2011
Nelson Algren: Nonconformity: Writing on Writing
Passionate book-length
essay on writing, artistic freedom and championing the downtrodden. [Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
Sebastian Barry: The Secret Scripture
Beautiful prose doesn't quite save the
structural and narrative flaws of this otherwise promising novel. [Review]
[Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
Len O'Connor: A Reporter in Sweet Chicago
Interesting memoir of the
longtime
Scott Phillips: Rut
Dysfunction and corruption reign in a forlorn
Stona Fitch: Senseless
Tense, disturbing thriller
of political extremism and one man's fight for survival.
Sinclair Lewis: Elmer Gantry
Entertaining satire of
religious ambition and hypocrisy - but more of a polemic than a novel.
2010
Austin Kleon: Newspaper Blackout
Innovative, fun collection of found poetry,
all created by blacking out newspaper articles.
Jamie Iredell: Prose. Poems. A Novel
Lyrical portrait of a
dissolute life, glimmering slightly at the conclusion.
Corey Mesler: The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores
Lust, murder and dark hilarity consume a
fictional
Mel Bosworth: Grease Stains, Kismet and Maternal Wisdom
Boy meets girl, heartbreak unexpectedly does
not prevail.
George Ade: In Babel: Stories of Chicago
Wonderful collection of short stories, originally published as newspaper columns. [Review]
Ring Lardner: The Portable Ring Lardner
Terrific collection of
novellas, short stories and satirical essays. [Review]
[Excerpt]
Finley Peter Dunne: Mr. Dooley Remembers
Fine collection of the
final essays of the great humorist, along with twelve classic Mr. Dooley
columns. [Review]
[Excerpt]
Andrew Ervin: Extraordinary Renditions
Strong, sharply-written
debut about three intersecting lives in
Studs Terkel: Working
Lively, compelling,
indispensible oral history of Americans talking about their jobs. [Review]
[Excerpts]
O.E. Rölvaag: Giants in the Earth
Magnificent epic of
Seamus Heaney (translator): Beowulf
Modern, flowing verse
interpretation of the great epic poem. [Review]
[Excerpt]
Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass
Whitman's love song to
Stendhal: The Red and the Black
Long, plodding disappointment. [Review]
[Excerpt]
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart
Good but less than essential novel of African
tribal life, tradition versus modernity. [Review]
Alan Sillitoe: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Entertaining comic novel
of youthful irresponsibility. [Excerpt]
Patrick Hamilton: Hangover Square
Disturbing portrait of
alienation, obsession and mental illness. [Excerpt]
Ian McEwan: Amsterdam
Two men strive to make their mark and when
thwarted then seek revenge, but a third gets the biggest revenge of all.
Tarjei Vesaas: The Birds
Relentlessly sad novel of
helplessness and not belonging. [Excerpt]
Pär Lagerkvist: Barabbas
Beautiful and quietly
powerful story of an unrequited longing for faith. [Review]
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
Brilliant, angry, timeless
satire of the entire human race.
John McGahern: Amongst Women
Strong novel about what happens to revolutionists
after the revolution is won. [Review]
William Trevor: Fools of Fortune
Lovely novel of
revolution, revenge and self-imposed exile. [Review]
Gabe Durham: The
Complete Genealogy of Everyone, Ever
Whimsical and very funny
collection of stories about well-meaning losers. [Review]
Eric Bogosian: Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead
Outrageous, obscene,
bitter, provocative - and laugh-out-loud funny.
Arthur Koestler: Darkness At Noon
A powerful, thoughtful and
ultimately tragic discourse on revolutionary politics. [Review]
Kent Haruf: Eventide
Another lovely novel of
the fictional small town of
Matt Bell: The Collectors
Inventive and sadly
beautiful fictionalization of the tragic Collyer
brothers. [Review]
Tim Hall: Full Of It: The Birth, Death, and Life of an Underground Newspaper
Lively and funny novel of a
Nelson Algren: Chicago: City on the Make
Algren's classic, bitter love song to his city.
Nelson Algren: The Last Carousel
Fine collection of memoirs and stories from
late in Algren's career. [Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
[Review]
2009
Michael T. Fournier: The Minutemen: Double
Nickels On the Dime
Thoughtful
and passionate discussion of the Minutemen's great album. [Review]
Flannery O'Connor: A Good Man Is Hard to Find and
Other Stories
Powerful
but bitter and bleak story collection that I will not be reading again. [Review]
Aleksandar Hemon:
Love and Obstacles
Strong
story collection from one of my favorite writers. [Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
[Review]
Jack Conroy: The Disinherited
Fine
account of working-class
William E. Leuchtenburg: Franklin D. Roosevelt and
the New Deal, 1932-1940
Very
fine and highly informative study of FDR, the New Deal and the Great
Depression. [Review]
Edmund Wilson: The American Jitters: A Year
of the Slump
Very
fine collection of essays from 1930-31 on the early days of the Great
Depression.
