Sylvia Maultash Warsh is an award-winning author based in Toronto and Midland. Today, Project Bookmark Canada will unveil a plaque for Warsh's newest novel The Queen of Unforgetting (published by Cormorant Books) in Midland's Little Lake Park as part of Ontario: Read It Here.
Before the launch, Sylvia talked to the Ontario: Read It Here team about her inspirations, the creative process and her favourite Ontario locales for reading and writing.
When did you write the book? How long did it take?
The making of this book is like a shaggy dog story. The original incarnation began decades ago when I wanted to set a book in Midland. I wasn’t an experienced writer and made a lot of mistakes—too many characters, too much plot, characters that weren’t quite believable, etc. I used some autobiographical details and I think that worked— my parents were Holocaust survivors and I based the protagonist’s parents somewhat on mine. Unfortunately, the protagonist was uninteresting and couldn’t carry the story. I couldn’t find a publisher for the book. So I put it aside and went on to write mystery books. I found a publisher for my Dr. Rebecca Temple series and they’ve had a measure of success. One of them won an Edgar Award. After I’d written the 3rd Rebecca Temple book, I wanted a break and went back to the old Midland manuscript. After some years of writing books with structure and plot, I could see that the original book was unpublishable. I threw out most of it and kept what I still liked—the Midland setting, the themes and the time period during the 1970s. To rework the original manuscript took about two years. But I had all that research behind me.
What inspired it?
I was entranced by the history of the area around Georgian Bay—the tragic story of the Huron nation and the Jesuits who came to convert them in the 17th century. Jean de Brébeuf, especially, fascinated me, that someone who was well-off and comfortable in France would choose to come to the New World at great risk to himself. At some point I saw a parallel of the Huron tragedy with the Holocaust of the Jews. I wanted to incorporate some of the experiences my parents told me about because they were so vivid and moving.
What does Midland mean to you?
My parents started bringing me there when I was 12 or 13 and I took to it instantly. It reminds me of summer and being young when everything is new. I have an emotional bond with it, especially with Little Lake Park. It’s got a lovely natural bay at the bottom of King Street, their main drag.
Why did you choose it for this story?
I wanted to write about the Huron and Jesuit encounter in the 17th century and Midland was a natural hub. There were remnants of Huron villages around the vicinity. The village where Brébeuf was killed by the Iroquois is not far. I used Midland as a base for my protagonist, Mel, a beautiful grad student who is doing her thesis on a poem about Brébeuf. She needs to do research so she leaves Toronto to come to Midland and then the adventures begin!
What is your favourite place to write in Ontario?
I like to write in my house in north Toronto. It’s familiar and therefore, neutral, so I can think about my writing.
What is your favourite place to read in Ontario?
I love to read at our cottage on Georgian Bay, about twenty minutes from Midland. There’s nothing more satisfying than sitting on a beach and reading, with a cool breeze blowing off the lake.
What were your greatest challenges in writing this story?
It was hard trying to balance the dark and light aspects of this book. There are very troubled characters with the development of the Holocaust theme and the destruction of the Huron nation. I describe the murder of Brébeuf and other Jesuits in accurate historical detail. However, my protagonist, Mel Montrose, has a wry sense of humour that is sometimes at odds with the serious subject matter. A love story develops between characters, and it was a challenge to keep it from trivializing the tragic history.
Is there a book and/or poem that you feel really defines Ontario for you?
Roughing it in the Bush by Susanna Moodie is a surprisingly fun read about her trials and tribulations immigrating to Upper Canada (north of Peterborough apparently) from England in the 1830s. A middle-class Englishwoman, she hated the primitiveness of farm life at the beginning but by the end of her long life was very sympathetic to her new country.
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