Author Mark Di Ionno acknowledges that Gods of Wood and Stone is a clearly masculine book, ostensibly about sports — predictable fare from a reporter who has covered it for years. Yet in Di Ionno’s talk Tuesday at the Morristown & Township Library, it became clear that his novel really is about the changing American experience, and the loss of traditional values in the face of rampant commercialization. Sports is just the metaphor.

Di Ionno sees a similar duality in his own life. “The book is the culmination of the two halves of my journalistic career,” said Di Ionno, who began as a sportswriter and sports columnist for the New York Post. After six years as a front-page news columnist at The Star-Ledger, he changed course and now is public affairs manager for the Newark Police Department, a contributor to an online news site, and an adjunct professor of journalism at Rutgers.