Marc Seals

North Freedom, by Carolyn Dallmann, has a wonderful immediacy, a rawness. The prose is not the work of a professional author, but that of a talented amateur venturing into deep waters for the first time; this seems a strength, a meeting of form and function, giving this memoir a sense of rustic authority that might otherwise be lacking – almost as if it were written in a sort of Wisconsin dialect. The result is a text with the rural authenticity of a Grandma Moses painting. North Freedom is reminiscent of August Derleth’s Walden West but sweeter – imagine Derleth with the addition of a generous dose of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods. The rural charm and humor of these reminiscences are delightful. Wonderful family photos add to this portrait of mid-20th-century rural Wisconsin.