THE DESPERATE PEOPLE - by Farley Mowat - Readers'Club January Selection

Sep 29, 2026

A Readers' Club selection centered on Farley Mowat’s novel The Desperate People, revisiting the fate of the Ihalmiut (People of the Little Hills). The text frames the story as a response to earlier Inuit tragedy and reviews, emphasizing how indifference, disease, and the disappearance of caribou threaten survival through starvation, despair, and cultural rupture. It also introduces another selection, Days of Living, and ends with Readers’ Notes from contributors.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time14 min

AccessFree to download

THE DESPERATE PEOPLE

By Farley Mowat, Readers'Club January Selection

DAYS OF LIVING

By Martin Roher, Readers'Club January Alternate

READERS’ NOTES

UBLISHED BY READERS'CLUB OF CANADA LIMITED /JANUARY 1960 IOIS.71 CI63 The Desperate CoLUMSTA UNIVERSITYLIBRARIES People MAY 261960 BRARY SERVICE LIBRARY # THE DESPERATE PEOPLE by Farley Mowat # Readers'Club January Selection A few years ago Farley Mowat wrote The People of the Deer,an angry book about what had been happening to the remnants ofan Eskimo people in the Canadian North.The book was angrilyreviewed in a number of places across Canada.But there was anundertone of shock and guilt in many of the reviews.We knewthat Canada's treatment of its Indian and Eskimo peoples was notexactly a source of pride,but Farley Mowat's first book showed usthe appalling effects on one small group of people of a combinationof natural disaster and the white man's misunderstanding andindifference.It reminded us that a bad policy,or no policy at all,may cripple or destroy human beings. In The Desperate People Farley Mowat takes up once againthe story of the remnants of the Ihalmiut—the People of the LittleHills.It's my impression that his new book hasn't created anythinglike the stir that followed the publication of The People of the Deer.It would be a pity if that meant that Canadians are arming them-selves against further feelings of guilt about the Eskimo.Our policiesin the North have greatly improved in recent years(as FarleyMowat notes),but official indifference,disease and the steadydisappearance of the caribou still threaten the Ihalmiut with slowstarvation and death. "I urge every Canadian to read The Deperate People"—Hon.Alvin A.Hamilton,Minister of Northern Affairs,House ofCommons,July,1959. When nature conspires against this band of Eskimo who liveat the edge of extinction,and the white men are indifferent or simplyfail to understand the situation,what happens to these kindly,lonely people is literally devastating.The Desperate People openswith a description of the country(the hard,treeless Barren Grounds),and with a brief history of the people themselves.But it soon becomesa series of chapters in which we watch the Ihalmiut struggle and die:an old woman slips away in the snow to relieve the family of onehungry body;families must decide which members are to starve inhopes that the others may be saved;despair forces some of the Eskimoback to witchcraft and naked violence. No one has told Farley Mowat about the virtues of under-statement—or if he has been told,he didn't listen.His style isroyal purple and no bones about it.It sets my teeth on edge,untilsoon I forget and begin to share his anger and passion.If royalpurple suits,then let him wear it. The Desperate People is a sombre and bitter poem about atragic people. THE DESPERATE PEOPLE is published by Little,Brown &Co.(Canada)Ltd.305 pages.Endpaper maps.Woodcuts by RosemaryKilbourn.Designed by Samuel H.Bryant.The Desperate Peopleis published at $5.00.Readers'Club Member's Price is $4.00. DAYS OF LIVING by Martin Roher Readers'Club January Alternate Martin Roher was the younger son of Harry Roher,a well-known Toronto bookseller.When,in 1941,his older brother died inan air crash just before receiving his RCAF wings,Martin tried toenlist in the Air Force.He wanted to be a flyer,but he was rejectedbecause of short-sightedness.Unwilling to accept this rebuff,hejoined instead as a physical training instructor.He was seventeenat the time. As a physical training instructor,his duties involved teachingswimming to potential commandos.Long and fatiguing hours inthe water of the training tank led to an infection which developedquickly into nephritis. Martin Roher was discharged in 1945 after a year in hospital.He was twenty years old at the time,and he was given six weeksto live. He lived nearly ten years,with short stays at home and longones in hospital.Sunnybrook,the hospital at the RCAF Trentonair base,the Mayo Clinic,and Duke Hospital in Durham NorthCarolina all had Martin Roher as a patient for longer or shorterperiods.He died late in 195

FAQs

What is the central focus of The Desperate People?

It recounts the struggle and death of the Ihalmiut, the remnants of the Ihalmiut known as the People of the Little Hills, under natural hardship and neglect.

Why does the text argue that Canada’s treatment matters?

It contrasts improved policies with ongoing official indifference, disease, and the steady disappearance of caribou, warning that these still threaten the Ihalmiut with slow starvation and death.

What is Days of Living about in the selection?

It presents Martin Roher’s life and long illness, highlighting his ambition to become a writer and the posthumous publication of his journal, Days of Living, along with an introduction by Judith Robinson.

Sep 29, 2026

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