Canada's small presses are responsible for some of the most interesting literature written in Canada getting published. The Fictionistas event brought four women writers to Winnipeg to read from their books and answer questions about their craft. Margaret Macpherson was so eloquent that I was compelled to buy this book.

This book is essentially a road book but it is interspersed with accounts of a horrific crash that took place in the Northwest Territories in 1972. I remember reading about that crash which only the pilot, Marten Hartwell, survived and he did that by consuming the flesh of one of the bodies. Rosie, a half-Inuit girl, who is living in Yellowknife in 1972 is obsessed by the crash and especially the young Inuit boy, Davidie, who survived the crash but died of starvation.

Tanya Price is a few years older than Rosie. She's been working as the secretary for a hostel for native kids who go to school in Yellowknife. She decides she has enough money to hit the road south before winter comes. She asks Rosie to come along with her and Rosie agrees. Rosie has been living in the hostel since her brother was put in jail. Their mother and then their grandmother died and their father is down south somewhere. So the two of them hit the road in Tanya's Rambler which serves as their sleeping accommodations as well as their means of transportation.

Tanya and Rosie are polar opposites in terms of personality but the friendship seems to work. Rosie combines a sweet nature with spiritual knowledge and feelings. She really deserves better than Tanya for a friend. Tanya likes booze and sex and, although she is supposed to be the more wordly of the pair, she really shows bad judgement at times. Tanya sometimes resents feeling responsible for Rosie but Rosie is such a genuinely good person that Tanya doesn't stay mad for long. All the way to San Francisco they drive in the car but then the car gets damaged and they don't have the money to pay for repairs. After that they hitch or take public transportation. When they finally get to Mazatlan in Mexico they settle into a cheap room and stay. They have to go to Mexico City though when Tanya's traveller's cheques are stolen. Faced with dwindling money supplies they are interested when a handsome Mexican man tells them they can get jobs at a newly opened resort in Belize.

The blurb on the back of the book ties the story to the plane crash:
Trapped deep in the jungles of newly independent Belize, they, like Hartwell, are forced to make impossible decisions in order to survive.
So you just know this book isn't going to end happily. I'll leave it to the next reader to learn the exact ending. Suffice it to say I had some bad dreams after reading this book.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to others but be forewarned that it is not an easy book to read.

We are meeting at the Cafe D'Amour for the November meeting of Winnipeg BookCrossers. If no-one wants to take this book home then I will leave it on the cafe's book shelf. Maybe it will become an Official BookCrossing Zone.

I've had this book on my "want" list for so long that I can't remember why it's on the list. But when gypsysmom brought it to the meeting last night I was first to put out my hand anyway! Thanks gypsysmom! I'm reading it now!

This is an immensely readable, although increasingly unsettling, story of two young women who set off on an adventure to escape the confines of their small town in Northern Canada for what they hope will be fun in the sun on the beaches of Mexico.

The two form an unlikely friendship. Tanya is smart-mouthed and street wise. We soon learn that she has been sexually exploited by the town's doctor, although she, herself, might not publicly say it was an exploitation. She has learned, as a result, just what her body can buy and she is not above using it to get what she wants.

Rosie is an innocent. Vulnerable and, except for her brother who is in jail, is alone in the world. She relies on the teaching and advice of her now deceased mamacho (grandma) that the Creator will provide what you need just when you need it.

As the girls traveled south through the US and into Mexico, surviving one misstep or misfortune after another, and eventually finding themselves in Beliz, I was reminded somewhat of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The horror! But I do have to say that I was unprepared for how this story would end.

In all, an excellent, albeit disconcerting, story. I thought the characters of Tanya and Rosie exceptionally well-written such that I thought I could predict how the story would resolve. Oops, maybe not!

To the finder of this book:
I hope you enjoy your new read.

Welcome, also, to the wonderful and wacky world of BookCrossing! Here you'll find a unique and worldwide community of book lovers sharing their books. This book is now yours! Read it, enjoy it. Keep it or pass it on to someone you know, return it to any Little Free Library or even release it into the wild. It is all up to you.

If you make a journal entry (you can do it anonymously or as a BookCrossing member) all previous readers of this book will be notified by e-mail and can follow this book on its travels. BookCrossing is free to join, completely confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your email address) and it's a whole lot of fun!

I left this book with Timothy Eaton on the 2nd floor.

To the finder of this book:
I hope you enjoy your new read by a Canadian author. It was left here as part of the 2014 Canada Day release challenge in celebration of Canadian Books and authors. Happy Canada Day on the 1st!

Welcome, also, to the wonderful and wacky world of BookCrossing! Here you'll find a unique and worldwide community of book lovers sharing their books. This book is now yours! Read it, enjoy it. Keep it or pass it on to someone you know, return it to any Little Free Library or even release it into the wild. It is all up to you.

If you make a journal entry (you can do it anonymously or as a BookCrossing member) all previous readers of this book will be notified by e-mail and can follow this book on its travels. BookCrossing is free to join, completely confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your email address) and it's a whole lot of fun!