Author Talk with Marilyn Carr
Deep River is a town that only exists because of science. It was founded in 1945 as the company town for Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories, a test-tube baby of a town that sprang, fully formed, from the bush north of Algonquin Park, on the shore of the Ottawa river. It was designed for aesthetics, amenities, and isolation, the former trying their best to compensate for the latter.
Every two years, Deep River holds Summerfest, a festival of food, music, and events including a triathlon featuring a swim in the Ottawa River, which usually hovers at a temperature that nobody in their right mind would find acceptable. As part of the 2022 Summerfest, the Deep River Public Library invited Marilyn Carr to visit the town to read from her book, Nowhere like This Place: Tales from a Nuclear Childhood, a coming-of-age memoir set against the backdrop of the weirdness of an enclave with more PhDs per capita than anywhere else on earth.
An overflow crowd of eighty people packed into the library function room. After an introduction from Britt Gillman, the head of adult programming for the library, Marilyn read a segment from chapter five of her book, “Blank Slates,” which recounts adventures in Grade 2 art class. Like most kids in town, Marilyn’s dad worked at a mysterious place called “the plant,” a shadowy thing that was a mystery to everyone except the dads, who boarded a fleet of army-green buses every day at 07:45 and returned in time for supper at 17:15. As a result, Marilyn is convinced that what her dad does all day is ride the bus. Miss Biggs, who is somewhat out of touch with the purpose of the town, asks the children to draw a picture of their dads’ jobs, perhaps expecting to see depictions of butchering or baking or candlestick making. Instead, she gets thirty blank stares until inspiration strikes. Most kids draw a potted plant. Marilyn draws a bus.
The question-and-answer session was lively and enthusiastic. Was anyone offended by anything in the book? Yes. One person who will hopefully remain anonymous and who had no real reason to be upset in the first place. There is so much detail in the book. How was it possible to remember it all? Some details required research into the history of the town, other things had been taking up valuable real estate in Marilyn’s brain for many years. What is your writing process? Marilyn completed her manuscript as part of an MFA from the University of Kings College. Prior to beginning the degree, she had no idea how to write a book. And as further proof she does now, the second installment of her memoirs, How I Invented the Internet, will be published by Iguana Books in September 2022.
The event concluded with a book sale and signing, and a chance for audience members to have some one-on-one conversations with the author. Thirty-two personally dedicated books (a whole case!) went home to join the summer reading list of happy customers.
