford. This is the 60s, a time of short skirts and war protests and liberation -- except, perhaps, at Oxford. As one of only two women in her college, Gildiner did not have the luxury of being retiring or faint of heart -- this was a place where, as she tells it, class was a defining factor; as an American (and a female American at that) she had to both operate outside the normal structure of things and push her way into it.
I'm deeply saddened by Gildiner's telling of a near rape at Oxford, not only because she had to cope with it but because in so many places I wouldn't be surprised to hear the same reactions today. You were naked at the time? the police ask. I was in the shower, she retorts. Even in England one has to be naked in the shower. But this doesn't seem to compute to them, and the men around Gildiner -- because it is almost all men -- seem to view her assault as something that she should, if not be ashamed of, be ashamed to talk about. It's just not done.
Her telling of Oxford revolves largely around class and social structure, but with detours (frostbite! Jimi Hendrix!) as she sees fit. When she returns to North America, social structure takes a different form: there is no old money or easy trading of classical quotations in her year teaching English in Cleveland, nor in her housing arrangements in Toronto. While I would happily have kept reading had her Oxford adventures taken over the whole book, it would be hard to fault her for choosing the stories she does for the second half of the book. It's part chance and part willingness to throw herself into things that makes her land in each place she does, I think, and...well. She has a lot of stories to tell and a good pace for telling them. Really am going to have to read her earlier memoirs as well.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.
About half the book covers her time at Oxford. This is the 60s, a time of short skirts and war protests and liberation -- except, perhaps, at Oxford. As one of only two women in her college, Gildiner did not have the luxury of being retiring or faint of heart -- this was a place where, as she tells it, class was a defining factor; as an American (and a female American at that) she had to both operate outside the normal structure of things and push her way into it.
I'm deeply saddened by Gildiner's telling of a near rape at Oxford, not only because she had to cope with it but because in so many places I wouldn't be surprised to hear the same reactions today. You were naked at the time? the police ask. I was in the shower, she retorts. Even in England one has to be naked in the shower. But this doesn't seem to compute to them, and the men around Gildiner -- because it is almost all men -- seem to view her assault as something that she should, if not be ashamed of, be ashamed to talk about. It's just not done.
Her telling of Oxford revolves largely around class and social structure, but with detours (frostbite! Jimi Hendrix!) as she sees fit. When she returns to North America, social structure takes a different form: there is no old money or easy trading of classical quotations in her year teaching English in Cleveland, nor in her housing arrangements in Toronto. While I would happily have kept reading had her Oxford adventures taken over the whole book, it would be hard to fault her for choosing the stories she does for the second half of the book. It's part chance and part willingness to throw herself into things that makes her land in each place she does, I think, and...well. She has a lot of stories to tell and a good pace for telling them. Really am going to have to read her earlier memoirs as well.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.
August 19, 2017
How much fun was this to read? Gildiner's father said she should be a comedian. I'm glad she chose the pen rather than the stage. This is Gildiner's third memoir, of ages 21-28, during the late 60's and early 70's. For those of us who grew up in these times, this is a trip down memory lane, from the US civil rights movement, anti Vietnam protests, Kent State slayings to inner city teaching, feminism, love and Jumi Hendrix. With wit and inspiration, she relates her many escapades in the US, class conscious England, and Canada, where "it was hard to screw up there since not much happened there." She hadn't heard of the Quebec separist movement, FLQ, and Rochedale College at that point. Gildiner's experiences with feminism, her boyfriends extended family and domesticity are hilarious. Thank you Gildiner's for sharing your "coming ashore" with us.
May 19, 2015
There were some entertaining moments in this memoir, but I have to say that the author's repeated references to how "American" she felt while studying in Oxford and Toronto really began to get on my nerves. Being hyper-active and lacking filters is not necessarily endearing. Also, for someone who claimed to have led such an active life, she was stunningly ignorant of so many things, like basic geography, the existence of the feminist movement in the early 70s, even the Holocaust. Eventually, I just thought she was an idiot. Three volumes of memoirs is definitely enough.
July 1, 2014
I won this book thru a good reads giveaway. It is a good non-fiction book. I look forward to reading her other two memoir books.
July 8, 2020
I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to learn about Catherine McClure Gildiner's incredible life. Unfortunately this third volume of her memoirs was slightly weaker than her first two in my opinion. Maybe it just wasn't as exciting, I can't quite put my finger on it. I also could never really figure out if certain statements she made were simply how she felt at the time, as a 20 something, or how she was reflecting at the time of writing.
Nonetheless it was still overall enjoyable, and had some very interesting insights into life in the late 60s and the culture differences of being an American woman at boys-club Oxford and later in Toronto. She truly is a real-life Forrest Gump! I hope she continues to write more about her fascinating life experiences. Her memoirs are a testament to where someone's life might take them when they keep putting themself out there and saying yes to every opportunity.
Nonetheless it was still overall enjoyable, and had some very interesting insights into life in the late 60s and the culture differences of being an American woman at boys-club Oxford and later in Toronto. She truly is a real-life Forrest Gump! I hope she continues to write more about her fascinating life experiences. Her memoirs are a testament to where someone's life might take them when they keep putting themself out there and saying yes to every opportunity.
