Cascade - Maryanne O'Hara - Book Tour

Set in the 1930s during the time of the Great Depression in America, this novel recounts the story of Desdemona 'Dez' Hart Spaulding. As the novel opens and we meet Dez, the reader quickly learns that her father William Hart, up until recently the owner of the playhouse in Cascade, Massachusetts, is seriously ill and that Dez, a talented artist who has studied in Paris, gave up on her dreams of working in New York City in order to return home and look after him. Like so many others at that time, his financial fortunes took a serious downturn and he lost his property and was to all intents and purposes bankrupt. Dez is forced to admit that she married her pharmacist husband Asa more out of a feeling of responsibility than out of any strength of love for him, something that is underlined for her when she meets fellow artist Jacob Solomon and immediately feels a very different connection with him. Her father's dying wish is for Dez to save and one day reopen the theatre in Cascade, and he entrusts her with a special box only to be opened on this eventual future date. The future of the town of Cascade itself is under serious threat, with plans to flood it and create a reservoir for Boston. 

Dez is confronted with a difficult situation, with choices that will affect her future life. The novel deals with the conflict between the promises and duties she feels she needs to keep and uphold, and the desire to pursue her love of art and to follow her heart's feelings towards Jacob. There are themes of duty and desire, hoping for freedom to pursue dreams and yet enduring the constraints of reality. Asa would like to start a family, yet Dez hopes to pursue her artist ambitions. The idea and role of an artist is very important in the story, as is water, both literally and in the imagery used. Dez tries to capture and portray water in her paintings, and she dreams about it.

I felt that Dez was a well-defined, engaging and strong character whose fortunes I wanted to read on and discover. She seemed real to me, in the way that she was clearly torn between what she had and what she wanted to have, and the sometimes flawed decisions she made. The author has created a lead character with depth and complexities, whose inner turmoil I could feel as I read.

Maryanne O'Hara carefully establishes a connection between Dez and the reader earlier on, and draws us in to care about her, and also to care about and feel connected to the once-vibrant town of Cascade itself; the town felt to me like a character in its own right. Through the eyes of her friend Abby, who is visiting the place briefly, Dez sees a different version of the town, realising how it must look now to an outsider: 

'..now Dez felt its smallness, its loss of its old glamour...Their once-fashionable resort town with its pleasant waters was looking more and more like the ghost valley that was invading dreams and even the pages of her sketchpad. She had done half a dozen studies: the drowning person's blurred upward view from the bottom of a flooded place. The bleary, uncertain light. The smooth stones, long grasses, and someone struggling through thick river mud, Ophelia-like, trying to find a place to breathe.'

Within the town, the playhouse is a symbolic building, built by her father and meaning so much to Dez, and we learn of its grand past, home to Shakespearean performances. The period detail rang true through the author's descriptions, but the historical aspect and setting never becomes heavy or overbearing in the story. As well as the Depression era in America, the ever worsening news that filters through from Europe adds another imposing backdrop to the tale. It was enjoyable reading an historical novel set in this period and location. 

I think the book cover design for this novel is very effective in representing key elements of the narrative - Cascade Falls, the role of water, and the artistry inside Dez's mind; I found it a very striking image; it made me look twice and think about the story again. 

Cascade is a moving debut novel about a woman and her emotions and dreams; a woman trying to maintain her loyalties and responsibilties but fearing that this is at the expense of her career, at a time when certain expectations were still firmly placed upon women by society. It is about the feeling of being in a quandary between accepting what you have and chasing after what you desire, and it is about art and about change. I enjoyed reading this book, the author has a pleasing style and brings a fresh perspective to eternal themes. I will be interested to discover what Maryanne O'Hara will write next.

Published by Penguin Books

Thank you to Amy at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours  and to the publishers for the chance to read and review an ebook copy of this novel via netgalley.

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About the author

Maryanne O’Hara was the longtime associate fiction editor at the award-winning literary journal Ploughshares. She received her MFA from Emerson College fifteen years ago, and wrote short fiction that was widely published before committing to the long form. She lives on a river near Boston.

For more information on Maryanne O’Hara, please visit her website.  You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and GoodReads.