"What Does a Family Do When it Becomes Lost to Itself?" Caitlin Galway on Exploring Loss in her Compelling, Gothic Debut Novel

The French Quarter of New Orleans has captured the literary imagination in a way few neighbours can claim to have done. Packed with history and just a whiff of the Gothic, it's an atmospheric wonder that serves as a perfect backdrop to Caitlin Galway's debut novel Bonavere Howl (Guernica Editions). 

It's 1955 when the three Fayette sisters are coming of age. They're deeply close to one another - close enough that when middle sister Constance disappears, her sisters are her only hope, with their parents and the police dismissing any possibility other than Constance having run away. But what about the girls who have turned up in nearby swampland, raving and disturbed? And how are those young women connected the wealthy Lasalle family? Youngest sister Bonnie is particularly convinced that Constance is in danger, and her quest to rescue her, driven by an indomitable love and faith, is the tense, dark story of Bonavere Howl, a perfectly Gothic page turner to dive into this summer.

We're excited to welcome Caitlin to Open Book today to talk about her novel as part of our novel-centric Long Story interview. She tells us about the intensive research she did (right down to double checking 1950s streetcar routes), how her novels' dedication and its themes intersect, and the surprising feelings she developed about swamps through her writing.

Open Book:

How did you choose the setting of your novel? What connection, if any, did you have to the setting when you began writing?

Caitlin Galway:

The story started out somewhere completely different—an old mining town, I think. Then I thought of New Orleans, really without any connection, and everything started clicking together. The atmosphere and threads created by setting are integral to my stories, and New Orleans has this complex, ethereal strangeness; it really is the perfect setting for a story centred on peculiar girls and the more challenging aspects of human frailty.

OB:

Did the ending of your novel change at all through your drafts? If so, how?

CG:

I did wonder how things would play out with regard to the missing sister, Constance, when writing the first draft. It wasn't until I was almost finished that I knew, but once I did, the ending never wavered.

OB:

Did you find yourself having a "favourite" amongst your characters? If so, who was it and why?

CG:

I really liked the narrator, Bonnie, despite her flaws. Aside from her closeness with her sisters and Saul, she's a relatively friendless misfit who just loves reading and playing make-believe. Her sister Fritzi was probably my favourite to write, though, because she kept surprising me. Fritzi's not immediately likeable. She's snappy, controlling, and somewhat cold, but she has a huge heart, and even though Bonnie views her as this beautiful, intimidating presence, we gradually see a very damaged vulnerability to Fritzi, and how desperately she's trying to protect her sisters.

OB:

Did you do any specific research for this novel? Tell us a bit about that process.

CG:

I absolutely loved researching New Orleans. I did intensive research on everything from its history and plant life and architecture, to how to insult someone, or order certain items at a restaurant. I listened to recordings of conversations to catch nuances and slang, since New Orleans has its own highly distinct dialogue. I tried to be as careful as possible with the layout of the city, as well. I studied 1950s streetcar routes and neighbourhood maps, so that every move Bonnie makes evokes the city's framework. I still get lost in Toronto after a decade of living here, but I think that I could make my way around New Orleans.

OB:

Who did you dedicate your novel to, and why?

CG:

I dedicated it to my family because I'm incredibly proud of them and what they've overcome. There are a number of themes at the heart of the story, and one is family trauma. How do you cope with it? How do you heal through it? What does a family do when it becomes lost to itself? Various families within the story meet with substantial trauma, and we watch the response of each, with nobody responding perfectly but some far worse than others.

OB:

Did you include an epigraph in your book? If so, how did you choose it and how does it relate to the narrative?

CG:

The epigraph is:"How can I retrace today the strange steps of my obsession?" I chose it in part because it's from one of my favourite of those eerie, exquisite old stories (Henry James' The Turn of the Screw), and because it sets the tone for the book, which has a strong Gothic feel—not only Southern Gothic, but traditional Victorian Gothic. It also introduces the theme of obsession. Several characters become obsessed with "fixing" their grief, their mistakes, and their families, at times oblivious to the perpetuation of harm this can cause.

OB:

What if, anything, did you learn from writing this novel?

CG:

I've always been a short fiction writer first, and my instincts naturally lean towards that form, so I had to sit down and figure out how to tell a story using an entirely different narrative structure. I also began to see how deep the misrepresentation of Voodoo (and hoodoo) is in a lot of works set in the South, particularly those set in New Orleans, so I wanted to learn more about it and address this misrepresentation while being very cautious not to be appropriative. I discovered a love of swamps, too. They have this hushed, uncanny quality that makes them both magical and terrifying.

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Caitlin Galway is an author and freelance editor. Her fiction has been published in Riddle Fence, The Broken Social Scene Story Project, the Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Anthology Series, and by CBC Books. She has won and been shortlisted for numerous contests, and has received multiple literary grants. She studied English Literature at Queen's University.