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Suspended: Travels Close to HomePete SarsfieldTravel, Canada Order this book: |
![[Cover of Suspended.]](../images/1895900581.jpg)
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Pete Sarsfield, a Maritimer who lives in the centre of the country, is a middle-aged traveller with an addiction to mobility and no plans to quit. This leads to frequent trips around Canada, by walking, boat, snowmobile, car, bus and train. The angles of perspective vary as do the destinations that span Canada and beyond.
Sarsfield has lived in Nova Scotia, Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Manitoba and Ontario, working as a bartender, hospital orderly, student, family physician and public health specialist, writer, teacher and administrator. Sarsfield's daughters Sarah and Jan and his friend Benita have provided ongoing support and council regarding the mix of movement and affiliation. This includes the dance notion of "suspended" – a barely perceptible pause in a planned motion, inevitably leading to further movement but not necessarily in the same direction.
Suspended: Travels Close to Home is a collection of written maps and snapshots of Canada, including the communities and First Nations of northwestern Ontario, Sarsfield's present home where he lives beside the Lake of the Woods and works as a medical officer of health. Suspended wryly portrays a personal transition, with an accompanying scanning for future options.
Sarsfield is looking for a place to feel at home, on many highways between Vancouver and Nova Scotia, on visits to Banff, Sioux Lookout, Labrador, Calgary and Winnipeg (with its Folk Festival), then on to Toronto, and to Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick and Mayne Island in British Columbia's Gulf Islands, with one brief detour to the Caribbean. Being in transition can be an awkward position if not assisted by humour and affection. Throughout the book, Pete Sarsfield provides this assistance with his sense of quiet wonder, and with his tongue firmly placed in a cheek.
What the reviewers have said of his previous books:
The Nova Scotian-born physician ... offers fascinating glimpses of a place and its people."
– Devin Crawley in Next Year Country
"Labelling himself 'the sponge' because of his penchant for soaking up detail, Sarsfield is able to transform what he sees into scenes that come alive on paper.
– Bryan Phelan in the Kenora Enterprise
"...We are charmed by Sarsfield's thoughtful humanitarianism, his generosity, humour and attention to detail. Most important, this is a man who is having fun..."
– Brian Cameron in the Canadian Medical Association Journal
"I'd like to live in Pete Sarsfield's brain – but only for a little while..."
– Molly Mason in Wawatay News
By the author of Running With the Caribou (Turnstone Press, 1997) and Hollow Water: Stories & Travels (Turnstone Press, 2000).