Houseboat on the Seine: A Memoir

by William Wharton

The title brings to mind a luxury vessel on the most glamorous river in the world, but readers expecting to learn about the high life in France will be in for a surprise. In this charming memoir, painter and novelist Wharton (Birdy) instead gives us literally the nuts and bolts of building a houseboat, along with generous dollops of humor and local color. As a struggling artist in Paris with his schoolteacher wife and four children, Wharton decided to build his own boat after visiting that of an acquaintance in the mid-1970s. He recounts the family's adventures in making their dream come true. They gave up their Paris flat and moved onto the boat, which docked 12 miles downriver from Paris at Le Port Marly. There they spent the next 25 years adding the finishing touches. The most poignant moment comes at the wedding of oldest child, Kate, aboard ship. The author reminds us that she, her husband and their two children were to perish in 1988 in an Oregon fire, a tragedy he recounted in Ever After. Some readers might have preferred learning more about life aboard the boat than about the details of building it, but this work will satisfy Wharton devotees and Francophiles alike. (Jun.)

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, France, Biography Memoir, Memoir, Ebooks, Contemporary

240 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1996

About the author

William Wharton (7 November 1925 - 29 October 2008), the pen name of the author Albert William Du Aime (pronounced as doo-EM), was an American-born author best known for his first novel Birdy, which was also successful as a film.

Wharton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1943, and was inducted into the school's Wall of Fame in 1997. He volunteered to serve in the United States Army during World War II, and was assigned to serve in a unit to be trained as engineers. He ended up being assigned to serve in the infantry and was severely wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. After his discharge, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles and received a undergraduate degree in art and a doctorate in psychology, later teaching art in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

His first novel Birdy was published in 1978 when he was more than 50 years old. Birdy was a critical and popular success, and Alan Parker directed a film version starring Nicolas Cage and Matthew Modine. After the publication of Birdy and through the early 1990s, Du Aime published eight novels, including Dad and A Midnight Clear, both of which were also filmed, the former starring Jack Lemmon.

Many of the protagonists of Wharton's novels, despite having different names and backgrounds, have similar experiences, attitudes, and traits that lead one to presume that they are partly autobiographical[citation needed]. There is precious little certifiable biography available about Wharton / Du Aime. He served in France and Germany in World War II in the 87th Infantry Division, was a painter, spent part of his adult life living on a houseboat as an artist in France, raised several children (not all of whom appreciated his philosophy of child-rearing), is a reasonably skilled carpenter and handyman, and has suffered from profound gastrointestinal problems.

In 1988, Wharton's daughter, Kate; his son-in-law, Bert; and their two children, two-year-old Dayiel and eight-month-old Mia, were killed in a horrific 23-car motor vehicle accident near Albany, Oregon, that was caused by the smoke generated by grass-burning on nearby farmland. In 1995, Wharton wrote a (mostly) non-fiction book, Ever After: A Father's True Story, in which he recounts the incidents leading up to the accident, his family's subsequent grief, and the three years he devoted to pursuing redress in the Oregon court system for the field-burning that caused the accident. Houseboat on Seine, a memoir, was published in 1996, about Wharton's purchase and renovation of a houseboat.

It is worth to be noted that he gained an enormous and very hard to be explained popularity in Poland, which was followed by many editions as well as meetings and, eventually, some works prepared and edited only in Polish.

Wharton died on October 29, 2008 of an infection he contracted while being hospitalized for blood-pressure problems.

Reviews

[Ada · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Możliwe, że moja opinia jest trochę zaniżona, po tym jakie wrażenie zrobiło na mnie cudowne "W księżycową jasną noc".

