Canadian Author Challenge — March: Farley Mowat & Anita Rau Badami

March Authors:

Farley Mowat
Anita Rau Badami

Back to general thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/209622

Farley McGill Mowat (May 12, 1921 – May 6, 2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian north, such as People of the Deer (1952) and Never Cry Wolf (1963). The latter, an account of his experiences with wolves in the Arctic, was made into a film of the same name released in 1983. For his body of work as a writer he won the annual Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature in 1970.

Mowat's advocacy for environmental causes and his own claim to "never let the facts get in the way of the truth", earned him both praise and criticism; few readers remain neutral. Descriptions of Mowat refer to his "commitment to ideals" and "poetic descriptions and vivid images" as well as his strong antipathies, which provoke "ridicule, lampoons and, at times, evangelical condemnation". His subject is frequently the defense of the natural world: Never Cry Wolf is credited with changing the stereotypically negative perception of wolves as vicious killers. Sea of Slaughter (1984) chronicles the destruction of species in the North Atlantic. Mowat became very interested in Dian Fossey, the American ethologist who studied gorillas and was brutally murdered in Rwanda in 1985. His biography of her was published in 1987, in Canada under the title Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey, and in the United States as Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa — an allusion to Fossey's own recounting of her life and research Gorillas in the Mist (1983).

The great grandnephew of Ontario Premier Sir Oliver Mowat and son of a veteran of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Farley Mowat started writing in his pre-teens. In the 1930s Mowat studied zoology at the University of Toronto but never completed a degree. He took his first collecting expedition in the summer of 1939 to Saskatoon with fellow zoology student Frank Banfield collecting data regarding mammals and Mowat focusing on birds. They sold their collections to the Royal Ontario Museum to finance their trip.

Many of his works are autobiographical: The Dog Who Wouldn't Be (1957) and Owls in the Family (1961) are comic recollections of his youth; The Regiment (1961) and And No Birds Sang (1979) deal with his experiences in the Second World War. Three books centre on his eight-year residency in Burgeo, Newfoundland: The Rock within the Sea (1968) presents his seafaring neighbours as heroic because they are uncorrupted by modern technology; The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (1969, Leacock Medal 1970) reflects his later disillusion; A Whale for the Killing (1972) transforms the wanton shooting of a trapped whale into a symbolic tragedy. The highly ironic My Discovery of America (1985) speculates on the reasons he was placed in the American "lookout book" for undesirables and refused entry into the US in 1985 (American customs officials could deny entry to visitors they thought were "Communist sympathizers". Believing gun lobbyists were behind his denial, Mowat came forward with his suspicion. The law was overturned in 1990.)

Anita Rau Badami (born 24 September 1961) is a writer born in Rourkela, Odisha, India and now living in Canada. Her father worked as a mechanical engineer and designed trains, and was transferred every two or three years, so that she had a mobile childhood. She has always loved writing, and sold her first short story when she was 18. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Madras, after which she studied Social Communications Media in Sophia College, Bombay. She worked as a copywriter for advertising agencies in Bombay, Bangalore and Madras, and freelanced for major Indian newspapers for several years. She also published stories in children's magazines.

She moved to Canada in 1991 and in 1995 was awarded a Master's degree in English literature from the University of Calgary. Her graduate thesis became her first novel, Tamarind Mem, which was published worldwide in 1996. Her bestselling second novel, The Hero's Walk, won the Regional Commonwealth Writers Prize, Italy's Premio Berto and was also named a Washington Post Best Book of 2001. It was also longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize. As well, she is the recipient of the Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career. Her novels deal with the complexities of Indian family life and with the cultural gap that emerges when Indians move to the west. Badami's third novel, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call explores the Golden Temple Massacre and the Air India Bombing.

Badami cites as among her favourite books Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, Cat's Eye and Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, A House for Mr Biswas by V. S. Naipaul and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.

