Jonathan Waterman is an adventurer and author of In the Shadow of Denali and Kayaking the Vermilion Sea. In Arctic Crossing he chronicles his three-year attempt to kayak, ski, and dogsled the 2,200 miles of the Northwest Passage. Waterman began his trek in 1997, kayaking the Arctic coast west from the Mackenzie delta, and after two more arduous trips, he finished his journey on the Boothia Peninsula in 1999. On the way, he searched for the elusive Arctic curlew, noted a staggering variety of bird and animal life, met diverse representatives of Nunavut’s isolated and troubled communities, and undertook a personal “modern-day vision quest” to meet a polar bear.

Waterman presents himself as an everyman, by turns cocky, scared, thoughtful, and confused in a landscape whose lack of perspective makes it possible to mistake a ground squirrel for a grizzly bear. He positions his personal journey within a larger framework of historical exploration of the region, and the present-day Inuit struggle to determine their own future. The historical context is weaker, containing numerous minor errors. For example, McClintock visited King William Island in 1859 not 1858, and Franklin’s men took lemon juice, not lime juice, to fight off scurvy and did not die of botulism poisoning.

Waterman’s perspective on the inevitable clashes between his own culture and that of the Inuit is honest and insightful. He is not drawn into glorifying the Inuit’s pre-contact past, despite its attraction for him, and does not shirk from talking about the current problems of drug addiction and child abuse in northern communities.

Arctic Crossing is a step above many of the adventure books currently on the market and will be of interest to travellers, armchair and otherwise. However, its lasting value will be in its snapshot of the struggles faced by the Inuit culture in the midst of painful transition.