3.5 stars

Dr. Draper was one of the doctors in the small town in Southern Saskatchewan where I grew up (population, about 1300). He was not my doctor, but the town is small enough, we certainly knew him (and I think I did see him as a doctor at least once...that I vaguely recall!) and my Dad was on town council with him for a while.

Anyway, this book is mostly anecdotes from when he was one of the resident doctors in the small town of Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan. It includes stories of his own home life and about his family, some medical/patient stories, his political life (he was a town counsellor, then mayor, and later went on to serve in the provincial legislature), and other stories about various people and/or events in town.

This book is obviously of more interest to a local audience. I enjoyed it. I got some updates on some people (though for some stories – I expect the medical ones – he used pseudonyms), which was nice. Stories of being a doctor in a small town were interesting; he was well-known for speaking his mind and he certainly does so in this book, as well. The book is – I believe – self-published (though there is the name of a small publisher, but I believe it's his own publication; he has also written a couple other books, presumably under the same publisher), so there are grammatical errors here and there, but overall, I enjoyed the book. It brought back some small-town/Gravelbourg and area memories for me. ( )