    

Welcome to our featured authors this month! I'm currently reading Farley Mowat's The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, which features Mowat's recollections of childhood with a very unusual dog called Mutt while living out in the plains of Saskatchewan during the Dust Bowl. Wonderful stories and anecdotes and especially welcome to me at this time are dog stories, having just lost my precious and beloved Coco very suddenly to hemangiosarcoma, a highly invasive cancer which attacks the heart and is as good as impossible to treat. Coco was certainly an adorably cute and pleasant dog, but also had his strange quirks, which prompted my partner to call him Coco-la-névrose (in French, which roughly translates to Coco-the-neurotic). Needless to say I'm am going through various stages of mourning, and reading about a dog who was astoundingly eccentric is a sort of welcome balm.
(below: Coco on Friday, February 19th, just two days before his sudden passing.)



I've also been meaning to read Never Cry Wolf ever since I can remember... since childhood maybe, and somehow never got round to it. I'll be listening to the audio version and looking forward to watching the movie afterwards.

As for Anita Rau Badami, I was thrilled when some of you requested her to be featured on the CAC and jumped on the chance to discover her along with those of you who will be reading her work too this month (or at any point during the year). I happened to take an art class with her maybe five or six years ago and found she was a very interesting and talented lady, and only in passing learned she was also a published author. As she was just "Anita" to me and I was just too shy to ask her full name and what books she'd published (silly me), I was thrilled to finally discover she was an author who had made her mark and already had several well-received titles to her name. I'll be reading her Hero's Walk this month.

Please let us know what you plan on reading and don't be shy to share your impressions, whether good or bad, or somewhere in between.

I'm so sorry you've lost Coco. Our dogs make us better people, and losing them brings a unique sort of grief.

I've started reading Mowat's Farfarers, and I think it's going to be very interesting. I've never read him before, but Never Cry Wolf has been on my radar for a long time too.

I've read two of Badami's novels, Tamarind Mem and The Hero's Walk. I think you're in for a treat, especially as you have met the author. Both stories moved me and I want to read more of her work.

I may join in this month with a Farley. I've only read Never Cry Wolf (once rather young, once a couple years ago) and liked it pretty well. Somewhere in the house is The Boat That Wouldn't Float and I'll see about tracking it down and reporting in before the month is done.

I have Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? in my TBR and I'll try to get to it. However, I'm already reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers for book club and I'm not sure I can take that much heart wrenching in one month, so we'll see.

I'll be reading one of Mowat's with Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa. This one has been sitting on Planet TBR for several years.

I am a bit hesitant to read it, because the general feeling with Mowat is that he 'doesn't let the facts get in the way of a good story'. There was quite a bit of controversy about Never Cry Wolf, which is almost entirely fiction.

How cool that you actually know one of this month's authors! I am overbooked for the month, but I will try to get to The Hero's Walk before the end of the month.

>8 streamsong: "the general feeling with Mowat is that he 'doesn't let the facts get in the way of a good story'." He even admits that himself in the introductory chapter of The Farfarers. "The plain fact is that my book makes no pretence at being history in the academic sense. It is the story of a vanished people...I believe it to be a true story." I'm reading it with that caveat solidly in my mind.

>5 laytonwoman3rd: Our dogs make us better people

I do believe you must be right. In any case, my pets (including my cats Mimi and Ezra) definitely give me lots of joy, and being a happier person probably makes me a better person too, or so I should hope.

>8 streamsong: The Dog Who Wouldn't Be has steadily grown on me, and now I've just got three chapters left, I'm not looking forward to parting with it so much, as much as I like completing books. I did keep firmly in mind that a good portion of the story was probably fictional, if certainly based on some real occurrences. I'd forgotten about the controversy regarding Never Cry Wolf being fictional, but it must have stayed at the back of my mind. So many works of 'non-fiction' if put under close scrutiny would probably meet with similar accusations. An author inevitably needs to use his or her imagination to varying degrees when trying to present a more than coherent, but a really great retelling of facts, so that I always allow for that when reading anything, and so take even stated 'facts' with a grain of salt. Perhaps you might enjoy Never Cry Wolf without trepidation if you just approach it as a story based on life experiences as opposed to a documentary of scientific precision. That being said, I haven't read it myself yet, so looking forward to seeing what impression it will make on me.

>10 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for sharing that bit of the introduction Linda!

>4 Smiler69: Cool story!

The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami has arrived at the library. Hurray.

