Header Image
Rudbeckia in September.
These “Reviews” and Ratings
I am merely a reader, a consumer of books for amusement and personal instruction, not a professional reviewer - and that is indeed a worthy profession, an important literary craft - so these posts are merely meant to be one person's reading responses, not scholarly reviews.
Early on in this blog I began rating the books I talked about on a 1 to 10 scale; it was meant to be a quick way to communicate my personal degree of satisfaction/pleasure (or the opposite) in each reading experience.
To emphasize: These are very personal, completely arbitrary ratings. These are merely meant to be a measure of the book's success in meeting my hopes and expectations as a reader.
5 & higher are what I consider as "keepers", in various degrees. A 10 indicates that I can think of no possible improvement. Ratings under 5 are rare & I struggle with giving those, but in all honesty sometimes feel them appropriate for, again, undeniably arbitrary and very personal reasons.
Each book is rated in its own context, NOT in comparison to the entire range of literature, which would, of course, be an impossible task.
-
Recent Posts
- A postcard from my neighbourhood, and a note on reading from CBC’s Ideas
- A slightly unfinished business: Table Two by Marjorie Wilenski (1942)
- Looking forward to 2020!
- Still here! Still here! With a very brief glimpse at a Greek island memoir by Carola Matthews.
- Peeking out from behind the Christmas tree…
Archives
- May 2020 (1)
- December 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (1)
- January 2019 (1)
- November 2018 (11)
- October 2018 (27)
- September 2018 (6)
- July 2018 (1)
- May 2018 (4)
- April 2018 (3)
- March 2018 (5)
- February 2018 (11)
- January 2018 (20)
- December 2017 (1)
- November 2017 (1)
- October 2017 (5)
- September 2017 (2)
- August 2017 (2)
- July 2017 (3)
- April 2017 (4)
- March 2017 (5)
- February 2017 (14)
- January 2017 (7)
- December 2016 (1)
- November 2016 (7)
- October 2016 (11)
- September 2016 (1)
- August 2016 (2)
- July 2016 (3)
- June 2016 (2)
- April 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (1)
- February 2016 (1)
- January 2016 (5)
- December 2015 (4)
- November 2015 (5)
- October 2015 (1)
- September 2015 (2)
- August 2015 (4)
- July 2015 (8)
- June 2015 (12)
- May 2015 (1)
- April 2015 (1)
- March 2015 (5)
- February 2015 (6)
- January 2015 (9)
- December 2014 (18)
- November 2014 (9)
- October 2014 (7)
- September 2014 (4)
- August 2014 (15)
- July 2014 (12)
- June 2014 (5)
- May 2014 (8)
- April 2014 (11)
- March 2014 (17)
- February 2014 (7)
- January 2014 (23)
- December 2013 (21)
- November 2013 (19)
- October 2013 (18)
- September 2013 (10)
- August 2013 (12)
- July 2013 (22)
- June 2013 (11)
- May 2013 (5)
- April 2013 (17)
- March 2013 (12)
- February 2013 (15)
- January 2013 (20)
- December 2012 (37)
- November 2012 (28)
- October 2012 (28)
- September 2012 (22)
- August 2012 (24)
- July 2012 (22)
