Synopses & Reviews
Rich in the detailed nuances of the human heart, and swimming in the decadent atmosphere of New Orleans,
Spelling Mississippi is a seductive, liberating novel about the ties that bind -- and those that simply restrain.
After Cleo arrives in New Orleans on holiday, shes not quite sure what she means to find there, or how long she will stay. At first, all that is important is that shes finally “away”: that she can let go of her life in Toronto and allow herself to be caught up in the swirls of the city itself. This is the New Orleans of magnolia breezes and bourbon afternoons, and Cleo gives herself over to days spent experiencing the French Quarter in the languorous fashion it seems to require. But then one night, while sitting alone on a wharf watching the Mississippi roll by, something happens that wakes her up from her reverie and gives her an urgent sense of the direction in which she must go.
When a woman in an evening gown and a rhinestone tiara leaps over Cleos head and into the Mississippi River and disappears into a mammoth swell, Cleo is at a loss for what to do, and can only run away. Having just witnessed what she believes to be a suicide, she spends the night distraught and alone in her hotel, the Pommes Royales, replaying the scene in her mind and unsuccessfully barricading the doors against the flood of emotions headed her way. Over the next days, despite efforts to return to her explorations of the city, she cannot shake loose the intensity of this experience, as if some aspect of it has opened her eyes to truths unknown.
Madeline, it turns out, had not intended to commit suicide, and did not. Rather, she leapt into the river because she needed to, and survived her crossing -- and the night itself -- despite the evening clothes weighing her down. For her, water has always had an irresistible pull, and at that dark hour, when everything in her life and in her marriage appeared to be falling apart, it was just the remedy for her anger and her pain. When she emerges on the other shore, Madeline isnt sure of how exactly this swim has changed her, but she knows it has, and triumphantly sits down for some turtle soup and a bourbon at a favourite café. She will spend the next days trying to take back control of her life. What she doesnt realize, though, is that she has also changed the life of another.
A brief report on the evening news about a mysterious river-swimmer who has just been unwillingly plucked out of the Mississippi sends Cleo the lifeline that she needs. Certain that this second swimmer must be the same woman, Cleo becomes determined to find her, having become tangled in the flowing robes of her story on that fateful night. And as we follow them separately -- Cleo on her search through the streets of New Orleans for Madeline, and Madeline through her struggles to figure out what she even needs to find -- each womans story unfolds in waves of experience and memory in such a way that it seems fate has always meant for them to meet.
For instance, Madeline and Cleo both arrived in New Orleans haunted by, and trying to escape, their pasts. Cleos mother disappeared when she was young, as the family was moving to Canada from England, and Cleo has never been able to escape the pain of her absence. Madelines mother was always too present; not only could she not make up for Madelines father leaving, but she pushed her daughter away besides. Yet Cleo and Madeline also share in not being able to come to terms with what pushes them forward. They are like two rivers flowing to a single path, each gaining momentum as it nears the other. And when the confluence occurs at last, their shared desires and needs come together with startling force, crashing at the shores of their histories one experience and one memory at a time.
As it continues on to its enchanting conclusion, Spelling Mississippi redoubles in both intensity and magic, and Woodrow draws us into its flow with writing driven by equal parts passion and wry humour. This is a love story set in New Orleans, after all, and the rules do not necessarily apply. What is certain, though, is that this book marks the debut of a thrilling new novelist, whose work will stay with us just as surely as Cleo and Madeline and New Orleans will haunt each other for time to come.
Synopsis
From an acclaimed short-story writer, a blazingly intelligent and humorous debut novel that is set in New Orleans and tells the story of two strangers whose paths first cross on the remarkable banks of the Mississippi.
Cleo, a Canadian on holiday in New Orleans, is sitting alone in the French Quarter late one night, dreamily watching the river’s lazy progress. Suddenly, a woman clad in full evening dress, from rhinestone tiara to high heels, takes a running leap off the wharf into the Mississippi. Cleo watches, astonished, then turns and runs, mistakenly assuming the jumper is dead -- a suicide.
But Madeline, it turns out, is not bent on suicide. She is irresistibly drawn to water, as is Cleo, who was conceived during the great flood in Florence in 1966. Perhaps it is this shared obsession with the murky depths that fuels Cleo’s determination to find Madeline. She pounds the quaint streets of New Orleans, city of cheap bourbon, rich turtle soup, the scent of magnolias and A Streetcar Named Desire.
