Title: Square Hole for a Square Peg
Author: Exona Moll
Publisher: Westwood Books Publishing LLC
ISBN: 978-1643618593
Genre: Memoirs, Biographical
Pages: 44
Reviewed by: Barbara Miller

Read Book Review

There is a saying, “Water below the boat will support and help it move forward, and water inside the boat will sink it inside the ocean. Likewise, your thought process decides whether you become optimistic or pessimistic in life.” This is certainly the appropriate theme author Exona Moll dichotomizes her mental conditions of her life aboard her boat, traversing the canals and waterways of England.

In her memoir, Square Hole for a Square Peg, she chronicles her major life’s decisions when she decides to untie her landlubber qualities in exchange for life aboard a 60-foot narrow boat floating on the canals of England. Needing to be self-sufficient in all of her basic needs such as fuel, water, electricity and waste removal, what seems to many to be a hardened way of life, became for her a blessing of activity, affording her the freedom and lifestyle of independence of being on the move. If you don’t fill up the water tank, you run out of water – if you don’t get the gas or fuel you need, you run out of heat or cannot move – the simple consequences for not being proactive becomes its own teacher and disciplinarian.

Being afloat allowed for her to find a spiritual connection with other maritime individuals, some of whom were attending the Methodist Chapel at Hopwas, as well as her own deepening of her faith in God. The detail in her log book style telling of her journey to cities and towns along the canals, passing through the locks, I admit are quite a bit to digest for the unfamiliar reader to the geography of this area. She did provide a handmade map, showing the lines of the waterways along with the adjacent cities and towns along the shore. This was helpful, yet still the minutia of detail is a bit overwhelming to comprehend if not at least somewhat acquainted with the area.

After a few short chapters about how she met her husband, decided to have children, and the unfortunate sequence of events surrounding her husband’s death, readers are then brought to the main body of the book telling of her feelings and life aboard her floating home.

For readers familiar with this floating lifestyle, or perhaps thinking about embarking on their own personal adventure of this sort, this book is imperative to page through prior to making any life-changing decisions. For those with a passing curiosity of sea-fearing living on the inland waterways of England, it will also strike a chord to learn from her experiences. For anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Exona Moll, Square Hole for a Square Peg is a must-read book. A quick read, being a short book, knowing how a square peg fits exactly into a square hole, readers will understand how she fit perfectly into her chosen lifestyle of letting go the tie-lines to the shore, and taking charge of her life.