"Every woman stayed alone in her house in those days, like a coin in a safe." ~ Annie Dillard

quotes: 

"She also presents a brilliant, almost anthropological, examination of privileged Presbyterian Pittsburgh society. 'Every woman stayed alone in her house in those days, like a coin in a safe,' she writes." 

Annie Dillard's tale of her upper-class youth in Pittsburgh 

By Robert G. Seidenstein, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer, Jan. 9, 1992  (newspaper)

An autobiographical book centering on childhood must meet one of two criteria: It has to be by someone famous and important, such as a president, or it has to be very, very good. . . .

In An American Childhood, Annie Dillard strives to be very, very good. More often than not, she succeeds, although the book does have several stretches of tedium, some of them lengthy. 

The book has recently been released unabridged by Recorded Books (9½ hours, $49.95 purchase, $16.50 rental). The reader is Alexandra O'Karma. 

Dillard, born in 1945, writes about her upper-class youth in Pittsburgh in the 1950s. . . .

Although she includes wonderful stories about her parents and grandparents, she concentrates on her own intellectual development. . . .

Her discussions of her love of playing baseball and her discovery of boys are real gems. 

She also presents a brilliant, almost anthropological, examination of privileged Presbyterian Pittsburgh society. "Every woman stayed alone in her house in those days, like a coin in a safe," she writes.