Pollack, John. Cork Boat: A True Story of the Unlikeliest Boat Ever Built

Kliatt, July, 2005 by Raymond Puffer

POLLACK, John. Cork boat; a true story of the unlikeliest boat ever built. Random House, Anchor. 291p. c2004. 1-4000-3490-6. $13.95. JSA

One of the glories of the US is that each citizen is guaranteed the freedom to pursue happiness in his own nutty fashion. When he was six years old the young Pollack decided, with impeccable logic, that if an ordinary cork floated in water, a boat constructed entirely of corks couldn't ever sink. Thus was born one of the more improbable adventures in the entire annals of maritime literature.

Pollack never quite lost that notion, even after he had grown and had achieved some success as a political staffer in Washington DC. Early on he became an inveterate collector of corks, nearly all of them well used. Then, still a young man, he abruptly abandoned politics and decided to act on his old vision--to construct a workable boat entirely out of corks, take it to Portugal, and sail it down the Douro River. That he had never seen either Portugal nor its most famous river, and that no one before had ever built such a boat, should by all rights have swayed him from this charmingly quixotic notion. But it didn't.

A good part of the book's fascination is simply why a man would go from being one of President Clinton's speechwriters to an unemployed college graduate building a boat out of champagne corks in a borrowed garage. Perhaps, on second thought, the question answers itself. The book is written with boyish enthusiasm, the author maintaining that the very frivolity of his quest was a necessary antidote to the grim post-9/11 world. Perhaps he is right. Certainly both author and reader easily get caught up in the details of this absurd project: scrounging bushels of free corks, pressuring friends to help, and ultimately navigating a strange and quirky river--nearly always against the wind. Not least of all, the book also is a pretty good manual for those who might want to build their own cork boat. We all have our dreams, Raymond Puffer, Ph.D., Historian, Edwards AFB, Lancaster, CA

J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.

S--Recommended for senior high school students.

A--Recommended for advance students and adults. This code will help librarians and teacher working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.