Beyond Forget: Rediscovering the Prairies

1986, Canadian hardcover edition, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, British Columbia. 260-page non-fiction study written by a Rhodes scholar. The author, in 1985, set out on a voyage of rediscovery, wandering the Canadian prairies, where he grew up as a young boy. He covered the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta. He also provides the history and literature of the region as well as info about the landscape and wildlife present. Here are medicine men, missionaries, cowboys, grain farmers, and numerous others. Perhaps the most fascinating part of the book are discussions of how the prairie fires the human imagination with such able writers as Wallace Stegner and T.E. Hulme. He also examines the "famous frauds" such as Grey Owl, T. Lobsang Rampa, Frederick Philip Grove, and Buffalo Child Long Lance. "There are many good qualities to this book--intelligence, readability, excellent style--but its most notable quality is the sense of surprise."

Montreal freelance writer Abley grew up in the Canadian West and here describes a journey he took in 1985 through the Prairie Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Most interesting are his accounts of the various colonies of immigrants who put down roots in this area, ranging from national groups like Icelanders to religious sects like Mennonites and Hutterites, to blacks seeking freedom they could not find in the U.S. He also discusses Indians, treated as badly in Canada as in this country, and the countryside itself, from the frozen frontier of Churchill, on Hudson Bay, to the West Edmonton Mall, a monument to consumerism and bad taste. Excellently written and intriguing to read.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.