Reading My Father

Bill Styron's writing and his depression dominated the Styron family landscape, and Alexandra, the youngest of four children and the one who spent the most time alone with her father, learned to navigate his storms in order to survive. She describes a man plagued by demons and not averse to imposing them on a young daughter.

Part biography, part memoir, part elegy, Reading My Father tells the story of a daughter coming to know her father at last. From Styron's Tidewater Virginia youth and precocious literary debut to the triumphs of his best known books and on through his devastating spiral into madness, Reading My Father chronicles the epic sweep of an American artist's life. It offers an intimate look at a great literary generation's friendships and their dramas. But it is also a tale of filial love and a journey toward understanding and forgiveness.