’Over the moon’
Cambridge woman’s novel set in an ob-gyn office is named a finalist for Leacock writing prize
Cambridge woman named a finalist in Leacock writing prize
CAMBRIDGE — Pat Oliver has taken 15 years of working as an assistant in her sister’s gynecology office in Kitchener, and turned the everyday nuggets of women’s health into a witty book.
And that book — “The Gynesaurs” — has been nominated for the prestigious Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal of Humour.
“I’m over the moon,” said Oliver, who received an email this week telling her she is among the top 10 finalists for the Canadian literary prize. “I got up and ran around the house.”
Her novel is based on everyday encounters with patients visiting an obstetrician-gynecologist’s office. “Women’s health is full of drama. It’s life,” she said.
The book features four characters, all single women in the office — a doctor, nurse and secretaries — and their stories are all loosely based on true events.
“Women are so funny when they are not around men. They are intimate and embarrassing and together you get through the embarrassments,” she said. “I poke fun at everyone. Nobody is sacred.”
Oliver, a 64-year-old retired mother of three, recalls how each working day was eventful, meeting women, mostly in distress, and “navigating their issues with sensitivity and humour.” The women of the office had daily lunchroom conversations, griping over
menopause, men and children, bladder issues and age and fertility.
“It was a whiny chorus. We were so old, we were dinosaurs. But we were gynesaurs,” she said. Hence, the title.
Welsh-born Oliver comes from a family of writers. Her father, an engineer, wrote children’s books that were influenced by Tolkien and her sister writes plays.
At the Oliver home in Hespeler, it’s common to have plays performed for extended family on Christmas Eve. Oliver herself has written 36 of them.
Humour seems to be an Oliver trait, too.
Her sister, Christine, died of lung cancer almost two years ago and when she was diagnosed, the family was shocked because she was a marathon runner and never smoked.
“When I went to visit her, she said, ‘Well Pat, of us four daughters, one of us had to have cancer. I voted for you,’ ” she recalls with a smile.
Two days before her sister died, she told Oliver to “get that book done.”
Oliver had taken a hiatus from writing to help care for her dying sister and her mother who died three months before her sister.
The book focuses on loss in relation to power, love, children and fertility. “These were issues we dealt with almost on a consistent basis,” she said.
“Women, we are all on the same side. We are stronger together,” said Oliver. “I wanted to write a comedy with a classic Shakespearean ending, ending with a prospect of a wedding.”
Oliver said she’s working on two other books; a Canadian fairy tale and a horror work based on a story told in her neighbourhood.
She’s still shocked by Monday’s announcement and continues to absorb what it means.
“Writing is a lonely task. You can’t be social. You have to be disciplined,” she said. “But it’s like a superpower. You can make someone feel what you feel.”
“The Gynesaurs” can be purchased online or at Wordsworth Books in Waterloo and Book Express in Cambridge.
Women are so funny when they are not around men. They are intimate and embarrassing and together you get through the embarrassments. PAT OLIVER Author of ‘The Gynesaurs’