*Shortlisted for the 2004 Saskatchewan Book Award for First Peoples' Publishing
Joe Welsh irreverently and poignantly recreates the forties, fifties, and sixties in and around Lebret, Saskatchewan. His ear for voice and his deprecating homespun portraits paradoxically intensify his loyalty to his people — the Metis. Enriched throughout with a relentless stream-of-consciousness, the writer merges vignette, poem, and dramatic monologue into a form that is unique in its authentic language and local colour.
Anything I say about this book will reduce it somehow. I think by adding it to as many bookshelves as I have, I best portray what Joe Welsh is capable of in his writing. All at once these stories, which read as interconnected flashes of moments in the lives of Welsh and his Metis people, are witty and sad, poignant and irreverent, crazy and sane.