Dreaming of Columbus

the long version

A moving memoir, Dreaming of Columbus illuminates place as a force that shapes lives. With recollection and reportage, Michael Pearson re-creates the Bronx of the 1950s and 60s, the place of his youth, that "precisely known world, safe and claustrophobic," an Irish Catholic culture filled with light and shadows. The driving force behind Pearson's story is its people - an enigmatic father, a steadfast mother, an eccentric and influential writing teacher, the boys and girls who shared his neighborhood, the high school girl who shared his vision and his life - and the books that made escape and return seem possible.