- June 2012 (16)
- May 2012 (15)
- April 2012 (11)
Blogroll
Another Look Book
Bentley Rumble
Bibliolathas
Books Anonymous
The Book Mine Set
The Book Trunk
Canus Humorous
The Captive Reader
Clothes in Books
Desperate Reader
Frisbee: A Book Journal
Geranium Cat's Bookshelf
Gudrun's Tights
Heavenali
His Futile Preoccupations
The Indextrious Reader
Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings
Letters From a Hill Farm
Life must be filled up
Lily Oak Books
Mrs. Miniver's Daughter
Nonsuch Book
A Penguin a Week
Reading the End (formerly Jenny's Books)
Savidge Reads
Stuck-in-a-Book
TBR 313
Vulpes Libris
Willow House ChroniclesA (Second) Century of Books ~ 2018
12th Annual Canadian Book Challenge
11th Annual Canadian Book Challenge
10th Annual Canadian Book Challenge
9th Annual Canadian Book Challenge
8th Annual Canadian Book Challenge
7th Annual Canadian Book Challenge
6th Annual Canadian Book Challenge
Categories
- 1840s (2)
- 1850s (1)
- 1880s (2)
- 1890s (2)
- 1900s (34)
- 1910s (29)
- 1920s (53)
- 1930s (75)
- 1940s (79)
- 1950s (101)
- 1960s (96)
- 1970s (55)
- 1980s (44)
- 1990s (47)
- 2000s (36)
- 2010s (31)
- A.A. Milne (1)
- A.J. Cronin (1)
- Agatha Christie (5)
- Alan Garner (1)
- Alexander Frater (3)
- Alexander McCall Smith (1)
- Alistair MacLean (1)
- Alistair MacLeod (2)
- Amy Clampitt (1)
- Angela Brazil (1)
- Angela Thirkell (1)
- Anita Brookner (1)
- Ann Patchett (1)
- Annabel Lyon (2)
- Anne Cameron (1)
- Annie Hawes (1)
- Anthony Burgess (1)
- Antonia Fraser (1)
- Arnold Bennett (1)
- B.J. Chute (1)
- Barbara Smucker (2)
- Baroness Orczy (1)
- Ben Benson (1)
- Bernard Ashley (1)
- Beryl Markham (1)
- Bess Streeter Aldrich (7)
- Betty Cavanna (5)
- Beverley Nichols (2)
- Bill Bryson (2)
- Bill Richardson (1)
- Bruce Chatwin (1)
- Caitlin Moran (3)
- Canadian Book Challenge #10 (3)
- Canadian Book Challenge #11 (7)
- Canadian Book Challenge #12 (3)
- Canadian Book Challenge #6 (68)
- Canadian Book Challenge #7 (20)
- Canadian Book Challenge #8 (10)
- Canadian Book Challenge #9 (4)
- Carol Rifka Brunt (1)
- Carola Matthews (1)
- Catherine Carswell (1)
- Catherine Gildiner (1)
- CBC Ideas (1)
- Celia Furse (2)
- Century of Books – 2014 (110)
- Century of Books – 2017 (34)
- Century of Books – 2018 (83)
- Charles de Lint (1)
- Charlotte Bronte (1)
- Cheryl Strayed (1)
- Chris Czajkowski (1)
- Christian Petersen (1)
- Christopher Isherwood (1)
- Christopher La Farge (1)
- Christopher Morley (6)
- Classics Club (16)
- Clive King (2)
- Colette (1)
- Conrad Richter (1)
- Contemporary Fiction (24)
- D.E.Stevenson (26)
- D.G. Fabre (1)
- Daphne du Maurier (5)
- Dave Eggers (1)
- Dell Shannon (1)
- Dervla Murphy (1)
- Des Kennedy (1)
- Diana Tutton (3)
- Diana Wynne Jones (3)
- Dodie Smith (9)
- Donald Hamilton (1)
- Doris Gates (1)
- Doris Rybot (1)
- Dorothy Bowers (1)
- Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1)
- Dorothy Gilman (1)
- Dorothy L. Sayers (1)
- Dorothy Whipple (3)
- Douglass Wallop (1)
- E. Annie Proulx (1)
- E. Nesbit (2)
