Bernstein: Baltimore in books: city’s character inspires

Baltimore has its ups and downs, but for its recurring role in literature, the city is owed an honorary Pulitzer. For over half a century, and perhaps longer, Baltimore has performed as a main character, a sidekick, a point of arrival and departure, and an atmospheric backdrop in a wide variety of novels. The 20th anniversary of David Simon’s seminal television series, “The Wire,” has sparked a fresh examination of Baltimore as a performing palimpsest in fiction — a place upon which each succeeding generation of writers imposes its own points of view about the city, urban culture, social justice, and the state of the world in general.