Book Buzz

Here's something to keep you busy on this Labor Day: 925 closely packed pages of "American Working-Class Literature" (Oxford University Press, $50). This hefty anthology, edited by Nicholas Coles and Janet Zandy, includes plenty of familiar names — Dorothy Allison, John Dos Passos, Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, Studs Terkel — along with a few surprises.

One of those surprises is Seattle author Bill Witherup, who contributes a rueful essay about his strained relationship with his father, a Hanford Atomic Engineering Works employee for 30 years.

Witherup's mother was the family peacemaker but got into trouble of her own when her delicious cherry pies were declared classified information during the days of the Manhattan Project.

That's what one military intelligence officer told her, anyway, after she advertised her baked goods in the local paper.

"We wouldn't want the Axis to find out what we are up to here," he said, "would we?"

Enjoy the holiday.

Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times book critic