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Rating: 
Summary: It left me with a tremendous appreciation of bark canoes
Review: As a canoeist, handyman, and McPhee fan, I enjoyed this little book very much. Like the 5-11-2000 reviewer, I found it to come in two parts. The first part details technical details about birch-bark canoes and how Vaillancourt became a self-taught master of their construction. The second part describes a canoe trip with Vaillancourt and others. That other reviewer found the second half to be parody of Vaillancourt, but I disagree. As in The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed, real life sometimes takes a turn that a dreamer would not expect. Like his other non-fiction, I felt that McPhee offered real insights to the peoples' character and doesn't hesitate to sing their praises nor describe their shortcomings. I enjoy the copious background information that McPhee includes in all of his books. Even more than a Tracy Kidder book, you come away feeling like you have some in-depth understanding of the subject.
Rating:
Summary: It left me with a tremendous appreciation of bark canoes
Review: As a canoeist, handyman, and McPhee fan, I enjoyed this little book very much. Like the 5-11-2000 reviewer, I found it to come in two parts. The first part details technical details about birch-bark canoes and how Vaillancourt became a self-taught master of their construction. The second part describes a canoe trip with Vaillancourt and others. That other reviewer found the second half to be parody of Vaillancourt, but I disagree. As in The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed, real life sometimes takes a turn that a dreamer would not expect. Like his other non-fiction, I felt that McPhee offered real insights to the peoples' character and doesn't hesitate to sing their praises nor describe their shortcomings. I enjoy the copious background information that McPhee includes in all of his books. Even more than a Tracy Kidder book, you come away feeling like you have some in-depth understanding of the subject.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting, quick read
Review: Enjoyable afternoon of reading. This is an interesting work on both the birch bark canoe and travelling using one. While you may not come away from this feeling like a different person, you will certainly come away with a smile.
Rating: 
Summary: Relative to Henri Vaillancourt?
Review: I have seen the book and read most of it and think of it as a treasure for craftsmanship. I am also interested in it for the genealogical importance. I hope to find out if Henri is a relation or not.
Rating: 
Summary: A book on canoe building?....I couldn't put it down!
Review: John McFee has crafted an elegant essay that juxtaposes the lost native art and craft of canoe making with the psyche and only too human angst of an endangered species; a man who embraces the non-technical world.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful mix of nature, art, and thoreau
Review: McPhee writes with clarity and grace. His descriptions are vivid and his characters are lively. He doesn't just narrate a tale to the reader; he takes the reader on a journey. For anyone who likes nature or the outdoors, this is a must read!
Rating:
Summary: The Ethic of Craftsmanship
Review: McPhee's book can be read on several levels, but I prefer to think of it as an example of the triumph of nature over rational planning, or perhaps the triumph of nature over our ideas about nature. It is the story of a young man's obsession with the old ways of constructing a birch bark canoe. In the first half of the book, McPhee describes in great detail Henri Vaillancourt's dedication to the ethic of craftsmanship. His knowledge comes largely from the books and sketches of Edwin Adney, from visiting other canoe-makers, and from trial and error. He confesses his desire to build the perfect canoe. He uses no nails or screws; even his tools are homemade and archaic. Little else holds his attention. The second half of the book chronicles McPhee's trip with Henri and a few friends, paddling in Henri's canoes through the lakes and streams of the Maine woods. Interestingly, Henri had made only a handful of canoe trips before, and this would be his first portage and his first trip in rapids. The book's humor comes from the tension between what the travelers consider natural (good) and what they consider unnatural (bad). Among them there is a partially self-conscious competition to see who can be more "authentic." For example, Henri tells his friends, before the trip, that the idea is to travel light, "like the Indians," and therefore dissuades them from bringing their larger, more durable tent. When a rainstorm wrecks his friends' lighter tent, and he is forced to share his tent with them, he scorns them for not bringing the bigger tent. Eventually he forsakes his homemade jerky for clams baked on a very modern portable stove. Nothing like an empty stomach to challenge a man's ideals. There are also many discussions about Henry David Thoreau, the original New England nature boy who accidentally started two forest fires. I don't see these subtle revelations as a criticism of Henri. His canoes may survive the trip, but whether they will survive the modern world, with its inauthentic, aluminum canoes and its Mountain House Freeze-Dried Beef Stroganoff, is another question. The story here seems to be that Henri's efforts, however fine, will remain impure and imperfect because he is human, and that a return to a more "natural," Indian way of life is neither possible nor preferable. In part this is because that life has never existed. It has been imagined and idealized by people like Henry Thoreau. But then Henri Vaillancourt is a craftsman, not a nature boy. To my mind, McPhee's book raises some interesting questions about what ought to be preserved and what ought to be left behind.
Rating:
Summary: A Strange Little Book
Review: This is a well-written, informative, and also very strange book. McPhee opens the book in an earnest, almost didactic fashion, and you get the idea that this book is going to be one of those staid affairs in which the subject of the book, in this case, a canoe maker named Henri Vaillancourt, is going to be portrayed as some kind of environmental saint and a keeper of Native American tradition. What you get instead though, is almost a parody, with some wickedly wry observations on Vaillancourt's character. You'll either see this book as a mean-spirited vehicle for the author to make fun of Vaillancourt, or you'll giggle all the way through. The Time magazine blurb from the editorial section was obviously written by someone who hadn't read the entire book. This book was written with a wicked grin on the author's face and a little bit of poison in the ink. The only complain I have is that McPhee often plunges into rather overly-technical writing about canoe building, but this occurs less and less often as the book nears its conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: A Strange Little Book
Review: This is a well-written, informative, and also very strange book. McPhee opens the book in an earnest, almost didactic fashion, and you get the idea that this book is going to be one of those staid affairs in which the subject of the book, in this case, a canoe maker named Henri Vaillancourt, is going to be portrayed as some kind of environmental saint and a keeper of Native American tradition. What you get instead though, is almost a parody, with some wickedly wry observations on Vaillancourt's character. You'll either see this book as a mean-spirited vehicle for the author to make fun of Vaillancourt, or you'll giggle all the way through. The Time magazine blurb from the editorial section was obviously written by someone who hadn't read the entire book. This book was written with a wicked grin on the author's face and a little bit of poison in the ink. The only complain I have is that McPhee often plunges into rather overly-technical writing about canoe building, but this occurs less and less often as the book nears its conclusion.
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