Michael Dirda when growing up often had his nose in a book, upsetting his steel-mill worker father, Michael Dirda Sr.
Dirda's blue-collar upbringing in industrial Lorain, Ohio, gave him little preparation for a literary career, as recounted in his engaging 2003 memoir "An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland."
In its wealth of details and memorable characters, Dirda's book recalls "In Search of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust, one of the many writers he mentions along the way. He also loved as a child paperback adventure stories, fantasy and science fiction and comic books, along with 1950s-era TV westerns.
The Washington Post's acclaimed book critic, who won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize, recalls a childhood marred by his father's anger and sense of failure and bolstered by his mother's stoic devotion to her son and his three younger sisters.
Dirda recalls his painful relationship with his father with a mixture of regret, compassion and sad humor.
Exacerbating his irritation at Dirda's bookishness, his father erupted in anger at his son when he enlisted his help on ambitious home construction projects that often went awry. A benevolent uncle, his mother's brother, often was enlisted to salvage the disastrous work.
Along with his abusive behavior, Dirda's father displays moments of rough love for his son, including frequent trips to the public library and dispensing folksy advice.
Dirda's Slovakian mother, Christine Burkl Dirda, is portrayed as an exuberant personality who showers her children with affection along with strict discipline. She holds on to her positive spirit, countering her husband's dark moods.
The introverted, nearsighted and unathletic Dirda feels isolated from Lorain, an ethnically diverse industrial city on Lake Erie near Cleveland.
Yet he also expresses affection for Lorain's parks, colorful characters and interesting stores and shopping centers, sharing his mother's pleasure at finding bargains. Dirda also fondly remembers visits to his family's many relatives of eastern European descent.
In contrast to more privileged intellectuals, Dirda eventually worked in hazardous jobs at his father's plant and as a construction worker installing aluminum siding.
Despite his love for reading, Dirda struggles academically until the end of high school. Eventually, he enjoys teen adventures with a close circle of friends and begins to excel in the classroom under the guidance of inspiring teachers.
Accepted to Oberlin College, a progressive liberal arts school near his home, Dirda slowly discovers his literary calling.
After initially struggling with Oberlin's demanding academic regimen, he at his father's life-changing encouragement studies harder and excels. He also finds his first serious girlfriend, a young woman from Nashville, Tenn.
Vietnam protests stir the campus, although Dirda mainly stays on sidelines He's more devoted to literature and classical music.
Dirda finds the model for his literary career when he meets the writer and translator Robert Phelps on his first visit to New York City before an expansive trip to Europe in the revolutionary summer of 1968.
Phelps, the father of one of Dirda's roommates, gives Dirda a decisive glimpse of the bookish life, inviting him to his crammed Greenwich Village study, where Dirda enjoys martinis and sees his first page proofs.
The book closes with Dirda's Oberlin-sponsored trip to idyllic Aix en Provence and Paris, still smoldering from the revolutionary turmoil of May, 1968.
Dirda also enjoys a passionate romantic encounter with a young women he meets at the opera. They take a hitch-hiking trip to Florence, then say farewell forever.
Exciting moments in Aix and Paris glow in his memory, yet Lorain and his childhood shine brighter.
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