Michael Curry is a major character in Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy. (He is a POV character in the novels for some chapters. In the AMC Adaptation, Ciprien Grieve is a combination of characteristics from two characters in the novels: Michael Curry and Aaron Lightner.)
Description[]
He has a powerful build and determination. He loves working with his hands. "Even as a child, he was husky and uncommonly strong, a human being for whom physical action, even of a violent sort, was fairly natural." Michael was physically restless and stubborn. In school, "he was the quiet boy, the boy who always did his homework. Fear of ignorance, fear of violence, fear of humiliation drove him as surely as his later ambitions." He is a highly adaptable person. [1]
Aliases[]
Biography[]
Early Life in New Orleans[]
Born and raised on in the Irish Channel neighborhood of New Orleans, Michael also saw Lasher as a child and never forgot his face. When he was a child, his family drove in their old Packard convertible from New Orleans to Florida along the Gulf Coast for what he thinks was probably Easter vacation.[1] He lived in a small double cottage next door to his paternal grandparents in the Irish Channel neighborhood. His paternal family, the Currys, are hard-working people. His ancestors were Irish who escaped the great potato famine. His father was the third generation to live in their house. His grandmother had four o'clocks in her yard. He first discovered classical music at the age of six listening to an old tube radio on his grandmother's back porch.
His grandfather was a policeman on the wharves and smoked cigars. Michael's great-grandfather had loaded cotton bales on the same wharves.
He was raised Catholic, attending Mass at St. Alphonsus. Throughout his youth, he loves to take long walks, especially through the Garden District. His mother did, too, and he saw this as a gift she had given him. She dearly loved the house on First Street and Michael often saw Lasher in the far back of the garden. He even saw Lasher one time around Christmas inside St. Alphonsus Church in the shadows. Every time Michael saw him when he was a little boy, Lasher gave him a little smile.
His mother also sparked his love of film. She took him on the streetcar to Saturday matinees at the Civic Theater in downtown New Orleans. His father called it "sissy stuff".[1]
Adulthood in California[]
In the summer of his seventeenth year, he moves to California and furthered his education. He is the first of the Curry family to earn a college degree. He will not return to New Orleans again until the events of the novel. Some of his favorite films featured great houses, such as Rebecca, Great Expectations, Gaslight, and The Red Shoes. These were films he watched with his mother. He starts a historic home renovation business called Great Expectations, eventually restoring a Queen Anne house on Liberty Street in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco, for himself, his mother, and his aunt. He also owned a small shop that sold vintage Victorian fixtures on Castro. After the death of his mother his life seemed empty.[1]
He begins dating Therese.
Near-Death Experience[]
In around 1985, on May 1 while at Ocean Beach, he is swept off the rocks by a wave and drowns. Dying for an hour he is rescued and brought back to life by Rowan. According to her, he said something that "began with an L...a name, maybe". [1]He awakens with a sense of having had a vision through which he has gained a purpose, something about a doorway[1], but cannot recall the details, only that he must return to New Orleans to accomplish some vague mission. His best friend, Jimmy Barnes, is the first person he sees after waking in the hospital, but he is unable to speak to him. His other best friend, Stacy, also visits him in the hospital. He also develops psychometric power in his hands[2], seeing the history of objects when he touches them. After the experience, he hides away in his bedroom, not leaving it for four weeks. He wore black leather gloves to stifle the psychometric power. He is treated by Dr. Morris. His girlfriend, Therese, leaves him due to his obsession over this experience.[1]
He becomes obsessed with stories about what happens in the afterlife, such as films like Fanny and Alexander, Ironweed, Cries and Whispers, The Woman in White, and Julia. He also thought about the book, The White Hotel.
Following his traumatic experience, Michael shuts down his business.
Events of The Witching Hour[]
At the time of his accident, Michael has "a couple of million socked away, and property that amounted to almost that". His business is shut down because of the debilitating nature of his psychic ability.[1] He leaves for New Orleans despite the fact he has fallen in love with Rowan, where she too eventually turns up for the reading of her mother Deirdre's will. They marry and renovate the First Street House.