My friend and I had a great time on our trip to Niagara Falls in
October. The trees were at the peak of fall color, and even though the
weather was overcast and raining at times, it was an enjoyable visit. We
stayed outside of Buffalo on Transit Road, about 20 minutes south of
Lockport. The first day we were in the area, we drove up to Lockport and
took pictures of the Erie Canal. We went through the little museum at
Lockport, Niagara County's Historical Museum, but could find no mention
of Joyce Carol Oates. We almost missed Millersport as we drove into
Lockport; it seemed to be just a crossroad on the way. The next day we
drove down to the Finger Lakes region, to Painted Post, New York, where
one of my ancestors was born. The landscape there is completely
different from the area around the falls, which seems like it is up on a
plateau that drops suddenly going north to Lake Ontario and gradually
going south, towards Pennsylvania, forming the huge ridges and valleys
of the Finger Lakes.
The first day we spent at the falls we stayed on the American side. We
walked over the foot bridge to Goat Island, where you can get right up
next to the water. The power of the water was mesmerizing as it crashed
over the drop off where the Niagara River pours into Lake Ontario. The
clouds and the mist added to the allure of the beauty surrounding us.
The next day the sun came out and we drove across to the Canadian side.
The view from that side is magnificent, although not as up close and
personal as the view from Goat Island. The mist was blowing the rain
over the sidewalk and road running along the river, like rain. The sun
was streaming through it to make a double rainbow.
In contrast to this overwhelming beauty at the falls is the outlying
area, the industrial areas around the city of Niagara Falls and the city
of Buffalo. JCO describes this so accurately in The Falls. After reading
The Falls in September, I had a yearning to see this marvel for myself,
as well as the Millersport/Lockport landscape that is present in so many
JCO stories. The area was very much as I expected it to be from my
reading. It reminded me of rural areas in southern Illinois where I grew
up, without the great lakes and the magnificent falls, of course.
Last weekend, we drove up to Chicago to see Ms. Oates read from The
Falls at the Chicago Humanities Festival. She introduced the book and
the characters and then read from the section where Dirk meets Nina
Oshaker and her daughter and drives them to their home in the
subdivision near the contaminated Love Canal. She told us that she had
not read this section before, and her reading was slightly halting as if
reading it for the first time. She paused from time to time to elaborate
on different aspects of the passage, which made it feel more personal
than it might otherwise have. As she ended the reading, she said, "I
shouldn't tell you this" and then proceeded to tell us that Dirk was
murdered in the story. It was funny because she seemed not to want to
give away any plot elements, but needed us to know that he was murdered
for his part in the Love Canal litigation in order for us to better
understand the section of the novel she read.
After the reading she signed books brought up by the audience. When I
had my opportunity to speak to her, I wanted to ask her about the woman
in black, in the cemetery. She seemed to agree that the woman in black
was Nina Olshaker, but when I look back I can see that she did not
really answer me because of her concern about all the people in line.
She explained that she could not personalize the autographs anymore
because of the number of people waiting. She was very gracious and
seemed quite practiced at moving people through the line.
Here's a link to a photo of Ms. Oates signing my copy of The Falls:
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/24/1597/1024/JCO%26JaneDscn0001s.2.jpg
Thanks for letting me share these JCO moments.
Jane
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