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Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka
A warm, at times hilarious, yet dark childhood memoir from a bestselling author.
This memoir recalls the boyhood years of Ontario’s future lieutenant-governor, living in a dilapidated old house complete with outdoor toilet and coal oil-lamp lighting. Behind the outrageous stories, larger-than life-characters, and descriptions of the mores of a small village in the heart of Ontario’s cottage country are flashes of insight from the perspective of a child that recall the great classic Who has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell.
But why "a different Muskoka?" Because the boy was a half-breed kid. Visits to his mother’s reserve showed him that he was caught between two worlds. His mother’s fight with depression flowed from that dilemma. His father — the book’s main character — was a lovable, white, working class, happy-go-lucky guy who never had any money but who made the best home brew in the village — and his specialty was raisin wine.
Like that raisin wine, this unusual book goes down easily and has a kick to it.
This memoir recalls the boyhood years of Ontario’s future lieutenant-governor, living in a dilapidated old house complete with outdoor toilet and coal oil-lamp lighting. Behind the outrageous stories, larger-than life-characters, and descriptions of the mores of a small village in the heart of Ontario’s cottage country are flashes of insight from the perspective of a child that recall the great classic Who has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell.
But why "a different Muskoka?" Because the boy was a half-breed kid. Visits to his mother’s reserve showed him that he was caught between two worlds. His mother’s fight with depression flowed from that dilemma. His father — the book’s main character — was a lovable, white, working class, happy-go-lucky guy who never had any money but who made the best home brew in the village — and his specialty was raisin wine.
Like that raisin wine, this unusual book goes down easily and has a kick to it.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 27, 2007
About the author
James Bartleman
11 books13 followersJames Bartleman is the former lieutenant governor of Ontario and the bestselling author of the novels As Long as the River Flows and The Redemption of Oscar Wolfe. A member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, he is also a retired ambassador and a member of the Order of Canada. He lives in Perth, Ontario.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 23, 2026
Former Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor James Bartleman’s 2007 memoir Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka describes realistically and with totally unadorned honesty how young James and his family had to struggle with poverty and faced many hardships during his boyhood in post WWII Muskoka, Ontario, with Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka poignantly detailing his First Nations mother’s depression, his Caucasian father’s alcoholism (whose home brew is in fact the inspiration for the book title) and with Bartleman also pretty clearly and majorly demonstrating that his family’s Muskoka was most definitely not the poshly large lakeside cottages of Toronto’s elite, of Toronto’s idle rich. However, and while I have definitely enjoyed as well as been enlightened by the contents and the themes of Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka I do somewhat wonder why for the occasional stories of anti Native-Canadian bias and racism being described in Raisin Wine rather few specific details are actually being provided by James Bartleman, that there is a generalised political and cultural anger regarding anti First Nation bigotry, but that most of Bartleman’s boyhood experiences as they are presented and shown by him in Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka do not seem to be all that majorly horrid with regard to intolerance due to his biracial ethnicity (and while this might indeed be true, I for one kind of question whether James Bartleman is also kind of donning proverbial rose-coloured glasses regarding the latter, which has not been a huge issue for me, but I still have to wonder a trifle).
And furthermore, I also do have to admit that I personally tend to rather internally cringe when James Bartleman in Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka describes his mother as being Indian instead of First Nations and himself as being a so-called half breed, albeit to be sure, when Bartleman was a child and a teenager, in the 1940s, the 1950s and even beyond then, Native Canadians would have generally been known as Indians and not as First Nations and bi-racial children (and adults) would generally not have been called bi-racial but half-breed. Thus and combined with the fact that James Bartleman chooses to narrate his memoir, chooses tell Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka in the third person and without any names, yes, this distancing feels rather strange and makes Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka a bit too removed and not personal enough and not immediate enough for me (and that my three star rating for Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka is pretty generous, but that I have definitely appreciated and also enjoyed encountering James Bartleman as an author and his boyhood as the subtitle of the book states in a different Muskoka.
