Product Description

M. Wylie Capi Blanchet has accompanied many a seafarer on the B.C. coast her bestselling book, The Curve of Time, introduced us to a resilient, adventurous, and enigmatic woman ahead of her time. Widowed in 1926, Capi cruised the coast in her 25-foot boat, the Caprice, with her five children and their dog. Beyond this incredible story, however, little is known about the rest of her life. What tied Capi to the West Coast, despite her upbringing and family ties in Eastern Canada? What made her see possibility in a boat that had been sunk to the bottom? Insiders recollections, and her own travels along Capi s route help Cathy Converse explore this very private woman. In revisiting these villages, inlets and islands described in The Curve of Time, Converse evokes Capi s spirit and enriches the impressions she left behind.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #464581 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

About the Author
Cathy Converse is the author of Mainstays: Women Who Shaped BC, co-author of The Remarkable World of Frances Barkley 1769-1845 and the co-editor of In Her Own Right: Selected Essays on the History of Women in BC. A founder of Camosun College s Women s Studies curricula and ancillary programs, she is also a former department chair, instructor and frequent public speaker. Much like her subject, Cathy is most at peace on the water.

Customer Reviews

Nice companion book to "The Curve of Time"
"The Curve of Time" written by M. Wylie Blanchet is one of my favorite books so I am very pleased that Cathy Converse has written a terrific biography about "Capi" Blanchet--captain of the Caprice, adventurer, mother and unique individual.
"Following the Curve of Time" is well written and researched by an author who has also explored by boat the inside passage waterways of British Columbia. Having done some boating myself around the Gulf Islands and Desolation Sound I am very impressed that Capi and her children overcame the challenges of having spent the whole summer cruising aboard a 25 foot motor boat with 1 adult, 5 children and a dog.
It is a testament to the beauty of the B.C. coastal waters and the spirit of Capi and her children that they returned to go cruising every summner for 12 years. Capi's love and memory for those summers resulted in the classic "The Curve of Time".
Cathy Converse's book is a wonderful biography of Capi Blanchet and I think would be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates the beauty of the B.C. coastal waters. I enjoyed the pictures (some taken by Capi herself) and the First Nations information. There is also navigational information that boater's will enjoy including the extreme tide and currents in some areas that require precise navigation. Capi had to contend with these as do boaters in the area today.
Thanks to "Following the Curve of Time" there is now a biogrphy about the author of "The Curve of Time". Now if only a movie could be made. Katharine Hepburn would have made a wonderful onscreen Capi. Gosh, how about Cate Blanchett in the starring role. Blanchett playing the role of Blanchet! That's a movie I would like to see.

"Invented Parts Are Best"
This biography of Muriel Wylie Blanchet typifies what F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about life, ... that "the invented parts are best." The biographer did a great job of filling in the facts of Blanchet's life and of sharing visits to milestone locations from "The Curve of Time," comparing those locations and how they've changed over time, but Blanchet's obvious talent for invention and the reasons for it, which are the source of a reader's fascination, perhaps should have been explored more thoroughly. I was grateful that someone had taken on this biography and I fully expected that the facts of Blanchet's life would not match the myterious charm that leaps from the page of her classic book; how could this be, after all? She created art to sustain her family through sales of her writing to magazines, but also I suspect to express her life's experiences in a way that recreated herself and her memories as she wanted them to be understood. She had a flair for drama and mystery, which was probably both a blessing and a curse. I'll bet she felt misunderstood and convinced herself she did not care if she was.

I was not surprised that she was regarded as eccentric and difficult or that her children were not all reliably enamored of their childhood adventures as the reader who chooses this book becomes. Far from being disappointed, however, that all was not rosey in Ms. Blanchet's world and that her life did not replicate the contained charm of her book, I was again reminded how much of a person's life, especially to their interior selves, is an invention to sustain a dream. A dream of connection somehow with where one truly belongs and the expression of that constant interior dialogue brings writers and artists and inventors to leave behind a gift to us all.

Thank you, Ms. Converse, for all your hard work and for your love for the sea and small boats that you so obviously share with your subject.