Reader's Diary #2289 - Dominique Prinet: Flying to Extremes

It's a bit of a coincidence that the last 3 nonfiction books I read about the north have all covered roughly the same time frame: late 60s/early 70s. The first dealt with a dogsledder, the second with a politician, and this one is about a bush pilot (subtitled Memories of a Northern Bush Pilot). 

I'm assuming Dominique Prinet kept a journal or something as his memories of his time flying across the north are quite detailed and vivid. As always, I enjoyed reading about characters and places in the north that I haven't met or traveled  to, but an added bonus with this book is the sense of adventure. Though he does credit his training in the epilogue, I think Prinet would also acknowledge that flying across the north, especially back then, was often quite a dangerous undertaking and luck was often on his side. 

Essentially that's the arc of each story in this collection: Prinet finds himself in a predicament and then he escapes. I can't say that's boring (the predicaments themselves at least vary), but it does after a time become repetitive and predictable. A couple of saving graces: Prinet's sense of humour (though sometimes, and your mileage may vary, comes perilously
close to generationally offensive cringe) and the photos/art.