April 19, 2020
Loved this third memoir by Catherine Gildiner. She has such a way with words that make her memories LOL funny and poignant at the same time. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all 3 of her memoirs. She had such an unusual childhood which helped take everything that was thrown at her in stride. I love the way she looks at life.
January 28, 2015
I have now read all three in the series of Gildiner's inimitable memoir. In this one where young Catherine goes to Oxford is filled with many merry incidents where our Yankee takes on the British in their class, their intellectual tastes and their lifestyles. Cathy is warm and observant and ruthless, in spots, staying true to her honest eye when gazing at he world around her.
There are many funny scenes as one could expect from Gildiner. She has an uncanny ear for dialogue, status details such as clothes, furniture and gestures. Above all, she is kind and understanding. She does not, however, let pompous folk off any hooks. She tells it straight. The book charts her growing awareness of her own ambitions and limitations particularly in the middle sections where she works with American inner-city teenagers that test all her coping skills. The book ends with a lovely touch: Cathy falls in love.
With her sense of invulnerability and her warm honest humour, Cathy Gildiner once again creates for her readers an inimitable self portrait.
There are many funny scenes as one could expect from Gildiner. She has an uncanny ear for dialogue, status details such as clothes, furniture and gestures. Above all, she is kind and understanding. She does not, however, let pompous folk off any hooks. She tells it straight. The book charts her growing awareness of her own ambitions and limitations particularly in the middle sections where she works with American inner-city teenagers that test all her coping skills. The book ends with a lovely touch: Cathy falls in love.
With her sense of invulnerability and her warm honest humour, Cathy Gildiner once again creates for her readers an inimitable self portrait.
December 12, 2017
What a great finale to the trilogy that began with 'Too Close to the Falls'!
Early in the book, when Cahterine Gildiner went to Oxford, as one of very few female students, I knew I was hooked. Hers is a most unusual peek into those hallowed halls, and I loved her naive but open-hearted take on everything from the living arrangements to the rowing races.
I expected the book to flag when she returned to the States, and subsequently moved to Canada, but it did not. For one thing, she actually lived in Rochdale, and on both continents she encountered or at least brushed up against, some of the most remarkable if not significant characters of her time. At the risk of spoiling the next reader's fun, I'll mention only one. Northrop Frye was actually one of her professors. Wow!
If you were young in the sixties and seventies, give yourself a treat and read this book!
Early in the book, when Cahterine Gildiner went to Oxford, as one of very few female students, I knew I was hooked. Hers is a most unusual peek into those hallowed halls, and I loved her naive but open-hearted take on everything from the living arrangements to the rowing races.
I expected the book to flag when she returned to the States, and subsequently moved to Canada, but it did not. For one thing, she actually lived in Rochdale, and on both continents she encountered or at least brushed up against, some of the most remarkable if not significant characters of her time. At the risk of spoiling the next reader's fun, I'll mention only one. Northrop Frye was actually one of her professors. Wow!
If you were young in the sixties and seventies, give yourself a treat and read this book!
May 20, 2017
Excellent. If you read one entertaining book in a year, I'd suggest this one. Catherine Gildiner, nee McClure, continues the dramatic, eccentric, astonishing story of her life. In her early twenties, during the tumultuous times of the late sixties, early seventies, she meets the outside world in the form of near Old South Southern Ohio, the brilliant and mostly upper class world of Oxford University, a drug house near the University of Toronto, and the vibrancy of the early second wave women's movement. The intrepid Cathy forged ahead from one near disaster to another into a stable marriage and a Ph.D. In psychology. Her final memoir, as much as I loved the first two, this one is not to be missed.
August 26, 2014
I won this book on Goodreads.
I will probably read her other books since I enjoyed this one a great deal.
She has a really cleaver wit and a clear way of telling a story.
Loved the little pictures at the beginning of each chapter too.
The story itself was worth writing about and was done in a very interesting and entertaining manner. I had to laugh out loud in many places (which is not something I often do when reading).
I liked the comparisons to other countries and people and how she expressed herself without being judgmental.
I will probably read her other books since I enjoyed this one a great deal.
She has a really cleaver wit and a clear way of telling a story.
Loved the little pictures at the beginning of each chapter too.
The story itself was worth writing about and was done in a very interesting and entertaining manner. I had to laugh out loud in many places (which is not something I often do when reading).
I liked the comparisons to other countries and people and how she expressed herself without being judgmental.
October 22, 2014
This is the last memoir in a series of three. In the first two books, Catherine Gildiner deals with her early life in Lewiston and Buffalo, New York. In this last book, she is 21 in the late sixties, and in on the road to higher education, starting at a university in Ohio, then Oxford and finally living in Rochdale to attend the University of Toronto. Along the way, she meets such diverse personalities as Jimi Hendrix, drug dealers and members of the FLQ. A very interesting book.
