Buffalo Jump: A Woman's Travels

Nora D.S. Robins is co-ordinator of Internal Collections at the
University of Calgary Libraries.

Buffalo Jump recounts the author’s drive from the interior of British
Columbia to Nova Scotia and back, and her efforts to connect with her
family.

Moir plans to visit her parents and family who live in Minnesota and
then to drive her mother to her family reunion in Ontario. From there,
they will continue east to visit family and friends in Nova Scotia and
Cape Breton. Then Moir will return her mother to Minnesota in time for
her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary.

Moir is 42, her mother is 72, and Connor, the dog, is 12. They have
more than 8000 miles of highways and backroads to cover. Moir feels
disconnected from her family. Her mother’s storytelling provides Moir
with a sense of who she is and where she came from. As her mother tells
stories of her family, of growing up on the prairies, and of Moir’s
childhood, Moir begins to feel that her mother is “the narrative link
that makes her place in all of this real.”

Part memoir, part history, part biography, this delightful book
captures the reader’s interest with its portrayal of the relationship
between mother and daughter. Moir is also the author of the
well-received Survival Gear (1994).