by Farley Mowat ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1985
In one corner we have Canadian nature writer Mowat (Never Cry Wolf, The Siberians, And No Birds Sang). In the other, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which, one day this past spring, prevented him from boarding a plane from Toronto to Los Angeles, where he was to kick off a promotional tour for his latest book, Sea of Slaughter. Why? That is the focus of this book along with Mowat's enraged reaction and the sudden materialization at his side of hordes of fellow writers, print and television journalists as well as government officials and ordinary people of both Canada and the US--all enthusiastically swinging at the INS. The beleaguered bureaucracy ducked, weaved, staggered and finally revealed that the INS had been keeping a file on Mowat which, among other items, contained a 1968 newspaper clipping that claimed he had taken a shot at a Strategic Air Command bomber carrying atomic bombs on a routine flight over Canada. True, Mowat had opposed overflights by SAC planes; true, he put Canada's interests over those of the US; true, he tended to shoot his mouth off a lot (especially when in his cups); but he vehemently denies he had ever fired on a US plane, ""I'd be scared to do that. It might fall on my house,"" he tells Jane Pauley of NBC's ""Today"" show. Benedict Ferro, the INS official who had originally blown the whistle on him, sniffs, ""We certainly do take more seriously perhaps then Mr. Mowat the firing at a US aircraft--or even the symbolic firing at a US aircraft."" Of all the media hullaballoo that surrounded the affair, the best analysis may have come from Canadian columnist Allan Fotheringham, who wrote that Mowat's ""major sin is that his jokes are so broad that even an immigration official missed them."" Like the yellowing, dusty material in his files, this book has a faintly old-hat quality. It concerns a media sensation of many months past. There have been at least a hundred to briefly occupy our minds since then. But the book does help us understand Canadian fears and resentments. It also reminds us that, although the world moves rapidly, the bureaucracy doesn't. For all that, Mowat might have done himself and his readers a greater service had he followed his original inclination which was to write ""about the funny, amusing events"" of his life, and end the book ""with this little contretemps with the INS.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1985
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly--dist. by Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1985
Categories: NONFICTION
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