Spelling Mississippi is filled with all the bristling energy of Fall on Your Knees. Told with great humour and affection, it is a seductive, liberating story about ties that bind and those that simply restrain, and a lesson not in spelling but forgiveness.
About the Author
Marnie Woodrow was born in Orillia, Ontario, in 1969. As an only child, she found that writing came naturally to her at a young age, as a way of using her imagination to entertain herself. “Ive always written stories,” she has said. “As soon as I figured out how to write a sentence, I started doing picture books.” Its not surprising, then, that she progressed to publishing her stories at an early age. Woodrows first book, a collection of short stories entitled
Why We Close Our Eyes When We Kiss, was published in 1991 when she was 22 years old. Her next book of stories,
In the Spice House, was published in 1996, and garnered even more praise.
But despite her early successes, Woodrow is no stranger to taking on interesting jobs in order to support her writing. In between her earlier collections and Spelling Mississippi, Woodrow worked at various times as a dishwasher, a theme-park moose, and a bookseller -- the last of which was perhaps the most difficult to manage during the writing process. “I was working full-time in a bookstore, watching tons of books go by. Everyone says, ‘Isnt it great to work in a bookstore? and it is, except when youre trying to write a book yourself.”
For Woodrow, there were two prime inspirations for the story that became Spelling Mississippi. First, there was the image of the child that would become Cleo in this novel, inspired by a 1966 photograph of flood workers in Florence. For Cleo, who carries with her a copy of the National Geographic magazine it appeared in, this event is doubly important: not only was it during the flood that she was conceived, but also the work in Florence is one of the few things she knows her mother had a passion for. Woodrow, who came across such a photo, wondered what a child of a flood worker would be like as an adult.
The second inspiration for this novel was New Orleans itself, a city in which Woodrow spent three and a half months after leaving university, and a favourite place to which she has returned since -- for both research and pleasure. There, Woodrow not only met fascinating people and discovered a lush setting, but came across the basis for the character of Madeline: “I was intrigued by the idea of someone swimming across the Mississippi, because its dirty and rough.” The first image that hit her was of a woman coming out of the water fully dressed. And then, thinking her story along, she wondered what two women could bring to each others lives if they were brought together in a single moment, and what could come of their gradual and fateful rejoining: “Theres no real ‘reason for two such people to meet, yet they do, and the profound simpatico they feel comes as a surprise to both of them. I wanted to explore their journey toward one another just as much as the meeting…. I was preoccupied with the notion that people can haunt each other indefinitely, for so many reasons.”
But once she thought about the story, and what it could become, Woodrow knew that the material she was working with was too much for short fiction, and it was then that she decided to write it as a novel. Five years and a hot bidding process later, Spelling Mississippi was published by Knopf Canada as a part of their New Face of Fiction program -- a program geared to publishing new Canadian writers with distinct voices. The process was far from easy, and one thing Woodrow would certainly change next time around was her dependence on her computer: she has often mentioned in interviews that one of her worst enemies was the “delete” key. She would start, and then “delete, delete, delete,” and then regret losing those precious words later on. Next time around, she says, shell try long hand.
Since its Canadian release, Spelling Mississippi has found a worldwide audience. It has been published in the United Kingdom and the rest of the Commonwealth, and will soon be published in Sweden. And for Woodrow, the sharing of stories is whats most important, in both this novel and for being a writer, so this is wonderful news: “For me, its about what people bring to each others lives in terms of stories and experiences and how, when you bring these stories together, theres an alchemy…” Her next projects, including a screen adaptation of Spelling Mississippi, a young-adult novel, and a second novel for adult readers, will prove just how wide her audience can become.
Reading Group Guide
1. Why does Madeline swim the Mississippi at the opening of this novel? Why has she her entire life?
2. Beginning with Cleos presence on the wharf just as Madeline is taking her plunge, much of the flow of Spelling Mississippi depends on coincidence and/or fate. What is the difference between the two? Discuss particular moments in the text, and in Cleo and Madelines relationship, in which fate or coincidence come into play.
3. Self-imposed exile and or being rejected unwittingly are important themes in this novel. Almost every character -- Cleo, Madeline, their parents, for instance -- experiences some form of exile or rejection. Discuss how Woodrow uses these themes. What might she be saying about emotional bonds? About following your own path in life?
