Running with the Caribou

Monika Rohlmann is an environmental consultant in Yellowknife, Northwest
Territories.

Pete Sarsfield is a community health physician based in Northern
Ontario. During the past 30 years, his career has taken him to many
different communities in the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, Ontario,
Nova Scotia, and Labrador. This book is not about his medical
experiences; instead, it chronicles his journeys across the country and
to conferences in the circumpolar North.

More than 30 stories are presented in four main sections. Sarsfield
acts as observer and writer, noting details of the people around him,
their conversations, their dress, their moods. Each story is a brief
window on a small event or a travel journey. Some stories take place in
remote health stations, while others unfold as Sarsfield travels by
snowmobile, bus, train, or plane. They are stories of ordinary events
and everyday occurrences. The book would have been more accurately
titled “Travel Vignettes” or “Stories of Mind.” Caribou are
hardly a big part of the book and even the North takes second place to
the many other locations Sarsfield describes. Nevertheless, Sarsfield
excels in describing appearances and thoughts. He is a keen observer who
has delivered a colorful book without printing a single picture.