Mark Costello: The Murphy Stories
Devastating
portrait of a man and his family, marriage and unfaithfulness. [Review]
John Cook: Our Noise: The Story of
Merge Records
Excellent
history of the indie rock label. [Review]
Matthew Sharpe: The Sleeping Father
Well-intentioned
but less than successful novel of family dysfunction. [Excerpt]
William Walsh: Questionstruck
Unique
compilation - just the questions from Calvin Trillin's
books. Oddly compelling. [Excerpt]
[Review]
Eric Schlosser: Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs,
and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market
Interesting
studies of three underground economies, albeit more of a compilation than a unified
book. [Review]
Greg Kot:
Ripped: How the Wired
Generation Revolutionized Music
Brisk,
informative and entertaining account of how musicians and fans are taking back
control of music.
Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary
Overlong
and unsympathetic portrait of an unhappy woman and those around her. [Excerpt]
[Review]
Mark Twain: The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
The
great American tale of epic quest. Funny and still relevant. [Review]
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
Comic
but ultimately sad tale of a controlling, conforming society. [Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
[Review]
George Orwell: 1984
Brilliant,
compelling, sobering. Orwell’s masterpiece is every bit as relevant today as
the day it was written. [Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
[Review]
Henry David Thoreau: Walden, or Life in the Woods
Truly
great narrative on simplicity, self-sufficiency and communing with nature. [Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
[Review]
Barbara Kingsolver: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Wonderful
narrative of a year spent farming one's own food, eating locally and saving the
planet. [Review]
Muriel Miller Branch: The Water Brought Us: The
Story of the Gullah-Speaking People
Informative
account of the Gullah culture of the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia.
Virginia Woolf: A Room of One's Own
Compelling
discourse on the critical need for freedom and privacy for women fiction
writers.
Ander Monson: Neck Deep and Other
Predicaments
Inventive
essays on the writer's intriguing past and mundane commonalities of his
everyday life. [Review]
C.S. Lewis: A Grief Observed
Lewis
recounts his battle with grief and loss, somehow emerging with hope.
Michael Harrington: The Other America: Poverty
in the Untied States
Passionate
1962 study on the state of poverty in the richest country in the world. [Excerpt]
Richard Matheson: I Am Legend
Purported
classic with a fascinating premise which doesn't quite deliver.
Patrick McCabe: Winterwood
Promising
but ultimately disjointed and disappointing story of love, kin, home and myth.
William Trevor: Death in Summer
Lovely,
understated novel of loneliness and a quest for belonging.
Isaac Bashevis
Singer: Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories
Charming
collection of
Budd Schulberg:
What Makes Sammy Run?
Devastating
portrait of ambition and success in 1930s
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House on the Prairie
Classic
account of 19th Century pioneer life.
Charles Simmons: Wrinkles
Innovative
and fascinating telling of an otherwise ordinary story. [Review]
Pär Lagerkvist: The Dwarf
Powerful
and furious novel of war, religion and humanity. [Review]
Nathanael West: Miss Lonelyhearts
Odd,
bitter, angry - might be a classic, but I'm not quite sure.
Stona Fitch: Give + Take
Offbeat
caper novel of crime and philanthropy.
Erich Origen and Gan Golan: Goodnight Bush
Quietly
brutal satirical sendoff to the worst President in
2008
Nick Hornby:
A Long Way Down
Four
strangers consider suicide but together somehow find reason to go on. [Review]
Michael Chabon
Presents The Amazing Adventures of The Escapist, Vol.
1
Well-executed
derivative work about a fictional comic strip. [Review]
Richard Grayson: Highly Irregular Stories
Another
fine story collection from Grayson - four chapbooks from early in his career. [Excerpt]
[Review]
Michael Chabon:
Maps and Legends
Nice
collection of essays which celebrates genre writing in its many forms. [Excerpt]
[Review]
Ben Tanzer:
Most Likely You Go Your Way
and I'll Go Mine
Another
winner - boy meets girl, pop culture is dissected, sadness fades to hope. [Review]
William Maxwell: So Long, See You Tomorrow
Lovely
novel of three families in small town
James Agee and Walker Evans:
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Frustrating
and exhilarating - a thorny classic. [Review]
Erskine Caldwell: Tobacco Road
Grim
but invigorating novel of destitute sharecroppers in 1930s
Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye
Truly
great noir of murder, passion and absolution. [Excerpt]
Herman Melville: Billy Budd, Sailor
Fair,
but hardly a classic. [Review]
Nikolai Gogol: The Overcoat
Funny,
sad and strange tale of a lonely clerk and his quest for dignity and respect. [Excerpt]
[Review]
Joseph Conrad: Lord Jim
Overwritten,
ponderous, poorly structured - sad, for what should have been a masterpiece. [Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
[Review]
Mark Sarvas:
Harry, Revised
Good
debut novel about grief, starting over and Dumas.
Kent Haruf:
Plainsong
Lovely,
warm novel of small-town life.
