RBC TAYLOR PRIZE JURY CITATION/WINNER 2019 GLOBE 100 BOOK
really good
I was interrupted by going to the hospital and then not being able to read and understand. ( )

What a fascinating life Pierre-Esprit Radisson had....most of which we never learned in school. In addition to being a fur trader and voyageur, I now know that he was adopted by Mohawks (whom he later turned against), captured by pirates, lived on the fringes of both the English and French courts and successfully (mostly) sued the Hudson's Bay Company. Wow.

While I loved the subject, I was less impressed with the presentation. There were several errors that even I, with only high school history, was able to pick out. In the second half of the book, it was hard to keep track of where Mr. Radisson was. And I found the writing style didn't match the writing of an historical biography at times; at other times, I felt I was reading a topic assigned to the author -- it lacked a keen sense of interest or passion for the subject. ( )

Pierre Esprit Radisson is a little known Canadian fur trader/explorer, not because history teachers choose to ignore him but there’s so little personal information about him. Mark Bourrie’s book has put an end to this by clarifying and expanding on Radisson’s life. His was a life of high adventure, intercontinental travel, battle, near death experiences, duplicitous behaviour, treason, companionship with kings, clergy, commoners, and First Nations. His help in creating the Hudson’s Bay Company was ignored and unrewarded with penury and obscurity his ultimate reward. ( )

The back cover of this book sums up its subject this way: “Murderer. Salesman. Pirate. Adventurer. Cannibal. Co-founder of the Hudson's Bay Company.” I can’t do any better than that. Bourrie’s book is highly readable and gives us an interesting and interested look at the man whose name adorns a major hotel chain (which might be the main thing people know him for). The book talks not only of Radisson, but also the Indigenous communities he lived in and traded with, and the France and England he eventually ended up in. It talks about how he double-crossed basically everybody and how his achievements ended up being basically forgotten by the end of his life—it’s thanks to diarist and pack rat Samuel Pepys that we even have his journals to form the basis of this book. Recommended if this part of history interests you. ( )