4. What do you think of Johnny? Canadian readers and reviewers have indicated that hes one of the most digestible/believable characters. However, U.K. readers seem to have more difficulty with him. Is it possible that a man of fifty years of age could be this boyish, this simple in his outlook? And is he as simple as he seems? His perspective has a strong presence late in the novel. Why do you think that is?
5. Spelling Mississippi has been praised for the detail and impact of its setting, New Orleans. For you, was the city a backdrop to the story or was it something more? Had this novel been set in Ohio, would it have held the same resonance? Have you been to New Orleans? Do you desire to go there, whether because of this novel or separately? Why or why not?
6. If you were to sum up this book to a friend, what kind of novel would you say it is? A love story? A journey of self-discovery? The story of a city or a river? Something else?
7. Woodrow unfolds the histories of her characters throughout this novel, often as stories Cleo and Madeline get each other to share. It is only in the end that the two women, and us readers with them, become aware of what “really” happened in their early lives. Why do you think the author used this technique?
8. Mrs. Ryan admires travellers, yet also says to Cleo that “one of the best ways to get stuck in a place is to end up running a hotel.” What do you think she means? Discuss the importance of travel in this novel, and of getting stuck in places.
9. Why does Cleo leave New Orleans when she does?
10. The author alludes to several works by other authors in her text. What effects do the references to other works have on your reading of this novel? How do you connect the other writers to this book? Do the mentions inspire you to explore their works?
11. Rivers, ferries, ocean liners, Florentine floods, diving, swimming… Water is a constant presence in this novel. Discuss the effect of this element on the story, on the characters, and you as a reader. What does water signify for you?
12. The most difficult relationships in this novel are between mothers and daughters, and between husbands and wives. Do Madeline and Cleo come to terms with their mothers? What do you think Woodrow is saying about motherhood and marriage?
13. Cleo and Madeline, and Johnny as well, spend a lot of their time traipsing from bar to restaurant to bar in search of drinks and food and each other, and whether together or alone. Discuss such activity in the novel. In drinking, are the characters trying to lose something of themselves? Find something? Although the three more often turn to bourbon, can their drunkenness be connected to the recurring references to water in the novel?
14. At the end of the novel, it is clear that Mrs. Ryans words about New Orleans are equally suited to the relationship between Cleo and Madeline, as the women certainly haunt each others thoughts. What we dont know is whether they parted too quickly or too slowly -- or at just the right time. What do you think? Discuss the novels ending and its epilogue.
15. Cleo describes herself as a “poet-chambermaid” and Mrs. Ryan is a writer who has been working on a novel for thirteen years. Discuss the act of writing in terms of the characters in this novel and how they communicate. For instance, can connections be found between Cleos travelogue of postcards and journal entries, the cheques sent by Madelines mom, the letters Madeline writes but never sends to Cleo, the poem Cleo writes in Florence, the postcard that arrives in Toronto to end this book?
16. How important is the notion of labelling oneself according to sexual preference? In this novel about unexpected love, do you think the characters avoid doing so? Why? What do you think/feel about such labels in real life?
17. Who is your favourite character in this novel? Why?
18. What was your overall impression upon turning the last page? Did you feel you had been taken someplace? Did you feel conscious of not connecting with any parts of the novel, or with some very much?
19. Where will Madeline and Cleo go from here? Imagine your own ending to their story. Will they find happiness together, or part, of necessity, yet again?
Author Q&A
1) Can you tell us how you became a writer?I suppose reading other people’s books is to blame in the best possible way, by which I mean that I wanted to do what other writers had done for me. I wanted very much to create a world not-mine for hours and make other people think and feel. Reading William Styron’s novel Sophie’s Choice really sent me on my way. I remember reading it late at night while babysitting, thinking, I want to do this! I want to make people lose themselves. Make them reach for the dictionary as well as for their own, possibly-buried questions. I’ve written stories of some kind since I first learned how to make a sentence. It’s been my biggest comfort-zone, my truest sanctuary.
2) What inspired you to write Spelling Mississippi? Is there a story about the writing of this novel that begs to be told?
To pin it down: two things inspired this novel. A photograph (National Geographic magazine, July 1967) of a young woman holding a mud-soaked book retrieved from a flooded library in Italy during the famous 1966 deluge in the city of Florence. I wondered who she was, who she might become and, more pressingly, who her daughter might be. The second “inspiration” was my three and a half month stint living in New Orleans and all the crazy, wonderful people I met in the French Quarter. Once back in Toronto, I realized a French Quarter woman could indeed try to swim the Mississippi -- and succeed. My website essay “Memory: The Best Trickster” (in the PLAY section) provides insight for those interested into how front-line research and fuzzy but loving memory can create amusing situations when they collide.
