The Last Speaker of Bear: My Encounters in the North

Mycologist Millman (Fungipedia: A Brief Compendium of Mushroom Lore) recalls his travels through the North in this haphazard collection of “snapped episodes.” Describing solo journeys when Millman’s “only companion was often solitude,” as well as encounters with individuals in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, Millman recalls interactions with Cree elder Jimmy Mianscum, who “had the step of a man half his age,” and an impromptu soccer game with 12-year-olds in Greenland: nobody wanted to be on Millman’s team, so he “ended up playing against all three of them” (and discovered that the children enjoyed kicking him as much as they did the ball). Later sections focus on the “flora, fauna, and food” Millman came across on his travels, including psychoactive mushrooms; seal eye, an “Inuit delicacy” that “met [his] gaze with a seemingly unhappy gaze of its own”; and the meat of sled dogs (which had a “generic gamy flavor”). He warns that while “brevity may or may not be the soul of wit... it happens to be the soul of this book,” but the entries are often too compressed to really get into, and the tendency to jump around in time and place can be jarring. Readers in search of an adventure tale will be better served elsewhere. (Oct.)