Title: Red Dot Shot: Phantom of the Wilderness
Author: Kramer Elkman
Publisher: Toplink Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1-9479-3891-5
Pages: 137
Genre: Memoir
Reviewed by: Jason Lulos
Hollywood Book Reviews
Awarded to books of excellent Merit
Red Dot Shot: Phantom of the Wilderness is a really engaging read. This is a thoughtful and emotional memoir of a self-reflective man’s quest to understand his father and himself. Haunted by his father’s lack of encouragement and affection, Elkman fights an ongoing battle of trying to gain his father’s acceptance. Growing up, their hunting trips are the most opportune time for bonding. It is therefore all the more striking that his father would use these trips to make overt attempts at blocking his own son’s happiness. It is a Luke Skywalker archetype of a tale, given that the son tries repeatedly to reconcile his father’s behavior while separating and directing himself towards a more loving and happier existence.
The book really centers on one event. While hunting elk, his father continually tries to sabotage his son’s attempt to bag a trophy elk. In spite of this, Elkman (aptly named) does hit such an elk, but his father forbids him from tracking the animal. This is an overt and indefensible act of a father’s jealousy and resentment. Elkman is haunted by this event for the rest of his life because it so dramatically defines his father’s behavior towards him. Elkman does not want to become like his father. This is the protagonist’s (author’s) most admirable quality. Self-analytical and with great perspective, he concludes that he must work on himself so that he does not treat his children in the same way.
Decades later, to add more tangible and spiritual closure, he returns to the wilderness where he was denied his trophy elk. It is a dangerous trip to go alone and is the climax of a literal and psychological journey to free himself from his father’s shadow. He imbues that initial event and the return with profound significance. The author is exceedingly analytical about numerous life choices, almost to an extent of viewing each as a kind of butterfly effect. Returning to the infamous spot where his father so bluntly denied him, he seeks some type of closure, some way of changing that initial moment.
The book is about breaking from the past, faith in God, but it is also about agency. The author’s most courageous move is not necessarily the dangerous trip back to the wilderness of his childhood. Rather, it is his agency: his lifelong battle to break the cycle of negativity which had been passed on from father to son. He loves his children genuinely and demonstrably, thus breaking the cycle and conquering this most important crossroad.
Red Dot Shot: Phantom of the Wilderness has a wide appeal to many readers and will linger in the minds of all. It shows multiple levels of psychological self-analysis, empathy and love; engulfed in a situation which will appeal to many, whether hunters or not.