Customer Reviews

Curlew: Home

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Curlew: Home by Tom Montag rang true with me, a fellow Midwesterner. In this combination memoir and critical reflection on childhood, Tom Montag revisits his roots in and around the small town of Curlew, Iowa, circa 1960-65. He reflects on his childhood through the eyes of a middle aged adult who now has the perspective necessary to see himself as he was and to see the buildings, land and people as they were.

But this book is more than just musings of the past over potato salad at a family reunion. This book has introspection with an intuitive psychological foundation on a par with Tom Brokaw written with the word choice of a poet, which Tom Montag is.

Although this is a book about a corner of Iowa, it is, in reality, not a book about Iowa. Curlew, Iowa, and the Midwest become symbols of the greater reality of family, home, life, death and change. It is a book about what it means to be human.

With the opening words, I became part of the book. Memories of my own parents and grandparents came back to me. These memories may have remained hidden forever without Tom Montag and his new book.

If you long for more simple times in life,
this book is for you.

Mr. Montag will move you into
history and, at times unwillingly,
into the present. His memoir will
also make you realize time is equal
for everyone.

I found this book very similar to
Dakota by Kathleen Norris.