- E. Phillips Oppenheim (1)
- E.G. Perrault (1)
- E.L. Konigsburg (2)
- E.M. Channon (2)
- E.M. Delafield (2)
- E.M. Forster (1)
- Earle Birney (1)
- Eden Robinson (1)
- Edith Olivier (1)
- Edith Wharton (3)
- Edna Ferber (2)
- Edna St. Vincent Millay (1)
- Edward Ardizzone (2)
- Eleanor Bor (2)
- Eleanor Farjeon (1)
- Elinor Glyn (1)
- Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (1)
- Elizabeth Bowen (2)
- Elizabeth Cadell (1)
- Elizabeth Cambridge (6)
- Elizabeth Gilbert (1)
- Elizabeth Goudge (5)
- Elizabeth Jordan (1)
- Elizabeth Taylor (3)
- Elizabeth von Arnim (9)
- Eloise Jarvis McGraw (2)
- Elswyth Thane (1)
- Emily Bronte (1)
- Emily Kimbrough (1)
- Enid Bagnold (1)
- Eric Newby (4)
- Eric Nicol (1)
- Eric Wright (1)
- Ernest H. Shepard (1)
- Ernst Lothar (1)
- Ethel Armitage (2)
- Ethel M.Dell (1)
- Ethel Wilson (4)
- Eva Ibbotson (1)
- Eve Garnett (1)
- Evelyn Berckman (1)
- Evelyn Waugh (1)
- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
- Feenie Ziner (2)
- Flora Klickmann (1)
- Frances Faviell (2)
- Frances Parkinson Keyes (1)
- Frank Baker (1)
- Frank Stockton (1)
- Fred M. White (1)
- Gabrielle Roy (1)
- Gavin Lambert (1)
- Gene Stratton-Porter (5)
- George Bernard Shaw (1)
- George Meredith (1)
- Georgette Heyer (8)
- Gladys Taber (1)
- Gwethalyn Graham (1)
- H.E. Bates (2)
- H.F. Brinsmead (1)
- H.G. Wells (1)
- H.V. Morton (1)
- Hammond Innes (2)
- Harlan Ellison (1)
- Harold Horwood (1)
- Harper Lee (1)
- Harriet Devine (1)
- Heather Robertson (1)
- Helen (Rose) Hull (1)
- Helen MacInnes (6)
- Helene Gremillon (1)
- Henry James (1)
- Hilary Mantel (1)
- Honor Tracy (1)
- Howard Spring (3)
- Hugh Lofting (1)
- Hugh Walpole (8)
- Ira Levin (1)
- Irene Hunt (1)
- Irvin S. Cobb (1)
- J.B. Priestley (9)
- J.K. Rowling (1)
- J.M. Barrie (1)
- Jack Hodgins (3)
- Jacques Poulin (1)
- James Goldman (1)
- James Herriot (1)
- James Hilton (1)
- James Houston (1)
- James Ramsey Ullman (1)
- James Reeves (1)
- Jane Aiken Hodge (1)
- Jean Estoril (1)
- Jerome K. Jerome (2)
- Jerrard Tickell (1)
- Jian Ghomeshi (2)
- Joan Walker (1)
- Joanne Taylor (1)
- Joe David Brown (1)
- John Buell (1)
- John Christopher (1)
- John Goodwin (1)
- John Mortimer (2)
- John Steinbeck (1)
- John Wyndham (4)
- Jonathan Raban (1)
- Josephine Lawrence (1)
- Josephine Tey (1)
- Julia Strachey (1)
- Karl Bjarnhof (1)
- Kate Atkinson (1)
- Kathleen Norris (4)
- Kenneth Grahame (2)
- Kevin Patterson (1)
- Kit Pearson (1)
- L.M. Boston (1)
- L.M. Montgomery (6)
- Laura Moriarty (1)
- Laura Z. Hobson (1)
- Leonard Cohen (1)
- Lisa Moore (1)
- Lorna Whishaw (2)
- Louis Bromfield (1)
- Louise Baker (1)
- Louise Riley (1)
- Lucy M. Boston (1)
- Luella Creighton (1)
- Lynne Reid Banks (3)
- M.F.K. Fisher (1)
- M.M. Kaye (1)
- Mabel Esther Allan (1)
- Mabel Seeley (1)
- Madeleine Brent (1)
- Margaret Atwood (1)
- Margaret Bell Houston (1)
- Margaret Craven (1)
- Margaret Gillies Brown (1)
- Margaret Hutchison (1)
- Margaret Pedler (1)
- Margery Sharp (19)