Paul Fattaruso:
Bicycle
Charming
little collection of micro-fictions about, yes, bicycles. [Review]
Aleksandar Hemon:
The Lazarus Project
Magnificent
novel of the past and present, longing and belonging. [Review]
Mark Russell: The Superman Stories
Funny
and clever stories about the everyday life of the Man of Steel.
Hjalmar Söderberg:
Doctor Glas
Masterful
novel of longing, fateful decisions and death. [Excerpt]
Nelson Algren: Never Come Morning
Gripping
early novel from the master. [Review]
[Essay]
[Excerpt]
Billy Lombardo: The Logic of a Rose: Chicago
Stories
Good
collection of coming-of-age stories from
Flann O'Brien: The Third Policeman
Less
than satisfying comic tale of life, death and bicycles. [Review]
John McGahern:
The Barracks
Sensitive,
emotionally gripping Irish novel of a distant husband and wife. [Review]
Al Burian:
Burn Collector: issues one
through nine
Solid
collection of the first nine issues of the great zine.
Jim Thompson: The Kill-Off
A
uniquely told twist on the conventions of crime fiction by one of the giants of
the art. [Review]
Chris Abani:
Song For
Night
Powerful
and often harrowing novella of war and remembrance. [Review]
E.M. Forster: Howards End
Great
novel about the English social classes, how they interact and what
responsibilities they have to each other. [Review]
2007
Jon Krakauer:
Under the Banner of Heaven:
A Story of Violent Faith
Gripping,
thoroughly researched account of murder and the dark side of religious faith.
Calvin Trillin:
Travels With
Alice
Warm
collection of anecdotes of Trillin's family travels
in the Mediterranean and
Verlyn Klinkenborg:
The Last Fine Time
Uneven
account of a working-class bar in Buffalo, just after WWII. Has its moments,
just not enough of them.
Rick Kogan:
A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, a
Curse, and the American Dream
Lovely
memoir of Chicago's legendary Billy Goat Tavern, by one of its loyal denizens.
George W.S. Trow: Within the Context of No Context
Rambling,
muddled, murky essay that's likely not worth your time. [Review]
Kurt Vonnegut: A Man Without
a Country
Charming
collection of essays from the late great novelist. [Review]
Richard Warch
and Jonathan Fanton (editors): John Brown: Great Lives
Observed
Balanced,
non-partisan collection of writings on the legendary abolitionist. [Review]
Ted McClelland: Horseplayers: Life at the
Track
Lively
account of a year spent wagering - and mostly losing - at
J. Matthew Smith: Jailed by My Father
Warmly-told
collection of autobiographical essays.
Nathanael West: The Day of the Locust
Dark,
bitter, sometimes bitingly funny tale of Hollywood's woeful underclass.
Ben Tanzer:
Lucky Man
Daring,
innovative and emotionally moving debut novel about four troubled friends.
William Trevor: The Hilll
Bachelors
Yet
another excellent collection of Irish short stories from the master. [Excerpt]
Charles D'Ambrosio:
The Point
Solid
story collection from the renowned writer, with the tighter pieces being the
best of the lot.
Steven J. McDermott: Winter of Different
Directions
Smart
collection of short stories about lost souls and uncertain futures. [Review]
James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings
Twice
Sharp,
riveting piece of classic noir. The main characters are doomed, just as they
should be. [Review]
Edgar Lee Masters: Spoon River Anthology
Fascinating
poetic exploration of small-town America - but much too long and often
repetitive. [Excerpt]
[Excerpt]
[Review]
Sinclair Lewis: Babbitt
Brilliantly
insightful satire of an upstanding citizen and the unsettling discontents
stirring within him. [Excerpt]
[Review]
[Review]
Knut Hamsun: Hunger
Simply
put, one of the greatest novels ever written, and the finest I've ever had the
pleasure to read. [Review]
[Review]
[Review]
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
Well
written but (sorry) less than classic novel of Jazz Age New York. [Review]
Herman Melville: Bartleby the Scrivener
Wonderful
story of a stubborn employee and an excessively patient boss in mid-19th
Century Manhattan. [Review]
[Review]
Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio
Marvelous,
wide-ranging, emotionally moving cycle of stories about the lonely and seeking
inhabitants of a small Midwestern town. [Excerpt]
[Review]
Joe Pernice:
Meat Is Murder
Slow-starting
but good-finishing tale of a Smiths record on one youngster's life.
Cormac McCarthy: The Road
Powerful
novel of father and son wandering through a post-apocalypse wasteland. [Review]
[Excerpt]
Ian McEwan:
Atonement
Magnificent
novel of youthful indiscretion and unintended consequences, and a meditation on
truth versus fiction as well as a writer’s responsibility. [Review]
[Excerpt]
Aaron Petrovich:
The Session
Black
comedy "novella in dialogue" in which all is not quite as it seems. [Review]
Samuel Beckett: Waiting For Godot
The
classic stage play—despairingly poignant and darkly comic. [Excerpt]
Edward Gorey:
Amphigorey Again
Wonderfully
warped drawings and unsettling narratives from the master artist.
