Reviews
In Fond Remembrance of Me: A Memoir of Myth and Uncommon Friendship in the Arctic by Howard Norman
martyhill's review against another edition
5.0
“I have been drawing shorebirds. Each evening when they fly off to their secret haunts for the night, I am not merely a little forlorn. The cries of the birds I have drawn echo in my heart, as though my heart was the beach itself.”
haleymclean56's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
4.5
msjoanna's review against another edition
4.0
I've never read anything else by Howard Norman, but I quite enjoyed this quirky little memoir telling the story of his brief by intense friendship with Helen. Both Howard Norman and Helen arrive in a remote part of Canada to translate some Inuit folk tales: Helen is translating to Japanese, while Howard is translating to English. Translations of the folk tales, all telling the story of when Noah and his ark accidentally landed in the Hudson Bay and encountered the Inuit people living there, are interspersed through the narrative. A nice, light book with interesting meditation of the meaning of friendship and the terminal illness of Helen.
lijon's review against another edition
3.0
A short memoir of the author's stint translating Inuit folktales in Churchill, Manitoba. It is also about the author's friendship with a woman translating the same folktales into Japanese, who died soon after. I enjoyed the book but it was really too short with not enough there--I would have liked to know more about the translations, the friendship, life in Churchill in the late 70s (when the book is set).
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