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Talking to Angels
A Life Spent in High Latitudes
By Robert Perkins.
Beacon Press, Boston, 1996.
106 pp. US$18
ISBN: 0-8070-7078-5
Review by MICHAEL PEAKE --
Che-Mun Editor
Canoelit Home Page
Only one of the three short stories included in filmmaker/author Bob Perkins' latest effort relates directly to the north but we though it is of interest to Che-Mun readers because of the author and his uniquely personal style.
Perkins spent several weeks in the NWT Water Resources cabin/freezer at the bottom of the Baillie River near its confluence with the Back.
Spring is a season canoeists always just miss. The arrival of spring in the north and the great, grinding breakup of mighty rivers are natural tours de force many of us have envisioned trying to experience. Perkins managed the feat by supplying daily weather forecasts to the outside world by radio.
He is able to observe, given his keen powers, the ebb and flow of the many natural forces which surrounded him as much as the melting snow. His experiences and thoughts on grizzly bears, musk-ox and wolves-both alive and dead-are what make this fascinating reading.
In fact, Perkins seems to be able to melt with the snow into the awakening landscape and explain some different ways of thinking about the land and our impact on it-and vice-versa.
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