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost 5! I just loved this book! Didn't attend too closely to all the engineering but he describes it all with such gentle humour and warmth and his interactions with the local people are so familiar with anyone who can speak just the minimum of another language! So, we did live on a narrow boat, on the grand Union canal, when we were much younger and this, book therefore had a particular resonance and I love William Wharton writing and in particular Tidings so this book with its, references to the Mill and links to us and that book just made it so personal somehow. I love his blind faith in matters financial and his family's joint commitment to the project culminating in a very special marriage...... on the boat of course and the descriptions of other parties they gave. Their generosity and generosity of spirit are inspirational as is his capacity for really tough, almost impossible to contemplate hard physical work......... on top of his painting and writing. All creative stuff! He is such a wonderful guy.

[Joann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir was a delightful read. Wharton did an incredible job describing the journey of an old wooden houseboat and a steel barge being wedded together to become the marvelous houseboat on the Seine. The people we meet, M.... who helped with the wooden boat, then the retired steel oil barge. How his family helped, and Matt, who had an innate ability with engineering feats. I often turned to the front cover, trying to see what Wharton was describing. I think photos would have tipped the scales to a 5 1/2 stars or more. To see the steel bsrge with its white styrofoam insulation, the bay window working, the ladder stairs, the rugs on floors, the mahogany desk, the canary aviary and the views from different parts of the houseboat are just a few of the pictures I would have loved to see. It took such determination, imagination, dedication, and hard physical labour to create this home for his family.

[Jon Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased my copy of this book used from the Dickson Street Bookshop in Fayetteville, AR when I was in that city last year. This is a mildly amusing memoir about the author's (mis)adventures with living in a houseboat on the Seine a few miles outside Paris. The author was an artist of modest means, living with his schoolteacher wife and their children in the Paris suburbs. One day, during a visit to the Seine outside Paris, almost on a whim they make an offer on a delapidated houseboat that is up for sale. To their surprise, their offer is accepted, and so they set about putting the boat in order so they can live on it...but it promptly sinks. After the hulk is raised, a major upgrade to the boat is proposed, and most of the rest of the book is taken up with descriptions of the many repairs anda modifications that are made over the passage of years. Four out of five stars

[Marcia Chocinsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unique memoir of the trials and tribulations of buying a fallen down wreck of a houseboat (and later a barge) and making it into a home with two artist studios, children and life in the Seine. With all the crazy construction needed to float this boat, combined with the author’s skill set and language deficiency the title should have included some pun on Insanity on the Seine. But how to include the necessary word houseboat as well. Alas. I only wish there were photos/drawings included in the book as well: his paintings, family/characters, and occasionally on what they were doing to the boat.

I look forward to reading other works by this author - fiction and non - as I enjoyed his writing

[Basia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it such a long time ago and It is not the usual type of books I read but I had fun while going through the book. It was a little boring from time to time but I think it is just personal preference. It is the only book that stayed in my memory for so long. I still remember what it was about and I catch myself going back to it in my thoughts. Even tho it is now around 6 years since I read it.

[Alicja Jonczyk · Rating 2 out of 5]

(reread po latach) Na początku mnie nawet wciągnęła, całkiem była przyjazna, ale potem 🫸👊 tak strasznie męcząca się zrobiła, w kółko to samo i do tego nieciekawie, ile można.. to było jak instrukcja składania szafki z Ikei... nie doczytałam do końca. Eh, panie Wharton..oby inne nie okazały się równie rozczarowujące po latach co ta..

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I am not adding this to my "most-loved memoir shelf," I thoroughly enjoyed it. After reading about the travails of re-doing a "moneyt-pit" house, it was fun to read one about a "money-pit" boat - and how to do it on almost nothing. A home on the Seine - it was a bucket-list item for Wharton - who wrote the best-selling novel "Birdy" for us.

[Miles Isham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love William Wharton so I enjoyed this memoir, even though it doesn’t have the impact of his novels. While it certainly peters out towards the end there are enough Whartonisms along the way to make it an undemanding and fun read.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Super funny is a dry way. Love the boat, this mans view of things, France.

[JS]

Bookclub with Jacob & Jessica. Book chosen
by Jessica.

[Elisabeth Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the diary style of this book and the detail about the day to day life of renovating a houseboat. Feels like a time capsule, on water.

