Bill Malmstrom in Surfacing

Bill Malmstrom

He's an American man who's also traveling in the same region of Quebec where the narrator grew up. He asks the narrator if she'd like to sell her cabin to him; he wants to use it as a retreat for his fellow members of the Wildlife Protection Association of America (Detroit branch) where they can "meditate and observe […] the beauties of Nature. And maybe do a little hunting and fishing" (11.21). It seems potentially a little wonky and surprising that a representative of the Wildlife Protection Association of America would be looking for a hunting retreat for his fellow conservationists (and puffing lustily on a pipe in the middle of "the beauties of Nature" while making his request), but what do we know?