A review by ziola
Consumption by Kevin Patterson

4.0

Life in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, a place I've never been and might never go, but find fascinating nonetheless. It's the kind of place, way up North, where things have changed from a traditional way of life (with some Hudson's Bay presence in certain months) to a "modern" way of life, with villages (instead of nomadism), ATVs (instead of dogs), houses (instead of igloos), satellite TV (instead of seal oil lamps), and chef boyardee (instead of cariboo and seal and whale and char). Consumption certainly doesn't glamorize the old ways, but neither does it glamorize the new. Things are hard up there and always have been. Now they're just a different hard.

But despite all this, for some reason I didn't find the book depressing. Instead I want to see the ice fill Hudson's Bay and the narwhals and belugas pop up for air.