I could hardly resist the book cover for The Dog Who Wouldn't Be that Ilana posted in >4 Smiler69: so I checked my library for it. They didn't have that one but did have an ecopy of Born Naked. I started it a day or so ago and by the time I got to the part where his mother was ordering mincemeat for pie from the butcher, I was hooked. It's the gentle humor I was hoping to find in Sunshine Sketches, so I've put the Leacock aside for now. I've never read Mowat.

I also have a copy of Tell It to the Trees.

Sorry to hear about Coco. Pets are so much a part of our lives that it is hard when they leave.

I have never read either Mowat or Badami and have chosen Tell it to the Trees for my CAC read this month. I just hope that can get to it this month.

>16 streamsong: No, you misunderstood me. I've read Never Cry Wolf several times (as well as enjoyed the spectacular scenery in the movie!) and, while many people believe that Mowat actually did interact with wolves as in his story, it truly never happened. Wikipedia gives a pretty good account of the controversy.

I have read six or eight of Mowat's books, since he was a favorite of many outdoor people (including my ex) back in the 70's. My personal favorite is Mowat's book of short stories called The Snow Walker.

The book I'll be reading is Woman in the Mists and I'm hoping it's more factual. It seems to quote quite extensively from Fossey's diaries, which sounds promising.

I'm afraid I have nothing to say! Our bookclub entered a contest with the radio programme NxNW that we didn't win, sadly. The winner was to have had dinner with Anita Rau Badami last night at CBC Vancouver to celebrate her book's inclusion in Canada Reads. So today I would have been so excited to share with you my memories of dinner with such a wonderful author but it was not to be. Our book group has been meeting for the last 37 years and we were just so sure that we would win! Alas.....

Boo! They obviously didn't realise how awesome your book club is or you would have won hands down. That would have been a fantastic experience.

I will read Hero's Walk at some point. It was also nominated for an Orange (Bailey Award) so I will use that as my selection for March. I have a few Mowat's kicking around so may read one of those as well. His wife writes as well and she is quite good.

>16 streamsong: Good to see The Snow Walker mentioned. I loved that one, too. And Never Cry Wolf knocked me on my keister. I missed the controversy, but it sure is a great book.

>19 jnwelch: I loved the movie of "The Snow Walker."

After some hunting I found my unread copy of The Boat Who Wouldn't Float, so that will be my selection. Thinking about Snow Walker though means I am going to keep my eyes open for a copy at the library or elsewhere.

ETA: I stopped reading Boat after perhaps 1/3. The book just didn't catch my interest.

I have just finished Never Cry Wolf and I quite enjoyed it. I didn't know about the controversy but then I never took this book to be a straight-forward non-fiction account of actual happenings. It is a lighthearted, humorous book that speaks to the environment and the preservation of these magnificent creatures and a fun read, although slightly dated (Mowat refers to the indigenous people as Eskimos throughout the book). This is the second Farley Mowat book I have read over the last year. The YA adventure read Lost in the Barrens was another fun read.

I have never read anything by either of this month's challenge authors and I decided to go with Tell it to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami. She has really caught my attention within the first few chapters.

I've neglected this thread and still need to put up a bio for Anita Rau Badami. Will take care of it tomorrow. Apologies for the delay; energy at an all-time low.

Really loved The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, which grew on me chapter by chapter. A book I'll probably want to reread eventually as a 'comfort read', along the lines of My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell, which is among my all-time favourites. Definitely recommended!

I just put The Dog Who Wouldn't Be on hold at the library. I just couldn't resist.

I finished Farley Mowat's Born Naked which is his memoir of his boyhood in the 20s and early 30s. It was very sweet and humorous and of course full of nature and animal stories, including mentions of his dog from The Dog Who Wouldn't Be and the owl from Owls in the Family.

Just finished Hero's Walk by Badami and quite liked it. In a nutshell: An Indian family finds out that their daughter and her Canadian husband have died in a car accident and they are now guardians of a little girl. The story looks at how each family member dealt with their daughter leaving India and marrying a white Canadian. And how they each try to come to terms with her death and all their regrets. Nandana is a 7-year-old, raised in a largely Westernised household and now she is trying to adjust to a vastly different lifestyle. Badami does a pretty good job at getting into each character's head.

