Holy smokes! I have been captivated by a book. That's the best
feeling. I have been packing this novel around, sneaking reads
whenever I have time, trying to savour it and make it last but
wanting more to eagerly gobble my way through the pages and taste
each delicious development. At the conference that I was attending
for work, I sneaked out of the AGM (well, that wasn't too difficult
to give up) just so I could finish the last chapter in a quiet
place.
The book is Cease to Blush, Billie Livingston's second novel.
Livingston is a Vancouver author and poet and also the daughter of
my good friend and poetry mentor, Irene Livingston. When I send
Irene a poem and she really likes it, she tells me that it gave her
goosebumps. Well, Billie's novel gave me goosebumps for 465
pages.
Cease to Blush is two stories: The story of Vivian, an actor who
survives mostly by working in TV and movies as an extra, jobs like
posing as a murdered prostitute. Her boyfriend Frank, who she met
on a set, works as an extras wrangler, and is trying to convince
her to do live internet porn chat to boost their incomes. When the
story opens, Vivian's mom, Josie, a women's studies professor at
the University of BC and ardent feminist, has just died of cancer.
Josie's partner Sally gives Vivian a trunk full of her mom's
belongings. When she opens it she discovers astonishing secrets
about Josie's earlier life as Celia Dare, a nightclub entertainer
who hung out with Frank Sinatra and Robert Kennedy and had mobster
boyfriends. The story is about Vivian's journey of discovery as she
searches for a connection between this dangerous and colourful
character and the mother who she knew all her life. Along the way,
both Vivian and Celia are revealed as complex and authentic people.
There are great smaller characters too: Sally the neighbour who
becomes mom's life partner; Vivian's sexually ambivalent best
friend Len and her sleazy but at least partly loveable boyfriend,
Frank. Then there's mom's old pal and fellow party girl and
performer, Annie West. I'm already trying to figure out who should
play that role in the movie.
The writing style is earthy, real and immediate. There are graphic
descriptions of sex and death and lots of details about everyday
lives of work, love, money, home. Through it all, Livingston steers
clear of cliches and sentimentality. I'm easily distracted (and
sometimes annoyed) by obvious historical and cultural references,
but not so in this story. They're interwoven in a way that enhances
the development of the keeps the action moving along. The work that
must have gone into establishing the setting does not show. It
seems effortless, and only fitting.
Part of Celia's story is told by Annie, who Vivian goes to visit,
and part in letters that Celia wrote to Annie and Annie returned to
Vivian. It's all through Vivian's eyes. The parts that Vivian can't
know for sure, she imagines and writes herself, basing the
narrative on details gleaned from articles, books and videos that
she uses to research the people her mom knew and times in which
they lived. This provides a revealing subtext about the process of
writing a novel grounded in such a strong sense of place,
incorporating real-life characters. The result is satisfying on
many levels.
Next, Billie Livingston has a collection of short stories coming
out called You Sound Tiny. While I wait for that I'm going to read
her first novel, Going Down Swinging, and her poetry book, The
Chick at the Back of the Church.
My 100% heartfelt, goose-bumpy recommendation for Cease to Blush.
You're going to love it.