Prairie Son (review)

210Fourth Genre nature and aU its sensory deUghts." Like her father, Drake finds satisfaction in observing natural settings. Using vivid and compeUing language, she passes her love of nature on to others. When living on a farm for a certain length of time, it can become easy to think that one has seen aU that nature has to offer, but ten years later Drake remains enthralled, promising herself she wül look closer and see more deeply. Because of Barbara Drake's wit, her curious mind, and her keen attention to nature in aU its variety and complexity, Peace at Heart is a pleasure to read and should not be ignored. Reviewed by Amy Brown Prairie Son by Dennis M. Clausen Mid-List Press, 1999 243 pages, paper, $16.00 Prairie Son, winner of the Mid-List First Series Award for Creative Nonfiction, honors its Minnesota roots with an unflinching look at the rural, often poverty-ridden lifestyle of the '20s, '30s, and '40s. However, where much Depression-era literature repeats the now-familiar version of hardship, misfortune, and starvation prevalent in that era, this tale also depicts a young man's agonizing quest for his birth mother. Despite his adoptive parent's abuse, Lloyd Augustine Clausen secretly searches for his biological famüy. It is this aspect ofthis story that creates suspense and freshness . Couple that with Clausen's choice to foUow creative trends toward experimental points ofview and readers wiU discover a memorable nonfiction text. Notice the names of father and author. Dennis Clausen's decision to assume the first person point of view in his father's voice is a risk, but one he accomplishes with authenticity and compassion. Dennis Clausen speaks Augustine Lloyd Clausen's Ufe in a straightforward, first person vocabulary. His technique aUows the reader to experience directly what Clausen's father experienced, without the distance of the conventional third person biography . In addition, by repeating images ofthe plains—prairie trees, the cemetery , an abandoned windmiU—the author establishes resonance in a piece that might have been merely episodic. In this way, the almost atonal language typical ofspeakers ofthat era takes on a descriptive quality that makes this text lyrical as weU as historical. Book Reviews211 If there is one drawback to this story, it is that the personal insights— though appeaUng—are not entirely fresh. One wishes that such a daring technique could have been coupled with more original perceptions and literary voice. Despite this concern, the text remains a pleasurable read. Prairie Son wiU be appealing to older adult readers, Midwest history buffs, and readers of general nonfiction. It wül be an especially touching read for anyone who has been part of an adoption. Reviewed by Anne-Marie Oomen Flight Dreams: A Life in the Midwestern Landscape by Lisa Knopp University of Iowa Press, 1998 286 pages, paper, $22.95 "Sometimes I wish that I could make a few revisions in my childhood— modify a few traits in myselfor others, add or smooth out twists in the plot. But mostly I feel nothing but gratitude for the sheer good fortune ofbeing born into such a place, at such a time, and among such people."These lines are from "Local Traffic," Lisa Knopp's portrait of the neighborhood where she Uved as a child in Burlington, a smaU city in southeastern Iowa, perched on the west bank of the Mississippi River. They express the tendency toward acceptance, with some mild reservations, which characterizes her approach to most of the moments she shares in the essays and chapters of this book. In the early sections Knopp captures and revives the world of her childhood by bringing a child's perspective to sharply focused experience. In "Outside" she teUs how, waiting for the bus each week after dance lessons, she longs for the submarines at Kresge's lunch counter, an important lesson about the essence ofunfulfiUed desire. In "Not Catholic" she compares her Methodist upbringing with the imagined life ofher CathoUc neighbors and ponders her attraction to Catholicism. In the title essay, remembering a childhood longing to fly and a passion for birds, she recognizes that her flight dreams were emblematic ofher longing to...