FINALLY posted Anita Rau Badami's bio in message #3. Truly shameful I let it languish undone for so long, so my apologies for the delay. Looking forward to picking up The Hero's Walk.

>26 Yells: Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for sharing your comments here!

What a perfect month to spotlight Anita Rau Badami! Anita Rau Badami spoke at my local library this week so my mom and I attended. She is touring in support of her Canada Reads nominated The Hero's Walk. She was delightful - read a few passages from the novel, told a few stories, and answered questions. My copy had just arrived last week from Random House and I got it signed. I actually started reading it while at the library; now almost halfway through. It was a low key, casual event with maybe 50 people there, hosted by our local CBC radio morning program. I am looking forward to hearing the Canada Reads debates. Badami was pleased with the idea of literature debates on the radio - "so very Canadian!"

Owls in the Family was a favourite read aloud at our house when the children were younger. I remember them wanting to read a second book about the owl as they didn't want the stories to end. I didn't enjoy The Dog Who Wouldn't Be quite as much, but I plan to listen to Never Cry Wolf this month.

>28 raidergirl3: That's very, very cool. The debates start March 21. I'll post a link so anyone who is interested can follow along.

I don't think I'll get to Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? this month, but I'm going to try before the end of the year.

I really loved Hero's Walk when I read it a few years ago. Tamarind Mem was less wonderful, but still a pretty good one. If I hadn't already read HW likely I might have liked TM better. Have ordered The Dog Who Wouldn't Be from the library this morning. Had planned to read People of the Deer, but I think I'm running short of time to finish all of this month's books and I think TDWWB will read a bit faster.

>28 raidergirl3: loving the coincidence of our scheduling for Badami in March! So cool her Hero's Walk is nominated this year. I just picked it up a couple of nights ago and I think I'm going to be loving it. So far, so very good

>29 Nickelini: Looking forward to those links.

I started on Never Cry Wolf last night and am immensely pleased with it. Helps that I'm a natural history enthusiast and love just about any story where animals are the principal players. I wasn't expecting this book to be as humorous as it is, and caught myself laughing out loud a few times. I can tell this is going to land among my favourites.

I read Tell it to the Trees for this month's challenge. It was a very haunting novel about family abuse. I was impressed by Badami's writing and I will look for more of her work. I just hope that it is not all about such disturbing subjects.

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat 4 stars

“We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be...”

Mowat, a naturalist/biologist is given an assignment: spend the summer in the subarctic and study wolf behavior, particularly, their feeding habits. Mowat discovers one wolf family and follows them closely, for several months. It is an eye-opening experience, giving him a deeper understanding and compassion for this misunderstood animal.

This is a terrific read. Funny and adventurous. I have heard much of it is fictionalized, but as a story, it really resounds. Surprisingly, it was written, about 50 years ago but still remains fresh and entertaining.

**Thanks, Ilana for giving me the opportunity to finally read this gem.

>28 raidergirl3: This sounds like a wonderful event. I am half way through THW and love it, just reminds me of other favourites in the best way, particularly Jhumpa Lahiri.

Mowat, not so much. I decided to return the memoir I got from the library, as I have other things calling my name. Funny about the owl stories though - I could hear one calling as I typed the above.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcasts/arts-culture/canada-reads/

The above is the link to Canada Reads, where they have the latest Canada Reads (which as of today also has links to last year's). I believe you can also find the podcast at iTunes and Sirius (sp?).

I'll give you a minor spoiler and tell you that The Hero's Walk survived Day One.

>31 Smiler69: I quite enjoyed The Hero's Walk. Glad to hear you are liking it. I also agree about Never Cry Wolf. Very funny. I didn't realize Mowat was an actual biologist. His affection for the wolves, and his surprise at their actual behaviour is lovely.

>33 msf59: great review of Never Cry Wolf. I feel the same!

>34 charl08: I've been hit or miss with Mowat over the years. When he's good, he's very good.

>35 Nickelini: did you listen Joyce? The panelists were so thoughtful, and generous, and insightful. The host, Gill Deacon was the best yet. Except for the very end when Copeland went off his prepared script and went all white male and bitter, I thought it was a great debate.

