A PRAIRIE BOY'S SUMMER

by William Kurelek ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 1975

A Prairie Boy's Summer somehow contains fewer magical moments and more plain hard work than his . . . Winter did, but Kurelek's naive roughhewn canvases still turn the flat, western landscape into a strange and wonderful place, whether rich with geometrical rows of golden wheat or eerie as the surface of the moon as it is during ""the burning of quack grass and harrowing."" With his usual candor, Kurelek confesses here that as a child ""one of his dreams was of being surrounded by a group of highschool students listening in admiration to his stories of the adventures of a farm boy."" And indeed he makes such workaday chores as ""making a smudge,"" ""mending pig's fence,"" and ""stooking"" seem absorbingly interesting while his memory of the old swimming hole is undimmed by nostalgia--the lurking catfish and the crayfish he feared stepping on are still uppermost in his mind. Kurelek's recollections continue to be both fond and precise, and though his readers may be younger than the highschool boys of his dream they are sure to gather round once again.

Pub Date: April 25, 1975

ISBN: 088776116X

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1975

Categories: NONFICTION