INTRODUCING SINCLAIR ROSS'S AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE George Woodcock Toronto, ECW Press, 1990. 67pp, cloth, $18.95 ISBN 1-55022-088-8. (A Reader's Guide series). Distributed by Butterworths Canada. CIP INTRODUCING FARLEY MOWAT'S THE DOG WHO WOULDN'T BE Lorraine M. York Toronto, ECW Press, 1990. 92pp, cloth, $18.95 ISBN 1-55022-089-6. (A Reader's Guide series). Distributed by Butterworths Canada. CIP Grades 10 and up/Ages 15 and up Reviewed by Pat Bolger. Volume 19 Number 3 1991 May "User friendly" fittingly describes the "Canadian Fiction Studies" series from ECW Press (see also the review of Introducing Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes by Linda Leith and Introducing Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz on page and the review of Introducing Margaret Atwood's Surfac­ing by George Woodcock and Introduc­ing Timothy Firutley's The Wars by Lorraine M. York, above). There are no footnotes to intimidate young readers, and the bibliography has sensibly been replaced by "Works Cited" (all helpfully annotated). Woodcock divides his critical reading of As For Me and My House (Reynal & Hitchcock, 1941; McClelland & Stewart, 1989) into nine short essays, examining literary influences on Ross, the symbol­ism of names, the physical setting, false fronts, the manse, the characters of Mrs. Bentley and Philip, the legacy of illegitimacy, and the novel's conclusion. Woodcock writes with a clarity that is welcome - and rather rare - in literary criticism, quoting generously from the text in support of his views. Recom­mended for senior high school students and adult readers, who will find Woodcock a wise and thorough guide to Ross's novel. In the introduction to her critical commentary, York describes The Dog Who Wouldn't Be (Little, Brown, 1957; Bantam Books, 1982) as "an immensely funny serious book." To establish its seriousness, she examines the issue of autobiography and memory, form and language, Mowat's heroes as eccentric individuals, the politics of family and society, and finally the novel's connec­tion with Mowat's lifelong crusade against our destruction of the environ­ment. Often she seems to be reaching hard to establish the importance of a novel that she herself describes as "farcical and episodic," and of cultural rather than literary significance. What­ever their reaction to her literary argument, many readers will find unaccountable the presence of obvious errors, such as "series's" (sic) and the misuse of "incredulous" and "desirous." Teachers using The Dog Who Wouldn't Be with elementary school English classes will find fresh and interesting ideas here: its status as an "expressly Canadian - even Western Canadian - pro-rural novel," the role of women in Mowat's world, the stereotyped Ameri­can tourist presaging Mowat's later criticism of American policies. In high school libraries York will offer a useful commentary for students doing inde­pendent research on Canadian authors. Pat Bolger, Renfrew, Ont.