Ken McGoogan

More on Fatal Passage

Interview with Linda Richards, January Magazine:

“It has all of the earmarks of a gripping novel: exploration, adventure, tragedy and triumph. Even an earnest hero, a mystery and a villain. In fact, when Ken McGoogan came upon the story of Arctic adventurer John Rae, his first thought was for fiction. The further he delved into the perplexing story, however, the more important he thought it was. Writing it as fiction, McGoogan felt, would make the tale less credible. "So I set aside the novel project to tell the true story: to set the record straight." The story is almost beyond belief. According to McGoogan, John Rae is the actual discoverer of the final link of the Northwest Passage, not Sir John Franklin as the history books have always reported . . .”

Interview with Paul Barnsley, Aboriginal Multi-Media Society:

“In Fatal Passage, author Ken McGoogan takes on Canada's image of itself as he seeks to correct historical inaccuracies and expose the attitudes that created them. The story centres on the
life of John Rae, a Hudson's Bay Co. doctor turned Arctic explorer. McGoogan clearly see his protagonist as a figure of heroic proportions who has been denied his rightful place in history, in part, because he found that Indigenous methods of coping in the bush were superior to methods used by Europeans . . . ”

Review and interview by Paul van Peenen:

“There is a great irony in the relationship between John Rae and Sir John Franklin. Their names will forever remain synonymous with the history of Arctic exploration, but Ken McGoogan’s new book Fatal Passage attempts to set the record straight. Both men were explorers, Rae with the Hudson’s Bay Company and Franklin with the Royal Navy — but there the similarity ends. Franklin, the consummate British officer, refused to adapt to proven Arctic survival techniques and it cost him his life along with the lives of 128 officers and men. Rae readily accepted and adapted to wearing fur clothing and using proven travel methods of the Inuit and Indians he lived and worked with . . .” (continued)

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