Cathy_Marie_Buchanan

Cathy Marie Buchanan

Cathy Marie Buchanan

Canadian novelist

Cathy Marie Buchanan (born 1964) is a Canadian novelist.

Quick Facts Born, Occupation ...

Early life and education

Buchanan was born in 1964 and grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario, one of five children including three sisters.[1][2] She studied ballet throughout secondary school.[1] She holds a BSc (Honours Biochemistry) and an MBA from Western University.[3][1]

Career

Buchanan worked for IBM, coming to writing relatively late in life.[1]

The Day the Falls Stood Still, Buchanan's debut novel, was published in 2009. Inspired by the life of Niagara riverman, William "Red" Hill, the novel chronicles early hydroelectric development on the Niagara River. Quill & Quire called it "entertaining" but "overly theatrical",[4] while Kirkus Reviews said Buchanan's prose was "elegant", but limited by "sentimentality".[5] Globe and Mail reviewer Judith Fitzgerald said "Few first novels exhibit the mastery, maturity and majesty of Buchanan's riveting fictional debut."[6]

The Painted Girls, her second novel, was published in 2013. The Painted Girls is set in belle époque Paris and was inspired by the real-life model, Marie van Goethem, for Edgar Degas's c. 1880 statue Little Dancer of Fourteen Years and a notorious criminal trial of the era.[7][8] Kirkus Reviews called it a "must-read", noting Buchanan's "masterful job" of weaving historical figures into the plot and her "moving yet unsentimental portrait" of familial love,[9] and The Washington Post's reviewer Susan Vreeland called it a "captivating story of fate, tarnished ambition and the ultimate triumph of sister-love."[10] The book was selected by Ontario Library Association patrons as winner of the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award in 2014.[11][12] Good Housekeeping magazine listed it as one of their "Best Novels 2013".[13]

Buchanan's 2020 historical fiction novel, Daughter of Black Lake is a coming of age story set in the boglands of Iron Age Britain.[14] Publishers Weekly said it was "thoughtful, inventive historical fiction",[15] however Kirkus Reviews called it "unremarkable", devoting "many, many pages to worldbuilding, at the expense of advancing the narrative."[16]

References

  1. [1]
    Medley, Mark (16 January 2013). "Barre all: Cathy Marie Buchanan brings Degas' sculpture to life in The Painted Girls". National Post. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  2. [2]
    Buchanan, Cathy Marie (27 June 2013). "Cathy Marie Buchanan on motherhood". Today's Parent. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  3. [3]
    "Bio – Cathy Marie Buchanan". Archived from the original on 2024-03-11. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  4. [4]
    Skelton, Caroline (September 2009). "The Day the Falls Stood Still". Quill & Quire. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  5. [5]
    "The Day The Falls Stood Still". Kirkus Reviews. 19 May 2010. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  6. [6]
    Fitzgerald, Judith (30 November 2009). "Review: The Day the Falls Stood Still, by Cathy Marie Buchanan". Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  7. [7]
    "New Cathy Marie Buchanan novel captures life in belle époque Paris". The Globe and Mail. January 11, 2013. Archived from the original on March 11, 2024. Retrieved March 27, 2024 – via www.theglobeandmail.com.
  8. [8]
    "Book review:'The Painted Girls,' by Cathy Marie Buchanan". Washington Post. 2023-05-18. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2023-06-07. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  9. [9]
    "The Painted Girls". Kirkus Reviews. 10 January 2013. Archived from the original on 9 September 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  10. [10]
    Vreeland, Susan (21 January 2013). "Book review:'The Painted Girls,' by Cathy Marie Buchanan". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 7 June 2023. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  11. [11]
    "Cathy Marie Buchanan wins the 2014 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award". Access Copyright. 17 November 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  12. [12]
    "Winner of 2014 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award Announced". Book and Periodical Council of Canada. 8 November 2014. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  13. [13]
    "Best Reads of 2013: The Books We Loved This Year". Good Housekeeping. 26 November 2013. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  14. [14]
    O'Neill Belle, Megan (8 September 2020). "Fall's Best New Historical Fiction Books, According to the Women Who Wrote Them". Parade. Archived from the original on 11 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  15. [15]
    "Daughter of Black Lake". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 11 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  16. [16]
    "Daughter of Black Lake". Kirkus Reviews. 6 October 2020. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
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