Jack and Wynn are college friends who share of love of the outdoors and
books. They undertake an extended canoeing
trip which will eventually bring them to Hudson Bay. All goes well until they discover a forest
fire is moving closer. Then they
overhear a couple arguing; their encounter with Pierre and Maia proves to be
fateful so their peaceful trip becomes a desperate paddle to reach
civilization.
The novel begins very slowly. For
the first quarter, not much happens. The
suspense comes afterwards when they face dangers from both nature (rapids,
fire, weather) and humans. There is also
a mystery: what exactly happened between
Maia and Pierre. Unfortunately, that
question is answered only vaguely. Jack
and Wynn’s friendship is also tested because the two interpret events differently. Jack tends to be skeptical but Wynn has “faith
in the essential goodness of the universe.”
There is a great deal of description.
It is obvious that the author loves the outdoors because he gives
detailed descriptions of nature, both flora and fauna. These descriptions tend to be very lyrical: “the river slowed and expended itself in
unexpected wide coves. From which loons
called as they passed – the rising wail that cracked the afternoon with
irrepressible longing and seemed to darken the sky. The ululant laughter that followed. Mirthless and sad. And from across the slough or from far
downstream the cry that answered. And
the eagles. They seemed to mark the
canoe’s progress from the gray spires of dead spruce, spaced downriver like
watchmen on some lost frontier, sometimes just the unmistakable shape of the
hooded predator, sometimes a scraggly limb and a huge stick nest.”
The problem is that there are often unnecessary details about other
things such as fishing techniques: “Jack
tied on a dark elk-hair caddis” while Wynn “threw a tiny parachute Adams.” Even brand names of camping gear are given: they have Sierra Designs sleeping bags and
tent, a Sage fly rod and a Winston one too.
Does the reader need to know that their rifle has a “Leupold 4-12X scope”
and that their travel mugs are “stamped with the Dartmouth Pine and the school
logo, Vox Clamantis in Deserto”? Canoes and paddles are always described in
detail: “an old white-painted
square-stern woodstrip canoe” and “His canoe was polyethylene, the heavy
plasticlike material of the synthetic Old Towns” and “the Wenonah nineteen-foot
Itasca expedition canoe” and “The canoe was Kevlar but it had an extra layer
like a bow plate” and “The boat was sleek Kevlar, nineteen feet, and with a V’d
hull in bow and stern” and “They each used an alder and basswood paddle made by
the master Mitchell in New Hampshire.”
The book blurb describes “a heart-pounding tale of desperate wilderness
survival.” This emphasizes suspense but
there is much less of it because of the irrelevant descriptions which suggest
the author is writing a non-fiction essay for an outdoor magazine.
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