At Home in the Heart of Appalachia

""I have spent my life leaving Appalachia and coming home again,"" writes John O'Brien in his first book, At Home in the Heart of Appalachia. Born in Philadelphia to a father who'd fled a painful Appalachian childhood, O'Brien moved back to West Virginia as an adult. Upon his estranged father's death in 1995, O'Brien did not attend the funeral; instead, he further explored his family's roots and his own experience, yielding this memoir. Dealing deftly in fact and perception, he recalls his childhood confusion about his origins. His family considered itself West Virginian; outsiders called them Appalachian: ""[i]n time I would learn that Appalachia was an imaginary place and that being Appalachian was imaginary but terribly damaging."" In lovely, sensitive, frank prose, O'Brien portrays a West Virginia beset by coal-mining tragedies and poverty, blessed with lush beauty and rich mountain culture. (Knopf, $25 320p ISBN 0-394-56451-0)