James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as
a Young Man
Uneven,
meandering and greatly disappointing novel from one of the purported greats. [Excerpt]
Bayo Ojikutu:
Free Burning
Gripping
urban novel of a man's increasingly desperate attempt to support his family and
keep it intact. [Review]
Jim Thompson: Pop. 1280
Darkly
comic and disturbing tale of a small-town psychopath, with an odd (and fairly
unsatisfying) messianic twist at the end. I strongly prefer my Thompson
protagonists to be psychopathic and immoral and rather proud of it, but Nick
Corey’s transformation—which comes completely out of nowhere—dilutes the
otherwise delicious badness of his character.
Ward Just: Forgetfulness
Wonderfully
written and deeply insightful novel about one man confronting grief, vengeance
and his past. [Review]
Laila Lalami:
Hope and Other Dangerous
Pursuits
Expertly crafted and
emotionally moving novel about Moroccans risking their lives crossing the
Various Writers: All Hands On: THE2NDHAND Reader
Intriguing collection of
stories from the Chicago-based literary broadsheet, ranging from conventional
narratives to more experimental forms.
Andrew Patner:
I.F. Stone: A Portrait:
Conversations With a Nonconformist
Fascinating profile of, and
conversations with, the maverick independent journalist.
2006
Shalom Auslander:
Beware of God: Stories
Extremely funny, deeply
thoughtful and borderline blasphemous stories about God, believers and faith.
Marjane Satrapi:
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
Excellent graphic memoir
about a young girl's upbringing in post-revolution Iraq.
Todd Dills: Sons of the Rapture
Epic fathers-and-sons tale
spanning two centuries, from hipster Chicago to hidebound South Carolina.
Funny, sad and often quite dizzying.
James Meek: The People's Act of Love
A stunning achievement—a
novel with an epic sweep which still manages to convey the small details of
people’s everyday lives, a stirring story of love, suspense and war. [Review] [Excerpt]
Robert Olen Butler: Had a Good Time: Stories
from American Postcards
Sharp collection of stories
inspired by postcards of the early 20th Century.
Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five
Great anti-war novel
highlighted by Vonnegut's spare but vivid prose. [Excerpt] [Excerpt]
Franz
Kafka and Peter Kuper: The Metamorphosis
Terrific graphic
interpretation of Kafka's classic short story.
Joe Meno:
Hairstyles of the Damned
Sharply written, perfectly
voiced, and funny tale of a teenaged boy of the early 1990s struggling to find
his place in the world.
John McNally: America's Report Card
Biting satire on our current
political climate, told via a lost teenage girl and an only slightly less lost
grad student.
Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie
Classic novel of social
realism which brilliantly depicts Chicago and New York of the late 19th
Century, focusing on three tragic characters. [Excerpt]
Tony Fitzpatrick: Bum Town
Wonderful poetic ode to
Fitzpatrick's father, Chicago's South Side and the ghosts that haunt both. [Review]
Art
Spiegelman: In the Shadow of No Towers
Idiosyncratically brilliant
illustrated account of Spiegelman's experiences with
9/11 and its aftermath. Unforgettable.
Daniel Clowes:
Ice Haven
Fine graphic novel about a
fictional town and its lonely, directionless denizens.
Jonathan Coe: Like a Fiery Elephant: The
Story of B.S. Johnson
Excellent, innovative
biography of the compelling, confounding, tormented British experimental
novelist.
Richard Grayson: And To Think That He Kissed Him on Lorimer
Street
Fine collection of
semi-autobiographical short stories from the prolific author. [Review]
J. Niimi:
Murmur
Well-meaning but ultimately
disappointing study of R.E.M.’s Murmur, one of
the elusively great albums in rock history. Although there are fine passages
throughout, Niimi can’t settle on a focus,
alternating between gushing R.E.M. fan, recording studio wonk, cultural
theorist, social historian and memoirist—using just one of any of these focuses
would have improved the narrative immensely.
Kevin Guilfoile:
Cast of Shadows
Strong, ambitious debut
novel which goes far beyond the thriller genre to explore reproductive
technology, medical ethics, philosophy, alternate reality, religious fanaticism
and, most importantly, a grieving father and the dubious extremes he will go to
find the truth. [Review] [Excerpt]
Miriam Toews:
A Complicated Kindness
Fine novel about a teenaged
girl struggling against her repressive religious community. A bit of a
“grower”—the narrator’s casual language is off-putting at first, but ultimately
the vivid and poignant narrative wins out. [Excerpt]
James Joyce: Dubliners
Marvelous collection of
stories from the literary legend. Dare I now brave Ulysses?
Paul Strathern:
Kafka in 90 Minutes
Sharp, concise biography of
the great writer. [Excerpt]
Brian Costello: The Enchanters Vs. Sprawlburg Springs
Fun romp through suburban hell,
seen through the eyes of a sloppy pseudo-punk band. [Review]
Colin Meloy:
Let It Be
Wonderful memoir of boyhood
and the Replacements' best album, from the Decemberists
frontman.