- Marghanita Laski (1)
- Margot Benary-Isbert (1)
- Marguerite Steen (1)
- Marjorie Wilenski (1)
- Martha Reben (1)
- Martha Schabas (1)
- Mary Bell (1)
- Mary Borden (1)
- Mary Bosanquet (1)
- Mary Clive (1)
- Mary McMinnies (1)
- Mary Renault (2)
- Mary Roberts Rinehart (4)
- Mary Stewart (15)
- Mary Wesley (1)
- Maureen Daly (2)
- Maureen Hull (1)
- Mazo de la Roche (4)
- Meg Rosoff (1)
- Melina Marchetta (1)
- Miss Read (Dora Saint) (1)
- Monica Dickens (4)
- Mordecai Richler (3)
- Muriel Spark (4)
- My World (96)
- Myrtle Reed (1)
- Nancy Mitford (2)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (1)
- Neil Gaiman (2)
- Neil Smith (1)
- Nevil Shute (5)
- Ngaio Marsh (2)
- Nicholas Monsarrat (1)
- Nicola Humble (1)
- Nina Bawden (1)
- Noel Perrin (1)
- Noel Streatfeild (1)
- Norah Lofts (7)
- O. Douglas (13)
- Olive Higgins Prouty (1)
- Other People's Words (3)
- P.G. Wodehouse (1)
- Patricia Highsmith (3)
- Patrick Campbell (1)
- Patrick Dennis (1)
- Patrick deWitt (1)
- Paul Gallico (4)
- Paul St. Pierre (1)
- Paul Theroux (1)
- Pearl S. Buck (1)
- Peg Bracken (1)
- Peggy Holmes (1)
- Penelope Mortimer (1)
- Peter Blackmore (1)
- Peter Curtis (Pseudonym of Norah Lofts) (1)
- Peter Mayle (2)
- Peter O'Donnell (1)
- Philip Croft (1)
- Phyllis A. Whitney (3)
- Pierre Berton (1)
- Pierre Boulle (1)
- Poetry (43)
- Quentin Blake (1)
- R.A. MacAvoy (3)
- R.C. Hutchinson (1)
- Rachel Ferguson (3)
- Rachel Joyce (1)
- Rachel Peden (1)
- Rainer Maria Rilke (2)
- Ralph Moody (1)
- Randy Bachman (1)
- Ray Bradbury (3)
- Read in 2012 (175)
- Read in 2013 (150)
- Read in 2014 (111)
- Read in 2015 (32)
- Read in 2016 (22)
- Read in 2017 (35)
- Read in 2018 (84)
- Read in 2019 (1)
- Reginald Arkell (2)
- Rex Whistler (1)
- Richard Church (1)
- Richard Wagamese (1)
- Rick Antonson (1)
- Rien Poortvliet (1)
- Robert A. Heinlein (2)
- Robert Grant (2)
- Robert Graves (3)
- Robert Nathan (1)
- Robin McKinley (7)
- Rohan O'Grady (1)
- Rose Franken (1)
- Rose Macaulay (3)
- Rosemary Sutcliff (1)
- Rosemary Taylor (1)
- Rumer Godden (20)
- Russell Hoban (2)
- Ruth Loomis (1)
- Ruth Park (1)
- Samuel Youd (1)
- Sara Jeannette Duncan (3)
- Shane Martin (1)
- Sheila Burnford (1)
- Sheila MacKay Russell (2)
- Shirley Jackson (1)
- Short Stories (24)
- Sinclair Lewis (2)
- Stuart Trueman (1)
- Susan Hill (2)
- Susan Scarlett (1)
- Sylvia Fraser (1)
- Sylvia Murphy (2)
- Sylvia Townsend Warner (2)
- T.H. White (2)
- Tayeb Salih (1)
- Thomas C. Cooper (1)
- Thornton Wilder (1)
- Tim Bowling (2)
- Tina Fey (1)
- Uncategorized (7)
- Ursula Bloom (1)
- Ursula Orange (1)
- Valerie Grove (1)
- Velda Johnston (2)
- Vera Caspary (1)
- Victor Canning (4)
- Victoria Holt (1)
- Vita Sackville-West (3)
- Vivian Connell (1)
- W.H. Hudson (1)
- Wallace Stegner (2)
- Wayne McLennan (1)
- Wil Huygen (1)
- Will Ferguson (2)
- William C. Heine (3)
- Winston Graham (2)
- Wolf Mankowitz (1)
Review: My Discovery of America by Farley Mowat
July 30, 2013 by leavesandpages
My rating: 6/10.
