An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland

The acclaimed literary journalist Michael Dirda recreates his boyhood in rust-belt Ohio. The result is an affectionate homage to small-town America, as well as a paean to what could be called the last great age of reading.

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A funny, wistful memoir by a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic that recalls the charm of Growing Up and the tenderness of One Writer's Beginnings. "All that kid wants to do is stick his nose in a book," Michael Dirda's steelworker father used to complain, worried about his son's passion for reading. In An Open Book, one of the most delightful memoirs to emerge in years, the acclaimed literary journalist Michael Dirda re-creates his boyhood in rust-belt Ohio, first in the working-class town of Lorain, then at Oberlin College. In addition to his colorful family and friends, An Open Book also features the great writers and fictional characters who fueled Dirda's imagination: from Green Lantern to Sherlock Holmes, from Candy to Proust. The result is an affectionate homage to small-town Americasummer jobs, school fights, sweepstakes contests, and first datesas well as a paean to what could arguably be called the last great age of reading.