Henry Roth: Call It Sleep
Interesting 1930s novel of Jewish
immigration and assimilation. [Excerpt]
A long, thoughtful
contemplation on grief and loss.
Ander Monson: Other Electricities
Not quite a story
collection, not quite a novel, Monson’s wonderful inventive prose unforgettably
depicts life and ever-present death in
Wade Rubenstein: Gullboy
Odd, darkly comic novel
about a father and his unique son.
2005
Calvin Trillin: Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme
Typically fun collection of Trillin's topical
poetry. [Excerpt]
William Trevor: The Story of Lucy Gault
Sadly beautiful novel about a young Irish girl's impulsive mistake and
its reverberations on the lives of everyone around her.
Herbert Asbury: The Gangs of Chicago
Fascinating account of Chicago's most notable criminal elements, from
the city’s 1830s inception through Capone’s 1931 conviction on tax evasion
charges. [Review] [Excerpt] [Excerpt]
Nick Hornby: The Polysyllabic Spree
A warm, engaging, thoughtful account of Hornby's
passion for reading, and his ongoing battle to read as many books as he buys.
Davy Rothbart: The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas
Wonderful collection of short stories, narrated by lonely misfits
trying to find their place in the world. [Brief Review]
Various: Chicago Noir
Highly enjoyable collection of Chicago stories, many offering inventive
takes on the noir tradition. [Review]
Joe Sacco: Palestine
Brilliant "graphic journalism" account of the
Israeli-Palestine conflict, told from the Palestinian perspective which is so
largely ignored by the American media.
Åsne Seierstad: A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal
Personal account of the bombing and fall of Baghdad in 2003 from the
acclaimed journalist.
Knut Hamsun: In Wonderland
Illuminating account of Hamsun’s travels to the Caucasus region of
Russia in 1899.
Aleksandar Hemon: Nowhere Man
Brilliant novel of a young Bosnian refugee and his struggle to make
sense of his place in America and the world.
Don DeGrazia: American Skin
Powerful coming-of-age novel about skinheads and ever-shifting
alliances and philosophies.
Kirby Gann: Our Napoleon in Rags
Vividly written novel about one man's doomed efforts to redeem mankind
and make the world a better place. [Review/Excerpt]
Kevin Smokler (editor): Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times
Sharp, thoughtful collection of essays on the current state of serious
reading. [Review]
Ian McEwan: Saturday
Masterfully written novel of one man's day from one of our greatest
living writers.
Stephen Elliott: Happy Baby
Inventive and oddly uplifting novel about a man’s quietly harrowing
journey through the state juvenile system and a self-abusive adulthood. [Review]
Pär Lagerkvist: The Eternal Smile
Three long, epic stories about religious faith and the meaning of human
life. The first and last, “The Eternal Smile” and “The Executioner” are less
successful due to being more allegories than plot- and character-driven
stories. But the middle story, “Guest of Reality,” is a lovely short story
meditation on faith and death, told from the viewpoint of the young boy Anders.
[Excerpt]
John McNally: The Book of Ralph
Highly entertaining novel about growing up and its often ugly
aftermath.
Nelson Algren: The Man With the Golden Arm
Simply one of the greatest American novels ever. An unequivocal
must-read. [Excerpt]
David Bezmozgis: Natasha and Other Stories
Fine collection of stories from this debut author, about Russian Jewish
immigrants in Toronto finding their way to a new life.
Mike Royko: Slats Grobnik
and Some Other Friends
Wonderful collection of newspaper columns, 1966 to 1973. (Out of
print.) [Excerpt] [Excerpt]
Alex Kotlowitz: There Are No Children Here
Every bit as good as advertised. Absolutely essential reading.
Carolyn Eastwood: Near West Side Stories: Struggles for Community in Chicago's Maxwell
Street Neighborhood
Oral histories from the four main ethnic groups of Chicago's Near West
Side, and their fight to save the neighborhood from the city's urban renewal
efforts. [Excerpt] [Excerpt]
Excellent character-driven novel of a young man coming of age in 1950s
Chicago. [Excerpt]
James T. Farrell: Studs Lonigan: A Trilogy (Young Lonigan)
First volume of Farrell's classic work of realism, a gritty tale of
Chicago's working-class Irish in the early 20th Century.
Fine collection of interconnected stories set in
Nice literary fiction in which Chabon
imagines the final case of Sherlock Holmes' career. Literary--not just
genre--fiction.
Impeccably crafted collection of short stories by the Irish master. [Excerpt]
Quiet, gently-written collection of stories from the late author.
2004
Crisp, fast-moving collection of stories from the acclaimed novelist.