High marks for tackling this topic with such eloquent vigour, tweaked downward for the increasingly bombastic posturings of the author, which led me to a sneaking small sympathy for his unwary opponents. As I read I could envision the froth forming at the Mowat’s mouth, perhaps dribbling down his legendary beard, too, as he raved on and on and on. (The conciliatory last chapter, where he thanks his many supporters in the U.S.A., did seem a bit calmer, and appropriately sincere.)
Oh – adding another point back on for that first chapter, in which Mowat describes his airport encounter with the Forces of American Evil, a.k.a. the INS: Immigration and Naturalization Services of the United States of America. It was a truly funny piece of writing, and for this I will forgive the annoyance Mowat so often inspires in me by his ego-driven blusterings, which, in this instance, had plenty of justification.
Okay, here’s the story. On April 23, 1985, as Mowat was setting out on a trip to the West Coast of the U.S.A. on a joint lecture/promotion tour for his just-released Sea of Slaughter (a passionate indictment of the human-caused ecological devastation of the Atlantic shores of North America), he was escorted off the plane as it sat on the tarmac, and notified that he was persona non grata in the U.S.A. Forever and for always. And no, we can’t tell you why, sir. Just go away now, sir.
Mowat storms out of the airport terminal and into the arms of his publisher, where he is met with a shared indignation exceeding even his own. “This is war!” (or words to that effect) cries Jack McClelland, and a press deluge begins, spurred on by the very recent “Irish Eyes are Smiling” Reagan-Mulroney love-fest, and assurances by both leaders that the U.S.A. and Canada are dear, dear friends.
Why does the mighty United States feel that wolf-, whale- and generally nature-loving Mr. Mowat is a security threat? And why do the words “Commie sympathiser” keep coming up, though no one will let Mowat or anyone else take a look at his secret file, the one that led to its abrupt barring from the neighbouring country?
It seems that there is a McCarthy-era law on the books, the McCarran–Walter Act, which allows such arbitrary barring on the most microscopic past “offenses”, such as visiting the USSR (which Mowat had done some fifteen years earlier, to research his book Sibir), and – oh! that little incident in which Mr. Mowat reported a desire to shoot his .22 rifle at U.S. Air Force planes carrying (possibly) atomic warheads across Newfoundland air space…
125 pages later, not much has changed, except that Mowat is offered a “parole” to allow him a one-time entry into the U.S.A., which he scornfully turns down, “parole” implying some sort of wrong-doing.
In this post-9/11time of ever more stringent border examinations, and many more arbitrary black-listings for undisclosed reasons – “security risk” being the handy catch-all phrase – Mowat’s prior experience sounds sadly like something we’ve all heard before.
Mowat’s horrified indignation echoes so many others; his response was the one every wronged citizen dreams of pulling off. Lucky for Mr. Mowat that his celebrity and many connections allowed him to speak out so vibrantly without losing his livelihood or credibility, a real problem for so many others in the same position, as Mowat points out, and which is one of the reasons he puts forward for his strident rebuttal to his black-list barring.
An interesting read, and with chilling parallels to the situation today between the countries on both sides of the world’s longest – but for how much longer? – undefended border. The razor wire, both literal and figurative, is persistently going up.
Here, FYI, is a very partial list, courtesy Wikipedia and therefore including the related links, of some of the public figures joining Farley Mowat on the McCarran-Walter exclusion list, before its amendment (but not its dismantlement) in 1990:
Share this:
Like this:
Related
Posted in 1980s, Canadian Book Challenge #7, Read in 2013 | Tagged Biography, Canadian, Canadian Book Challenge 7, Political Rant, Social Commentary | Leave a Comment
Comments RSS