3) What is it that you’re exploring in this book?
I can only see this now, after the fact. I think I was trying to understand the concepts of self-acceptance/acceptance of another person, along with fate/coincidence; letting go of the past so that you might envision a truly inspiring future; and yes, big love. I also explored the notion of a city as a character unto herself, which New Orleans is, for me: a woman everyone wants to meet at least once in their lifetime. And then realizes, maybe once is quite enough?
4) Who is your favourite character in Spelling Mississippi, and why?
To choose a favourite character in something I laboured over for years is impossible. I’m very fond of them all, even as they drift away from me. I really enjoyed Mrs. Ryan, the hotelier, because every time I wrote her scenes I felt warm and happy as I typed. Laughing during the writing of a novel is a rare but oh-so-sweet occurrence. I think you need to make one character your darling fool, as Shakespeare taught us all, and Mrs. Ryan is that wise fool for me.
5) Are there any tips you would give a book club to better navigate their discussion of your book?
If you hated it, say so. If you loved it, or even just enjoyed it, say so. In either instance, have reasons why. And oh, be sure to serve bourbon sours that night if you’re so inclined: the most astounding confessions/connections happen over bourbon sours, even if they have nothing to do with the appointed book of the night. Don’t worry about seeming silly; let your hair down and talk, really talk. That’s my wish.
6) Do you have a favourite story to tell about being interviewed about your book?
I find interviews, the process, very educational in both positive and negative senses. Readers of newspapers in particular should know that quotes are often chopped and that the author is often fed a question, which she (dutifully) answers. Strangely, the honest answer is then applied to a question she wasn’t actually asked. Example: when describing the last stages of creating a novel, I told a journalist that I wanted to kill all of my characters off, that I was, because of fatigue, sick of them all and found them aggravating. He then reported that even I, the author, admitted that every character in my novel was/is aggravating. Reading his piece I had to laugh, because I knew how much had been twisted around. For a previous book of mine (In The Spice House) I was asked (on live TV) what the recipe for lasting love is. I had just broken up with someone and was still quite raw, so I said, “I'm fasting just now, recipes don’t appeal to me.” What else can one say to such a crazy question posed by someone who admitted she hadn’t even read the book??
7) What question are you never asked in interviews but wish you were?
“How truly boring is it to be a writer?”
“Come clean: did you write this novel in your pyjamas, and if so, tell us what your pyjamas look like.”
“What is your current bank balance, and should anyone even bother to write to you asking for money/donations?” (A: Nope!)
8) Has a review or profile ever changed your perspective on your work?
No. I must say that I am 100% pig-headed that way and tend to be working on something else (if even only in my head) when this aspect of the process gets rolling. It would be deadly to take cues or directions from critics or journalists who meet authors under great duress (post-partum-whatsit/promoting/touring). One’s imagination defies commentary and decrees, or should. I do this because I am compelled to, so critics hardly matter.
9) Which authors have been most influential to your own writing?
Everyone I’ve read, but probably, most especially: Tennessee Williams, Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, Auden, ee cummings, Dorothy Parker and Grace Paley. Screenwriters and songwriters also keep me going when the going is more than a little rough. I make tapes for each book I write, tapes that instantly bring me into the mood I need for a given piece.
10) If you weren’t writing, what would you want to be doing for a living? What are some
of your other passions in life?
Acting, absolutely. My love of performing is, I realize, in complete opposition to the solitary, brooding nature of many writers. In fact, I am quite split this way. I still dream of doing the toilet-paper commercial no one ever forgets, or the live-theatre character role of my dreams. Juliet’s wet-nurse comes to mind here! Acting is the biggest high ever, next to riding a roller coaster. The high of writing is much quieter, a slow burn, yet also satisfying in ways I never dreamt possible. Also, if I weren’t so shy on a level, I’d be a portrait photographer, snapping people in the midst of their amazing one-time lives. Cooking is my only other “passion.” I communicate through food when I’m not writing. Which is why, when I’m working on a book, I almost always lose weight. I need a chef.
11) If you could have written one book in history, what book would that be?
Jazz, by Toni Morrison, a book so perfect that I still cannot believe it was written by a human being.