Wright's impassioned essay on the African-American experience, first published
in 1941. Accompanied by stellar FSA photographs from the era. [Excerpt]
Algren's classic book-length essay is both a loving tribute to, and a
scathing attack on, his adopted hometown, "this most two-faced of American
cities." [Excerpt]
Brilliantly funny, and often quite moving, novel which incisively
narrates the unformed hopes, fears and misconceptions of the commitment-fearing
male animal. [Excerpt]
Paul Krugman: The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century
Excellent collection of columns from the New York Times writer and
Princeton professor. In clear and lucid prose, Krugman
relentlessly eviscerates the misguided economic and social policies of the Bush
Administration.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Brilliant, autobiographically-based fiction which recounts the waking
hours in a single day of a prisoner of the Russian Gulag.
Alex Kotlowitz: Never a City So Real: A Walk in Chicago
Marvelous series of profiles of everyday, yet extraordinary, Chicagoans.
Anthony P. Hatch: Tinder Box: The Iroquois Theatre Disaster 1903
Riveting account of the horrific fire at Chicago's Iroquois Theatre,
which senselessly claimed roughly 600 lives.
Strong but often-dizzying series of intertwining narratives about a multitude
of Jewish oddballs in 19th century New York City and Buffalo. Another sharp
graphic novel from one of the very best.
A fine series of character sketches on mid-level players in
Nice old (1946) collection of Lardner's novellas, short stories and
miscellanea, including his signature piece "You Know Me Al." Great
humor with sharp insights into the human condition. (Out of print.)
Warm, lovingly written collection of stories about immigrants in
Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood in the late 1960s.
Fascinating novel of 17th Century
After all these years, still the greatest novel I've ever read.
Wonderful career-spanning collection of writings by arguably America's
greatest journalist. [Excerpt] [Excerpt]
Golding's classic story of adolescent survivalists and the dark side of
human nature. [Excerpt]
Brief, crisply-written novel of the doomed marriage of biblical tyrant
Herod and the self-sacrificing Mariamne. [Excerpt]
Very fine comic novel, from the author of Catch-22, in which an aging
author struggles to come up with one last, great novel.
Very fine Chicago-based literary journal, with contributions by Joe Meno, Leelila Strogov
and others, plus an interview with Glen David Gold.
Darkly comic and deeply insightful novel about the end of the known
world, and the rejuvenation of the human race from a tiny group of survivors
from a remote island. Oustanding. [Excerpt] [Excerpt]
Kafka's classic story collection, including the landmark title story,
the calmly harrowing "In The Penal Colony", the painful "The
Hunger Artist" and others.
One of the most thought-provoking books I've ever read. It will
challenge your assumptions and make you re-think your beliefs about
Azar Nafisi: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Interesting memoir of life in Tehran after the Islamic Revolution, and
the oppression of women and artists alike (of which the author is both). The
book speaks eloquently of the battle between art and ideology.
Ben Katchor: Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The
Beauty Supply District
Katchor's second Knipl collection. The extended series
which closes the book, "The Beauty Supply District", is particularly
good, though one should read the series in one sitting to catch all the
interconnections.
Very fine social history of coal which studies its monumental impact on
the development of human civilization and its terrifying impact on the
environment and the future of our planet. [Excerpt]
Barbara Ehrenreich: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America
An outstanding, eye-opener of an expose'. Ehrenreich
stealthily takes a series of low-paying jobs (Wal-Mart salesperson, waitress, cleaning
woman, nursing home aide)--the only kind of job our economy is consistently
good at creating--to see if she can survive. In short, she barely does, even
working with the strong advantage of not having a family to support at the
time. A must-read for anyone who still believes
Roy Emerson Stryker: In This Proud Land:
Excellent collection of Farm Security Administration photographs,
hand-selected by Stryker, the photo program's director and godfather. All of
America's greatest documentary photographers of the era--Walker Evans, Dorothea
Lange, Russell Lee, John Vachon--are amply
represented here, vividly illustrating a bleak and mostly forgotten decade.
Sadly, this book, published in 1973, is now out of print.
Very fine story collection from one of the masters of the craft.
2003
Very fine memoir of Stuart Brent, the legendary Chicago bookseller.
Though Brent achieved his greatest financial success at his later Michigan
Avenue store, Stuart Brent: Books and Music, I get the strong impression that
he left his heart at The Seven Stairs, his original ramshackle store on Rush
Street. At the farewell party for The Seven Stairs, Brent notes the obvious
unease of his literary friends, an unease which he clearly felt himself:
"Ben Kartman was grim, Reuel Denny seemed bewildered, and above all, the old gang:
Algren, Conroy, Parrish, Terkel, Motley, Herman Kogan...they were being charming and decent enough, but
something was out of kilter. I had never seen them more affable, but it wasn't
quite right--being affable really wasn't their line."
This novel surprised me. I had never heard of it before, having only
come across it in a three-novel compilation that I picked up for three dollars
in a used bookstore in
Warm personal memoir, as Studs turns the interviewing table around 180
degrees. A priceless anecdote:
Nothing terrible happened to
Hanson, other than a crying jag one Saturday afternoon. He had had a few. What
was the trouble? I asked him.
