THE ATTIC: A Memoir by Curtis...

THE ATTIC: A Memoir by Curtis Harnack (Iowa State University Press: $14.95; 190 pp., illustrated, paperback original). The death of an aged uncle forced the author to clean out the commodious attic of an old farm house--and continue the family history he began in “We Have All Gone Away.” Harnack observes that the modern search for roots “helps alleviate the awful chill of contemporary life, which is generally devoid of family layerings.” But his examination of decades of memorabilia reveals that the familiar, layered past was more complex than he thought: The quiet Iowa farm concealed unsuspected passions, sorrows and triumphs.