PositiveMedium...Harris understands the problems of romanticizing the age of exploration, and throughout the book she attempts to reconcile her desire to be the first and only person in uncharted territory with her position as an upper class, educated, White Canadian who benefits from \'explorers\' who considered themselves \'discoverers\' of the Indigenous people of her own country ... However, because so much of the book describes her intellectual history and weaves in research (all of which is fascinating), the actual narration of the journey sometimes suffers—and her descriptions sometimes portray people she meets as part of the scenery or cast them as milestones on her own journey rather than as people in their own right, an insidious and problematic element of the Euro-American travel writing tradition. Stylistically, while Harris’ poetic writing can sometimes veer close to the edge of \'too much,\' overall it is stunning, and there are many passages that require a second reading just for enjoyment of language. The memoir is extremely smart, and she consciously works to make it as vast in scope as travel writing from an earlier age but without the cultural problems of those eras. She makes a valiant and beautifully-written effort without being overly apologetic, which is crucial to keeping the book balanced on the line between culturally sensitive and patronizing.