"My father died."
There were soft, fumbled,
solicitous murmurs and silence. My mother, passing by, reached in under the rolltop desk and withdrew a pint. She uncorked it, set it
down by the Swede and patted his shoulder.
"When did this
happen?" I asked.
"Thirty years
ago," he blubbered.
My mother, without missing a
beat, corked the bottle and replaced it in the rolltop
desk.
Fascinating blue-collar, working-class poetry which beautifully invokes
a crushing industrial landscape and the endless struggle of its denizens to
carve out decent, human lives within it.
An outstanding novel about two peripatetic friends trying to travel the
world and unburden themselves of a hefty amount of ill-gotten cash
("ill-gotten" to them, at least), with only marginal success. The
plot moves quickly but is surprisingly complex and inventive structurally. A
major fiction debut.
A monumental novel, this is the relentlessly bleak story of a simple
Lithuanian immigrant and his family who live at the mercy of
This outstanding, sprawling novel has epic qualities, and yet Dos Passos consciously avoids the Big Statement. Instead,
dozens of simple, unrelated New York City lives form, intertwine and pull apart
again, most of them ending up as unresolved as life itself. To cite just two,
Ellen Oglethorpe helplessly finds herself as a social butterfly, flitting from
engagement to engagement while never making a permanent connection, alighting
only temporarily on the life of Jimmy Herf, a
frustrated journalist already ancient at 30. The novel beautifully captures a
bygone era of
Travis Hugh Culley: The Immortal Class: Bike
Messengers and the Cult of Human Power
A remarkable short story collection, made even more remarkable by the
fact that Hemon emigrated to the
Kristina Borjesson (editor): Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free
Press
Excellent novel told from the perspective of a soldier/killer for the
fledgling
Concise, well-organized collection of Atget's
lovely documentary photographs of the commercial structures and public gardens
of
Thoroughly enjoyable, and surprisingly non-dated, compilation of Trillin's current-event poetry, originally published in The
Nation between 1990 and 1993. Trillin's barbs
repeatedly hit home, at both Republicans and Democrats alike, though the first
Bush Administration bears the brunt due to the time frame involved. Don't
worry, though--there were enough shenanigans going on during
Heller's anti-war
masterpiece is riveting, horrifying, appalling and wickedly funny. And suddenly
more relevant than ever.
This followup
to Hamsun's monumental Hunger is clearly the lesser of the two novels,
and at first I was quite put off by the over-the-top romantic bliss in which
Lieutenant Glahn wallowed. But as his relationship
with Edvarda rapidly deteriorated, the book got
funnier and more involving. Watching the societally
helpless Glahn trying to navigate polite society was
frequently uproarious, and I even began to see parallels between Glahn and the unnamed narrator of Hunger. Sometimes it even
seemed that the two could be one and the same person.
This 1934 "socialist
feminist" novel is a brilliant satire of both the arrogant detachment of
the upper class ("Don't speak to me of bravery among your lower classes. I
know nothing to compare with Emily Fancher's courage
in coming here tonight," says a society matron of the wife of a tycoon who
has the "courage" to appear at a society ball just after her husband
is sent to prison for embezzlement) and the complete impotence of leftist
intellectuals ("Our meetings are masterpieces of postponement, our
ideologies brilliant rationalizations to prevent our ever taking action.")
which had me repeatedly laughing out loud. But ultimately, the book is the sad
and poignant story of a young intellectual couple who are so wrapped up in
idealism and abstract ideas that they are afraid to simply live life.
Excellent Cold War thriller
about mind control, global intrigue and political aspirants who are
dramatically, and terrifyingly, different from what they profess to be. This
classic is unfortunately and inexplicably out of print.
H.E.F. Donohue and Nelson
Algren: Conversations with Nelson Algren
A fascinating transcript of
conversations, circa 1962-64, with my literary hero. Algren discusses his life,
his books, the literary establishment and the world at large with his usual
combination of humor, swagger and keen insight. I actually found myself arguing
with him over his stated justification for no longer writing novels.
2002
In this graphic novel, Katchor brilliantly creates an alternate-univerise
Studs Terkel:
Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a
Faith
In the twilight of his own
life, the great Studs Terkel takes on his most
ambitious project yet: talking to a broad cross-section of people on their
feelings about death and the possibility of an afterlife. While some sections
are harrowing or depressing, the majority of this great book is a joyous
celebration of life. [Excerpt]
This is the worst novel I've
read in quite some time--an unsatisfying mishmash of suspense thriller and a
satire on the literary life, including most of the worst cliches
of both. At one point, the narrative reads "The situation might have
seemed absurd, like something out of a Restoration farce..." which is an
unintentionally apt description of the book as a whole. The book became
progressively difficult to read, but I was intent on finishing it, just for the
lessons learned that I could apply to my own writing. DON'T make your plot
hopelessly contrived. DO make your setting as realistic as possible. DO make
your protagonist at least slightly likeable.
