"The Boat Who Wouldn't Float"

 (Reviewed by Judi Clark MAR 2, 1998)

Happy Adventure is a schooner with a fatal flaw, it leaks like a sieve.  Regardless, Farley is determined to sail this boat.

This book was first published in 1969, but is a timeless piece of work. Mowat is a natural story teller and his narrative and anecdotes are brilliant. He wrote this during his eight year residency in Newfoundland.

When I read this book, we were rafted up with a Canadian boat in Vero Beach.  Our friends didn't believe he had done any of the things that he said he did; they claim he's just a  "local" with some good stories.  Regardless whether fact or fiction, this book is fun!

• Amazon reader rating: from 23 reviews

 

 

 

---

(back to top)

---

Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)

• People of the Deer (1952)
• The Regiment (1955)
• The Dog Who Wouldn't Be (1957)
• Polar Passion (1957)
• Coppermine Journey (1958)
• Grey Seas Under: The Perilous Rescure Missions of a North Atlantic Salvage Tug (1959)
• Desperate People (1959)
• Ordeal by Ice (1960)
• Owls in the Family (1961)
• The Serpent's Coil (1961)
• Never Cry Wolf (1963)
• Westviking (1965)
• Canada North (1967)
• This Rock within the Sea (1968)
• The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (1969)
• Sibir (1970)
• The World of Farley Mowat (1970)
• A Whale for the Killing (1972)
• Tundra (1973)
• Wake of the Great Sealers (1973)
• And No Birds Sang (1980)
• Sea of Slaughter (1984)
• My Discovery of America (1985)
• Virunga Passion of Dian Fossey (1987)
• Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey (1988)
• The New Founde Land (1990)
• Rescue the Earth: Coversations with the Green Crusaders (1990)
• My Father's Son: Memories of War and Peace (1993)
• Born Naked (1994)
• Aftermath: Travels in a Post-War World (1995)
• The Farfarers: Before the Norse (1998)
• Walking on the Land (May 2001)
• The Serpent's Coil: An Incredible Story of Hurricane-Battered Ships the Heroic Men Who Fought to Save Them (June 2001)
• High Latitudes: An Artic Journey (March 2003)
• No Man's River (September 2004)
• Bay of Spirits: A Love Story (September 2006)

Novels and Short Fiction:

• Lost in the Barrens (1956)
• The Black Joke (1962)
• Curse of the Viking Grave (1966)
• The Snow Walker (1975)

Movies from books:

• Never Cry Wolf
• Sea of Slaughter

Other:

• Farley Mowat: Writing the Squib by John Orange (1993)
• Farley: the Life of Farley Mowat by James King (2003)

 

(back to top)

---

Book Marks:

• The Canadian Encyclopedia on Farley Mowat
• Wikipedia on Farley Mowat
• Interview with Farley Mowat
• R/V Farley Mowat
• Review of The Boat Who Wouldn't Float
• Photos and quotes from Sea of Slaughter

 

(back to top)

---

About the Author:

Farley Mowat is Canada's most widely read author and many would view him as a Canadian hero.

Born in 1921 in Belleville, Ontario, he grew up in Belleville, Trenton, Windsor, Saskatoon, Toronto and Richmond Hill. His writing career began at age 14 when he wrote a column on birds for a local newspaper. Then, while studying at the University of Toronto, he became outraged during a field trip regarding the exploitation of the Inuits. This later led to his first controversial book, People of the Deer.  

Never Cry Wolf is still widely read in many grade schools and is still opening young minds to the idea that it may be man that is sometimes the more dangerous animal in the wilderness. 

Octagenerian Farley Mowat and his wife Claire winter in Port Hope, Ontario and summer on their farm in Cape Breton.