And furthermore, I also do have to admit that I personally tend to rather internally cringe when James Bartleman in Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka describes his mother as being Indian instead of First Nations and himself as being a so-called half breed, albeit to be sure, when Bartleman was a child and a teenager, in the 1940s, the 1950s and even beyond then, Native Canadians would have generally been known as Indians and not as First Nations and bi-racial children (and adults) would generally not have been called bi-racial but half-breed. Thus and combined with the fact that James Bartleman chooses to narrate his memoir, chooses tell Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka in the third person and without any names, yes, this distancing feels rather strange and makes Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka a bit too removed and not personal enough and not immediate enough for me (and that my three star rating for Raisin Wine: A Boyhood in a Different Muskoka is pretty generous, but that I have definitely appreciated and also enjoyed encountering James Bartleman as an author and his boyhood as the subtitle of the book states in a different Muskoka.
October 5, 2020
A touching and beautiful story of a desperately poor but loving family in the 1940s-50s of Muskoka, Ontario, this book is also so much more. Many intriguing personalities and characters populate its pages, as the author amusingly recounts some youthful misadventures which could have changed his path in life.
As the child of an Indigenous mother and a white father, he describes encountering some racism, and his own conflicted feelings about his place in the two worlds he straddles. A brilliant student, who learned a love of books from his father, James Bartleman managed to achieve much in life, becoming a Canadian diplomat and Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. He has lived and served in many fascinating locations around the world, but his deep fondness for his hometown roots shines through.
As the child of an Indigenous mother and a white father, he describes encountering some racism, and his own conflicted feelings about his place in the two worlds he straddles. A brilliant student, who learned a love of books from his father, James Bartleman managed to achieve much in life, becoming a Canadian diplomat and Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. He has lived and served in many fascinating locations around the world, but his deep fondness for his hometown roots shines through.
April 23, 2020
I read this a while ago and remember being surprised that Bartleman had grown up in very basic circumstances. He is a well spoken man, who conveys the pain of his childhood with plain and simple grace. The hard thing to realize is the very commonness and casualness of racism in that time and now.
January 5, 2018
Delightful book that I found I could relate to easily. The mischief young James encounters as a boy in Port Carling takes me back to my own youth.
I will read another.
I will read another.
June 13, 2019
Amazing account of small town life! Loved it
November 26, 2010
James Bartleman's memoir of his impoverished boyhood in the heart of Ontario's most affluent "cottage country" is honest, touching, amusing, and completely fascinating. Village life was difficult enough, but even more so for a "half-breed" caught between the worlds of his "Indian" mother and white father. Further contrasts were evident between the locals and the rich and idle summer residents who were often disdainful of the "stupid hayseeds". That Bartleman went on to become a renowned Canadian diplomat and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 2002-2007 is a testament to the power of education and determination.
October 13, 2018
An account of life in a small Ontario resort village in mid-twentieth century Ontario from the perspective of a young boy whose mother is Indigenous and whose father is white. The author went on to become a senior international diplomat and Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. The descriptions of his adventures and misadventures, the village inhabitants and his family are at times riotously funny, searingly insightful and empathetic. The use of the third person to describe the boy's experiences is sometimes awkward, but generally works.
May 25, 2019
This is certainly an informative and interesting book, but not as good as I thought it would be. I was troubled by the fact that Bartleman called himself "the boy" throughout the book as if he was distancing himself from what happened. Nonetheless, there are some lovely ancedotes in here about growing up in Muskoka during the 1940s and 50s.
June 21, 2019
Wow, great story...reinforces what the white man did to the natives here in Canada.
May 25, 2011
James Bartleman was the son of a white father and a Native Canadian mother. Raised in Port Carling in Muskoka, he faced poverty and racism. Yet his stories of his childhood and adolescence are hilarious and uplifting. I particularly liked his account of his career as a newspaper boy and how he infuriated customers and ate most of the profits, but still managed to learn something about business and life!
July 12, 2007
Hilarious book! Fantastic images of childhood memories...and a Canadian book to boot! Loved it!
February 16, 2013
Boring! Although the author writes, with great detail, about growing up in small-town Ontario - "the boy" really leads a very ordinary life.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews