Angie Abdou writes a novel that skiers will love. If you’re from B.C and have ever skied or gone on a ski trip, each and every persona from The Canterbury Trail will resonate with you. Even a neophyte skier such as myself was able to recall people in real life who acted just like some of these characterizations. We have Alison, a journalist from Toronto who’s not really an avid skier but knows enough to keep up. We have the trio of ski locals who look down on everyone not from Coalton, their little ski paradise in BC. We have snowmobilers, who are hated by the skiers since they ruin the trails for everyone involved with their noisy, polluting contraptions. We have the hippies who love Mother Gaia . And then we have the potheads, who overlap all the other groups and are comatose in their vapidity.
The novel is pretty entertaining, despite all the stereotypes, or perhaps because of them. There’s a ski day, replete with powder snow and the various characters set out to enjoy the day’s skiing. Of course, events beyond their control transpire and all the characters end up cooped up in a lodge, hating each other’s guts and killing time with psychotropic substances. The book has a distinctly unpredictable ending, so it might be worth reading this one to figure it out. An enjoyable jaunt into the world of back-country and downhill skiing, especially if you’re a novitiate.
ISBN: 978-1-897142-50-9
