An American Childhood by Annie Dillard—how many of you read this in school?
I adore this book, but I do feel some uncomfortable emotions about it because of the similarities to my life: growing up in Point Breeze, attending private school, going to dancing school… hallmarks of a privileged Pittsburgh upbringing, that not everyone has had—it feels a little prissy.
But I absolutely love the prologue—it’s a description of the topology of the Pittsburgh area intertwined with the coal-mining, steel-making history of the area. Here’s a snippet:
