Maddie Dawson

I had a lovely surprise recently.  You know how it is, one goes to one’s favourite bookstore and wanders around the aisles, picking up a few old faithfuls (authors one has read before and knows that a certain standard will be present) a few books that have been reccomended by fellow readers/friends whose taste one trusts, maybe grabbing a classic that one has intended to read for years and never gotten around to…

And then there is the impulse buy.  A book that grabs one for no discernable reason.  An unknown author, reviews on the back by authors one doesn’t know.

So, why did I not only pick up, browse through and actually buy Maddie Dawson’s the stuff that never happened?  I don’t know.  Maybe it was the cover which is absolutely lovely.  Maybe it was because when I opened it up and read a few pages, it felt true.  Maybe it was because it was her first novel and it was about the complications of marriage and what-ifs and longings and she had dedicated it her husband and in the author biography all it said was “Maddie Dawson lives in Connecticut.  She is happily married.“ 

So, of course I thought, “Oooh!“  Seeing as how I sold my first “novel” as fiction even though there was nothing fictional about it, and I too had dedicated it to my mother, whose love I was terrified I would lose from the writing of this book.  And after all it is an old writer’s tale that all first novels are based on life.  Not that it’s true of course.  In many instances fiction means fiction.  And perhaps that is the case with the stuff that never happened.

However, the possiblity of it was enough to prompt me to drop it on the stack of books in my arms and propel me to the cashiers counter.

Not only that, but Annabelle, whose point of view the book is written from, was my age.  Her youngest child had just left home.  And even the tiny bit I had read standing in the aisle was enough to make me feel not so alone and adrift in my own musings about who-am-I-now-that-my-children-have-grown-and-how-did-I-get-here?

Well, I am delighted to say that the $25.95 CAN purchase of this hardcover book was totally worth it!  There is something so true about Maddie Dawson’s voice.  Something that said, yes, that is the way life is sometimes.  Emotions, relationships aren’t always neat and tidy.  Sometimes there is spillover.  Mixed feelings. 

I hope a lot of people embrace her book, so her publisher will be happy and sign her up for another novel. 

Posted by Meg Tilly on Thursday, November 18, 2010 in Chewing the Fat