February 19, 2015
Catherine Gildiner is bold and slightly insane. This latest installment of her life story had me laughing, gasping, and admiring her courage. The most hilarious chapter, set at a English estate, was a mash-up of Rebecca, Young Frankenstein, and Meet The Parents. Gildiner is a role model for anyone who wants to live by her own principles, even when everyone around disapproves. The only bad part of the book was when she stated this will be her last memoir.
November 17, 2014
I really enjoyed this third memoir which is as interesting and entertaining as her first two. Cathy's story is brought full circle when she finally finds her true place in the world both professionally and in her personal life.
January 3, 2016
A fabulous conclusion to Catherine Gildner's three-volume memoir of what has been both a wonderfully ordinary and truly extraordinary life. I read the three books back-to-back, which allowed me to immerse myself in all things Catherine. What a treat!
November 15, 2014
Fun, witty, and so many adventures.
July 28, 2024
"Coming Ashore" is the third in an autobiographical series by Cathy Gildiner and covers the period in her life during her postgraduate studies in both London, England and Toronto, Canada. Having just finished the second book in the series, "After the Falls", I couldn't wait to start the third; I was not disappointed. True to form, Gildiner treats serious events in her life with sensitivity and lighter situations with humour; she pulls no punches in either case. Gildiner's life experiences are almost unbelievable...from a dangerous mountain-climbing adventure in Wales to fighting off an attacker while living in residence in Oxford to living rent-free in Toronto's infamous Rochdale. "Coming Ashore" ends with her marriage to her soul-mate, Michael. Gildiner has vowed not to continue her memoirs, so it begs the question of marriage as the end of life?? That would not appear to be the case, however, as Gildiner did go on to become a pschologist, the mother of three boys and the author of a novel called "Seduction" and a non-fiction work entitled, "Good Morning Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Historic Stories of Emotional Recovery". She has done it all!
February 19, 2020
Quite the life she lived!
When I first started the book, and found out it's her third memoir, I thought I might need to start at the beginning to understand, but that wasn't necessary. The first page nicely sums up the highlights of her early light so you can dive right into her twenties. This book takes place over less than a decade, so I thought it might be boring, but it wasn't.
She has a great art of storytelling, and many exciting adventures take place along the way. Everything from injuries to love stories, world travels to graduate studies, her world has a lot of contrast.
When I first started the book, and found out it's her third memoir, I thought I might need to start at the beginning to understand, but that wasn't necessary. The first page nicely sums up the highlights of her early light so you can dive right into her twenties. This book takes place over less than a decade, so I thought it might be boring, but it wasn't.
She has a great art of storytelling, and many exciting adventures take place along the way. Everything from injuries to love stories, world travels to graduate studies, her world has a lot of contrast.
May 23, 2017
As always another captivating, engrossing, amusing and moving book from Catherine Gilding. I didn't want it to end. It was fantastic getting a real life view into the world of the 1960s, Oxford and Toronto. I loved it but it lacked the emotional attachment of the earlier two. Massive emotional happenings were ended or summed up in a sentence. I needed more closure. The story just seemed to end and we were left to hope there was a happy ending.
July 22, 2020
Having been born in a house a block and a half from Lake Erie, and only 6 years after Gildiner, I could relate to her three-part memoir both in place and time-frame. She is the Forrest Gump of my time. Amazing number of people who either were famous or would go on to be famous with whom she crossed paths. All three volumes were entertaining and painted a picture of the times. I THOROUGHLY enjoyed each one.
November 4, 2019
Just finished reading Catherine Gildiner's trilogy of memoirs. Each is very different, all entertaining, funny, sad and provide a real window into her life from early childhood to adulthood (early 50's to the 70's). I loved the many references to real life events of the time and her encounters with now famous individuals. Very enjoyable reading.
January 1, 2023
the third and final memoir in her series. I still loved the first one the best, but the first half of this book was quite funny in its own right. interestingly enough, if you just read this one, you'd wonder why someone deigned her life worthy of a memoir - it's not terribly exciting or pressing - but I imagine there was a clamor for her first 2 books to continue.
May 28, 2018
Highly entertaining account of Cathy McClure's roller-coaster ride through the 1960s-1970s. At times she seemed unbelievably clueless about other people's reality (particularly since in many ways she was clearly very perceptive), but this was before Google, after all.
April 2, 2020
I wish there were a forth one
Cathy is a person I would love to get to know personally. I would relish weekly conversations with her. I ave so many questions to ask her about her past and I know there are lots of views we would share about present experiences and events.
Cathy is a person I would love to get to know personally. I would relish weekly conversations with her. I ave so many questions to ask her about her past and I know there are lots of views we would share about present experiences and events.
June 4, 2018
4.5 stars. Loved her two previous books and loved this one too ... dry , honest and entertaining!
May 4, 2019
Terrific ending for the trilogy. A thoughtful yet casual read.
June 4, 2019
Interesting and entertaining book. Well written and very readable. Some fun memories from the 60s and 70s.
July 22, 2019
Oh the heaven of reading this third book,having read her previous two and been so enchanted. So bright, so witty, whimsy, pathos, forthrightness, sublime and laugh out loud prose; absolutely superb.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews