Chapter 2 of Susan Orlean’s memoir Joyride (Avid Reader Press, 353 pages, $32) covers her early life, when she was figuring out she wanted to be a writer. After growing up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and attending college at the University of Michigan, Orlean made her way to Portland. She landed in the Rose City because her college boyfriend was moving here to attend law school at Lewis & Clark College, and her sister Debbie already lived here. In 1977, Orlean packed up her pickle-green Camaro and headed west, where she worked at a small startup magazine and then a radio station before landing at Willamette Week . Here’s how that went:

The staff at Willamette Week formed a single-cell unit very quickly. We rolled from long, loud days at the office to drinks after work to dinner at some

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