biography

Q&A with Lorraine O’Donnell Williams, author of Memories of the Beach

Tell us about your book.
In the Dirty Thirties, Toronto’s Beach community has somehow managed to distance itself from the rest of the city, and even from the world. This quirky and enchanted community provided a protective base of beauty and calm during the madness about to be unleashed by World War II. And in the process, it fostered the creative genius of a Glenn Gould, a Norman Jewison and a Doris McCarthy. In this first published memoir of growing up at the Beach, I detail life at the Beach in the ‘30’s and 40’s from the vantage point of my home – the only house directly abutting the boardwalk and situated on the former site of a popular and elegant amusement park. From my front veranda, the boardwalk served as a moving panorama of the history and distinct ambience of the Beach.

Memories of the Beach reveals a part of Toronto, now described as “trendy”, which hasn’t changed much in appearances in the last fifty years. The boardwalk, the sand and the lake; Beach fixtures such as the Leuty Avenue Life Saving Station, Balmy Beach Canoe Club, Nova Fish and Chip Store, the Beaches Public Library, Kew Beach skating rink, Glenmanor ravine; these were the touchstones of my early years. I recall the time when play originated in the imagination, when life on the streets was safe, when commitments were firm. My coming-of-age was influenced by the movies, music and books of the day, the lessons learned observing my relatives and my parents’ fun-loving friends, and the experience of growing up with a soul mate in a tight-knit community that time forgot. Those who were lucky enough to live at the Beach, surrounded by the same neighbours, living by the same standards, formed a bond that would last a lifetime.

How did you come up with the title?
I originally wanted to call it “On the Boardwalk” but it turned out there was another book with a title too close to that, so we settled on Memories of the Beach. The subtitle, Reflections on a Toronto Childhood was to indicate that the book had a wider scope historically and geographically than just that one district of Toronto.

What was the hardest part of writing your book?
The hardest part was to figure out what to put in and what to omit to enable me to strike a common chord with a reading audience. When your book is based upon your own life experience – which is what a memoir is – you have to “sift” though your life as to what is relevant to the reader as well as to yourself. The entire premise upon which a personal memoir is built is that it will evoke memories and emotional and rational responses in the reader, even though the situations that evoke those responses will be different from the author’s. In other words, all human experience has a universal quality to it, and it’s up to the author to focus on those to which readers can respond.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received as a writer?
The best advice I received is to keep on writing even when you get stalled. Worry about editing later. The important thing is to get the story out! However, an equally important step is to belong to a writing group or find a mentor or writing program to which you can submit your (weekly, monthly) work for constructive critiques by people whose writing judgment you trust!

What are you reading right now?
Three Cups of Tea, Aristotle’s Ethics on Friendship, Ann of Green Gables, and my actor-comedian-author son Harland Williams latest book, What You Don’t Know You Don’t Know.

Memories of the Beach will be available from your favourite bookseller and library in April.  Lorraine O’Donnell Williams lives in Markham, Ontario.

© 2010 Defining Canada.