Red Laredo Boots

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Theresa Kishkan lives with her family near Sechelt, on B.C.’s Sunshine
Coast. She has published several books of poetry, and the 13 stories
that make up Red Laredo Boots not surprisingly demonstrate her poet’s
eye and voice. The pieces are intensely personal observations.
Kishkan’s sense of place and her familiarity with the British Columbia
landscape inform the narration at every stage.

The author’s love of the outdoors is evident. Most of the stories are
launched through camping out with her family on the shore of a
wilderness lake or setting out in the family truck to explore historic
sites. Her reminiscences capture the smells and sounds of a youth spent
in these very places. When describing the flora and fauna of the
restored mining town of Barkerville and the rivers of the Skeena and
Nicola valleys, for example, her painterly prose drips with local color.
Recommended.