[ChrissyK · Rating 4 out of 5]

The voyage of crafting a home, docked upon the Seine. Creating a liveable houseboat for his family was a feat of ingenuity, engineering, problem solving and grit. This book would appeal to anyone who enjoys the challenges of extreme home makeovers.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amusing book about how reality is more complicated and rewarding than dreams. The author, in occasionally wry though often prosaic style, takes us first through the process of finding an affordable (and therefore decrepit) boat to buy on the river systems of France and then the absurd, arduous adventures he has making the boat he finds sound again. Features predictably enigmatic and recalcitrant French craftsmen and lots of technical and bureaucratic dilemmas. The book ultimately focused too much on nuts and bolts details for me--more a guide to boat-building than a romantic travelogue--but it's a worthy report of a curious adventure and especially recommended for anyone who's ever actually dreamed of living on the Seine (of course!).

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

William Wharton nee Alfred du Aime was an an american expat living in Paris. Despite being trained as a Psychologist in the early 60's he made his living and something of a name as a painter and author. His first novel (Birdy) received the National Book Award for best first novel and was published after the author was 50 and was made into a movie of the same name with Jack Lemmon. He went on to write a number of others including his misguided effort to restore a houseboat on the Seine despite speaking little French he apparently lived there with a family of 4 kids and his wife for over 25 years. The book is really pretty boring but interesting insofar as it shows Wharton's tenacity for dealing with the quirks of the French as he takes on this enedavor.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The timeline jumps around a lot once the actually re-building of the boat is complete, and acutally, that's what most of the book is comprised of, the re-building of the boat, both the intertior, and the marriage of the original boat with a barge orchestrated by a mad frenchman named teurnier. i'm a little in love with Teurnier. The boat re-building itself you would think would be a little pedantic, as bogged down in the details as it gets, but somehow i remained transfixed. Possibly, because i one day envision owning by own crazy houseboat, which shall bear the name, the "Sea Squirrel." The houseboat after the re-build is kinda of neglected though and only dealt with tangentially.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

224 pages.

From the title, William Wharton's "Houseboat on the Seine" sounds like it may be a river-bound version of Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence." Not exactly.

Before he published his first novel, "Birdy," Wharton was a painter and schoolteacher living in Paris. Bad judgment prevailed when he was offered the chance to buy a hulk of a houseboat that had once been the property of an Arctic explorer. Wharton said yes, and soon after, the houseboat sank.

Most of the book recounts Wharton's two-decade long effort to first re-float and then rebuild the decrepit vessel.

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple narrative from the writer William Wharton (artist Albert Du Aime), about him, his family and how they came to live on a boat on the river Seine. Despite sometimes fraught occasions the story is soothing and pleasant as that recounted by a friend who one hasn’t seen for some time and happily encountered with time enough for the story to be shared and enjoyed.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had thought this book was going to be a pleasant memoir of life in Paris while he was living on a houseboat. Instead it was about renovating the boat. It was so interesting! I had no idea that so many things could go wrong!

[Meme · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is part of my France obsession. This is by a man who bought a broken down barge to live along the Seine near Paris and renovated it nearly single-handedly. His family also pitched in, and his relationships with inhabitants of other boats and the local village are fund to read about, too.

[Kofeina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kocham tę książkę, chyba właśnie za zazdrość, którą czuję, gdy myślę o mieszkaniu na barce. Ona dopełnia moje ulubione trio od autora (Werniks. Ptasiek).

[Chip · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir by the author of one of my favorite books: "Dad." Lots of interesting, fun stuff, but overall left me feeling kind of blah. Made me want to live in a houseboat on the Seine, though!

[AudreyLovesParis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was so-so. I really wasn't interested in the actual building of the boat, but enjoyed the other anecdotes.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar technical detail to Nevil Shute's books.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

BookClub

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting account of fixing a boat to live in on the Seine outside of Paris.