Customer Reviews

Snow Walker (The Farley Mowat Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Canada's poet-biologist-sociologist, Farley Mowat, is the almost invisible traveler in this journey across the snow swept northern barrens. He illuminates a place which most of us will never know. From its land forms to its creatures to the lives and thoughts of its native peoples. An engrossing collection of storytelling that could only be the product of the writers intimacy with place.
Says Mowat, "The northern people are happy when snow lies heavy on the land. They welcome the first snow in autumn, and often regret its passing in the spring. Snow is their friend. Without it they would have perished or -- almost worse from their point of view -- they would long since have been driven south to join us in our frenetic rush to wherever it is that we are bound."

I loved this book as much as any that I've ever read.I'm not sure where Mr.Mowat found his ideas for these stories,but it sure seems like they are 'true myths' of the North that he has discov- ered through talking to Arctic/Nordic inhabitants. All of these tales are deeply inspiring,and terrific reads.Especially if,like myself,you enjoyed the Jack London Northern Tales.I highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates stories about men and animals overcoming tremen- dous obstacles to survive in 'their' climate.

This is a great collection of stories in classic Farley Mowat style; compelling. A fantastic movie was made of one of the short stories in the collection and also titled 'Snow Walker', but read the book first. He's written many wonderful books, but my favorite tales will always be of the Inuit where his love of the people and their culture shines through.
Chrissy K. McVay
author of 'Souls of the North Wind'

This collection of short stories by the Canadian writer Farley Mowat, is outstanding proof of his versatility. Although many of his best books are almost unplanned, coming to fruition after some sort of initial spontaneous combustion (I'm thinking of "People of the Deer" especially), the fictional elements in "The Snow Walker" indicate a methodical mind capable of forming well crafted prose. All these stories take place in the Arctic, or have to do with it. Many are based on people Mowat met on his travels or heard about from others. They contain the grains of ideas and don't attempt to do more than expand that one notion, as I think short stories should. Hence the stories are focussed and the issue at hand is brought into sharp relief, sometimes in only a few pages. Like a number of Mowat's works, this one has been used in schools for many years, and deservedly so, as it is some of the best Canadian short fiction of its kind (i.e., about the Arctic).

I am a big fan of Farley Mowat and my favorite works of his are definitely his non-fiction: People of the Deer and The Serpent's Coil come to mind. I was hoping for more non-fiction, but most of The Snow Walker is fiction...nicely done fiction but...I buy Mowat for his true accounts so I have to say a slogged through the book but it was not my favorite. I am enjoying one of his more recent works at present Bay of Spirits.
Anyway, if you are looking for a gripping true account I would buy one of his other books.

Mowat is, once again, critical of government agencies and organizations in the mandatory relocation of natives to an inhospitable location and failure to monitor the results of the move. Creates a better understanding of how a group of people become extinct. A difficult survival made more difficult!

"The Snow Walker" is a collection of beautifully written short stories centered in the extreme cold artic regions. As an individual who has ventured into the northern lands, Farley Mowat conveys ten compelling tales from natives and their cultural heritage. The narratives range from superstitious to legendary adventure and either inspires the spirit or brings a dark mood to the betrayal faced by the indigenous people by the white man.

Those not fluent with certain acronyms or northern culture might have difficulty understanding small segments of some stories. A detailed map of the significant terrains would have been useful.

Thank you.

I'm a big fan of Farley Mowat, but this is not a book that I would rank among his best. I just couldn't get into it, although some of the stories were entertaining. Nagging questions about the manner in which he may have embellished the stories dogged me throughout.

I had been given this book over 20 years ago,and it remained unopened in my library until recently. Farley Mowat was my father's lieutenant for a portion of WW II; and I always thought of Mowat as an immature, optimistic man. I recently read a couple of his other books "And No Birds Sang" and "Sibir". This same feeling still came thru, but it also revealed that he had a conscience.

I opened this book and was not able to put it down. It contains a number of his stories; plus some Inuit stories/legends from the Canadian North which had been fleshed out admirely by Farley. It was evident that he had lived in the north and had a good understanding of the native peoples and what it took to survive there. I would reccommend this book to anyone interested about the north.

I found the story "Dark Odyssey of Soosie" very interesting and at same time very disturbing. As a Canadian it made me feel deep shame when I read how the Canadian government bureaucrats mislead and abused these people during their attempt to establish Canadian communities in un-inhabited areas of the Canadian far north. Unfortunately this treatment of native peoples was not only a problem in Canada; but is still a problem in most of the "civilized" world. It must have taken a lot of courage for a popular Canadian writer to include this story in this book.