Customer Reviews

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a tale that couldn't happen today. Dogs don't have the lifestyle they did in the 1920's and 1930's in remote Canada, and sadly, boys don't either.

Mutt is a fascinating mutt with a mind of his own; halfway through the book I realised he must be part Siberian Husky with his deafness, his love of roaming and chasing and need to attend to his own desires.

Farley's mother demonstrated an act of faith- as well as the desire to save [money amount]- when she purchased Mutt as a puppy from a starving duck seller. Farley's dad wanted a hunting dog; Farley's mom didn't want to spend a lot of money on a dog during the Dust Bowl years, living in Saskatoon.

Dogs roamed free, boys roamed free. Boys weren't sent off to summer camp to keep busy- there was enough to do with their own imaginations, their friends and their animal companions. Attitudes towards cats were cavalier; some parts are very hard to read if you appreciate cats. Thankfully that attitude has changed over time.

The stories of the father's boating attempts are hilarious. I don't like boats, but am inspired to read "the boat that wouldn't float" by the same author. I live in the western US and have a vague understanding of how difficult it would be to navigate some of these rivers so I appreciated the delusional voyage of The Coot.

Farley paints his parents as people who had their own interests and needs, but also understood the needs of their son and his dog. They understood that living in a city wouldn't work for them, after several years living in the sparse western provinces. Farley's imagination was clearly nurtured and allowed him to become the prolific writer he became. Even the car (Eardlie, a Model A) has a character and idiosycrasies that add to the story.

My dog, too, is geriatric so I read the final chapter sadly. Mutt's demise will give fuel to the arguments of people who believe completely in leash laws.

Yes, this is a fantastic story of a dog, but it is also a wonderful story of life in a more free time, for children. Farley skips over most of the drawbacks of that time and paints a wonderful portrait of childhood.

I read this for the first time when I was in about 6th or 7th grade and loved it. It was my introduction to Farley Mowat and since then I have read many of his other works.

This book is one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. I loved it 30 years ago when I was a kid (maybe 11 or 12) and I enjoyed it again last year.

The story is about the life and times of Mutt, the dog that entered the Mowat family and grew up with Farley. Mutt is all dog and a little more. Frustrated with the local cat population and their dominance of the fencetop and rooftop world, he learns to walk fence tops. He develops hunting and retrieving techniques that are the talk of the country -- literally! Each chapter is a new story, a new adveneture into the life of Mutt.

This is one of the funniest books that I have ever read. Mutt, the dog, comes to the family in a basket filled with ducks. The father in the story wants an expensive pure bred dog for hunting. However, mother circumvents this by plucking out the dog, paying one cent, and saving lots of money. There are plenty of misadventures in the story, from mutt retrieving a stuffed pheasent in the city (after father pointed his shotgun and said bang), to climbing a ladder into the eccentric womans house filled with 50 cats. There was the encounter with the skunk (in the basement of the house) and the time father accidentally used bluing to clean the dog. The part about the owls is funny and interesting as well. Needless to say, Mutt has many adventures, all of them hilarious I have read this book many times.

i am reading this book with my dad and having a fun time.mutt,comes to this family for only a penny but brings a millon laughs.he did not think he was a dog so he did not ACT like a dog.when he didn't want to do something he pretented not to hear it.he would put on an expression that said,''i'm sorry,were you speaking to MOI? my two favorite parts are when the dad turns mutt blue and when the dad shot his gun and fell into the dich.you will have to read the book to find out the rest.

When my daughter was small, her repeated request was 'read about the skunks, Daddy.' I don't think it was the topic (crazy dog, hyperactive kid, sleeping skunk, dirt basement, dead of winter and a garden hose) as much as even after having read it to her dozens of times I still broke up when I got to the line beginning 'A rich golden haze...' (I just cracked up writing this.)

This is a book for anyone who has ever loved a dog or a squirrel or a chipmonk or a garter snake or ever rode a two wheeler and pretended it was a horse or walked in a field or wished 'why didn't I ...'

No child should be forced to grow up without watching their parents snort coffee through their nose while trying to read 'The Dog Who Wouldn't Be.'

I first read this book when I was twelve, on a lazy day, at my grandparents house. I have never enjoyed a book as much before or since! It has to be one of the funniest books ever written while at the same time incredibly heartwarming. I've been looking for a copy for years and am going to buy several more as gifts. If you want to lure your kids away from the tube for a few hours get them to try this book. You won't be sorry!

I was astonished to find "The Dog Who Wouldn't Be" is apparently out of print in 2001. I easily found a copy in the Springfield, Illinois city library, but it ought to be buyable in the marketplace for those who want to have it and keep it.

Have you ever wondered what your grandfather was like when he was a boy? The "yarns" and stories in this book may give you some clues. Don't believe for one second that all the adventures related in this book are strictly true. Mowat is a great storyteller and he, like Mark Twain, took his memories and made from them something great and wonderful.

This book declares war on all of the cats of the world, as one of my fellow reviewers has correctly noted. Cat lovers beware! You won't like this book. For everyone else who wants an idealized window on the lives of boys growing up in the 1930s and 40s, take a look. The boys you see in this volume are not boys any more. They are grandfathers. They won't be around forever. If you want to know and love them better while they are still here, read this book.

My husband has been reading this book aloud to our three children, ages 12, 10 and 7. They howl with laughter when he reads it (a sound that is music to the ears) and demand more. The book provides an excellent opportunity to learn about and discuss different ways of life and different times.

This book had me laughing out loud time after time. I've been buying and lending this book to people for years. The tales of this remarkable dog and the Mowat family are entertaining, hilarious, and eventually touching.

I must speak a dissenting voice to all the glowing reviews of this book. Mowat is, no doubt, an excellent naturalist, and many of the adventures described in the book are very entertaining. However, I am very disturbed that, although the author is ready to defend HIS pets with his shotgun against other animals, he pretty much gave his own animals not just free rein but also encouragement to kill the pets of others. Mutt the dog is deliberately set on a woman's cats, and the "secret cemetery" of neighborhood cats filled by his pet owl is described with almost pride.

Also disturbing to me is the author's attitude toward women. Any complaining woman is described as "spinsterish." The "Cat Lady" whose cats the author set his dog on to attack and kill was described as harboring "yearning hope" for a male intruder to come and presumably do things to her that I don't want to refer to in a review that children may read -- the implication is pretty strong, with a reference also to the Sabine women.

I may get flamed for this review, but I feel that these are very poor attitudes to be subtly or unsubtly conveying to children. I find it very unfortunate because I endorse the author's work as a naturalist.