>36 raidergirl3: Yes, I thought it was all very Canadian. They were all very respectful and positive toward the others' books. "I really want to win, but your book is very good too."

I've read all of Anita Rau Badami's books prior the this challenge and I have to say I enjoyed them all very much. First I read Can You Hear the Nightbird Call as it was a selection from a Can Lit course that my son took at university. Then I read Hero's Walk, Tell It to the Trees and Tamarind Mem and enjoyed them all.

So for the CAC, I just finished The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat. It was an okay read, but the bits about Mutt being a " hunting dog' kind of got to me. And yet I know it was one of my brother's favorite books when he was young. Likely because I have a small dog and see water fowl all the time, it got to me a little.

Thanks for hosting the CAC, Ilana.

The Hero's Walk - what a wonderful book. Richly layered account of Sripathi's family, his fractious mother, Ammayya, calm wife, Nirmala, endlessly hopeful sister Putti and his son Arun, who studies social work but is increasingly spending his time as a protestor and organiser for social and environmental reform. His daughter, Maya, is cut off from by her father when she chooses to marry a Canadian. The coastal town Toturpuram seems as much a character as the family: slightly seedy, struggling with terrible heat waves and then uncontrollable monsoon rains.

His grandmother told him gallant tales if heroism and cunning and wit and honour; of Arjana the great archer; of King Harishchandra, whose honesty shook even the heavens; of Bisham of the terrible oath; and of Bhageerathi, who persuaded wild and whimsical Ganga to flow down as a river and wash over the ashes of his thousand brothers....While the young Sripathi adored his grandmother's stories, richly trimmed with Sanskrit versesfrom the Mahabharata or the Ramadan, a dread grew within him that he would never be able to do the things she expected of him.

I'll be looking out for more of Badami's books - thanks to Ilana from me too.

I returned The Dog Who Wouldn't Be to the library unread and have Never Cry Wolf waiting for me to pick up. I think it will be right up my alley.

I finished my read of Farley Mowat 's Woman in the Mists about Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas. What an interesting, driven woman she was! And what a tragic end to her story. The book had a huge number of excerpts from her journals and letters and then Mowat's commentary in between. Her death is still unsolved.

Now I need to watch the movie Gorillas in the Mist as I have not seen it.

I've read half a dozen of Mowat's books and will keep an eye out for more.

>18 Yells: Thanks for mentioning Mowat's wife. I had no idea she is a writer, too. Her books look intriguing. Although my library system doesn't have any of her titles, she's another author I'll watch for.

I finished my read of Tell it to the Trees and found it to be a strong, well written domestic drama that captures the isolation of rural/small town Canadian life, compounded by cultural differences.

I started reading Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf last night. This morning I was sitting up in bed with my coffee, reading it and chuckling out loud. It's proving to be a quick and entertaining read. I do worry that there will be at least one heartbreaking chapter so we'll see how that goes.

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
From my thread:

This delightful memoir is based on two summers and a winter that Farley Mowat spent in the subarctic regions of southern Keewatin Territory and northern Manitoba as a biologist studying wolves and caribou. Sent there by the Canadian government to, as he describes it, confirm the hateful myths then firmly held about wolves, Mowat instead learned about the symbiotic relationship between wolves and caribou and the terrible toll being wrought on both populations by white man's intrusion into the ecosystem. With humor and respect, Mowat tells the story of one family of wolves. Through this storytelling, he captures the vast beauty of the region, the majesty of both the wolves and the caribou on which they depend (although he illuminates the fact that the wolves primarily eat mice when such are plentiful), and the bemused innocence of the local natives as they worked to understand this white man's behavior. I chuckled out loud more than once and finished this quick read with a resounding sense of satisfaction. Four happy stars.

>44 EBT1002: Thanks for sharing your great review, Ellen. Off to give it a thumbs up!

eta: that is, I would if I could... (hint hint!)

^ Ditto, including (hint hint!)

>45 Smiler69: and >46 jnwelch: I posted it, Ilana and Joe. Thanks for the affectionate nudges!

>47 EBT1002: Duly and affectionately thumbed. :-)