Amazon: In 1924 Sinclair Lewis and his physician brother Claude wangled an invitation from the Canadian government to take part in an annual Treaty Trip, i.e., visiting Cree, Chippewa and other Indian tribes to pay each member $5 to console them for having taken away their lands. Sinclair lasted only a month away from his booze but his brother continued on as planned and his diary, later excerpted and published, plus Sinclair's own recollections proved to be the only research necessary when time came to dash off Mantrap.
Sinclair Lewis, as he had for the American Midwest, in MANTRAP created a fictitious swathe of northern Canada populating it with non-existent rivers and lakes, some named after real ones in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is the mid 1920s. Ralph Prescott, 40 year old bachelor and mama's boy, (but he pulls in $40,000/year as a lawyer in New York City) is persuaded by E. Wesson Woodbury, Babbitty executive of a stockings company, member of the same Westchester County golf club as Ralph, to join him for several weeks in summer roughing it in northern Canada. They will paddle canoes, portage their gear overland, fish, hunt, meet Indians and fur trappers and live the the simple, rugged life of the great outdoors.
Prescott made the trip because he was working long hours for no good reason and under self-imposed stress. Once on the trail and in the canoes, however, he came to detest the bullying, self-important Wes Woodbury, who exults in simply being north of latitude 53. There arrives at one of their camping spots (unknown to all, a 1587 missionary foundation) 46 year old Canadian fur trader Joe Easter. Joe owns a store at Mantrap Landing on Lac Qui Reve. Ralph soon regards Joe as a true friend and begs him to take him away from Wes Woodbury. Joe does.
As their canoe heads toward Mantrap Landing, Joe tells of a visit last year to Minneapolis where he met and married a spunky manicurist, Alverna, and brought her to live with him in the wilds. Alverna is a famous flirt and Ralph is soon madly in love with her. To break away from undignified temptation, he pushes off in a canoe with a guide to find his original host, Woodbury, about whom he feels increasingly guilty. But Alverna runs away from Joe and persuades Ralph to take her with him back to civilization. Their Indian guide steals their canoe and abandons the lovers just before a vengeful Joe Easter catches up with them and massive forest fires almost engulf all three. The men renew their friendship and Alverna asserts her independence and determination to return to the USA and live her own life, no matter how ditzy that life seems to others. Ralph intends to take Joe to New York and make him a city man. At the station in Winnipeg Alverna's two male admirers put her on a train for Minneapolis. But Joe refuses to travel on to New York with Ralph.
There are, fortunately, also other reasons to read Mantrap.
First, Sinclair Lewis gives a feel for Canada's wilderness regions: riding in a caboose, in steamboats and overnighting in cheap, dirty hotels. Adding to the backdrop are RC Mounted Police, canoes, fur traders and more. We go inside a Cree encampment with "Indian men magnificently doing nothing, thinking nothing and wanting nothing" (Ch. Six). There is fishing. There are dogs and the Northern Lights. All are described as well and lovingly as Sinclair Lewis always describes the glittering surface of things.
Next, speaking to us in the year 2005, there is the theme of "stress management." Off to the wilds of Canada! Pack up your troubles and lose them tramping The Long Trail! In the end, the sheltered city slicker, Ralph Prescott shows true grit. When crisis comes, he somewhat implausibly surmounts all manner of primitive challenges and returns refreshed and in triumph to the big city.