Jack Conroy and Curt Johnson
(editors): Writers in Revolt: The Anvil Anthology
The Anvil was a proletarian literary
journal of the 1930's and early 1940's. This anthology cuts a broad
cross-section across its numerous contributors, and yet is remarkably coherent
in theme. Again and again, these short stories deal with common people
scuffling their way through the Depression and its immediate aftermath.
Heavy-handed at times, as is to be expected with this genre, but always
compassionate. I bought this primarily for Nelson Algren's pieces, but like any
good anthology, it introduced me to several other writers whom I knew nothing
about (Martin Savela, H.H. Lewis, and Joseph Kalar, just to name three) that I now want to explore
further.
Reading a
"classic" for the first time is usually a disappointment, as the
result often falls far short of the buildup. But The Grapes of Wrath was
everything I hoped it would be, and far more. An absolutely monumental work of
fiction -- an unforgettable epic about the human spirit, unconditional
generosity and the pursuit of dreams. [Excerpt]
This brief novel really
packs a wallop, conveying more meaning and emotion than most books four times
its length. Two parallel stories about a woman living two parallel worlds: one
as a liberal 60's idealist working in the belly of the beast as a Wall Street
speechwriter, and the other as a wife struggling with a beloved husband
stricken with Alzheimer's. The novel rarely has the two worlds intersect, which
is how the protagonist wanted her life ordered. She hates everything about Wall
Street, but she still finds solace there, in that the job gives her something
to focus on, something other than the husband who is inexorably slipping away.
James Agee and Walker Evans:
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Robert Reid and Larry Viskochil (editors):
Jonathon Raban:
Passage to
Raban takes a solo sailboat
journey from
Galen Rowell: Poles Apart:
Parallel Visions of the
A purported classic of the literary
noir, this one really didn't have the bang I was expecting. Maybe the book was
too long. Maybe it the two anti-climaxes occurring after the story had appeared
to wrap itself up not once, but twice. Why Marlowe continued to hunt for Rusty
Regan when he wasn't getting paid to do so, and had no other personal stake in
the matter, isn't adequately explained by Marlowe's supposed respect to the
dying General's final moments. Good, but Jim Thompson did this genre much
better.
Alfred L. Brophy: Reconstructing the Dreamland: The
Robert Gordon: Can't Be
Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters
Kenn Harper: Give Me My Father's
Body: The Life of Minik, the
Carl Hiassen: Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World
Ian Frazier: The Fish's Eye:
Essays About Angling and the Outdoors
Frazier is an obsessive
outdoorsman, but not an elitist. He seems to prefers areas, such as the
This is a very involving
account of Oscar Hartzell, a wildly successful
Depression-era perpetrator of the long-established "Sir Francis Drake
Estate" scam. What amazed me was not so much the scam itself (which was
absolutely brilliant), but instead the god-like status that Hartzell's
"investors" conferred on him. "Drakism"
was practically a cult, with believers who were virtually evangelistic in
nature. Another interesting thing is that while Hartzell
was living the high life in
Olov Isaksson
& Soren Hallgren:
Bishop Hill: A Utopia on the Prairie
A very entertaining little
novel about an ordinary NYC guy who likes sitting alone in his legally-parked
car and reading the newspaper. Naturally, his fellow New Yorkers, the media and
the mayor's office all blow Tepper's pastime
completely out of proportion: other New York citizens come to him for advice,
though he doesn't really provide any; the media treats him as a front-page
human interest story, bestowing iconic status; and the mayor, a wonderfully
paranoid caricature of Rudolph Guiliani and his
quality-of-life initiatives, condemns him as a "force of disorder"
and tries, in vain, to crush him.
An uneven study of Viking
explorations in North America. At times, the narrative flows smoothly, as when Wahlgren describes Norse migration from Scandinavia to the
North Sea Islands and on to
An amusing memoir of
everyday life in Chicago, circa 1890-1910, when many of the city's now-familiar
neighborhoods still qualified as wilderness. Long out of print.
An interesting account of
yet another of Kent's bold, idealistic and ill-fated adventures, this time on a
sailing expedition to Greenland. Not surprisingly, a shipwreck is involved.
2001
The Onion: Dispatches from
the Tenth Circle: The Best of the Onion
Alex Kotlowitz:
The Other Side of the River:
Ben Hecht: A Thousand and
One Afternoons in
An excellent collection of
Hecht's Chicago Daily News columns from 1921. His essays explore the
gamut of Roaring Twenties Chicago, from flappers to financiers to broken
laborers. Even the most hopeless of his characters still maintains a quiet
dignity.
Heinz is a contemporary of
Algren's (both were highly regarded by Hemingway), and this book's themes are
vaguely reminiscent of Algren: a boxer pulls himself out of society's lower
class, gets a title shot and loses everything on one tiny, impulsive mistake.
The narrative portions of this novel are extremely well-written, but ultimately
the book bogs down from unnecessary or misplaced dialogue.
After ten pages, I already
had more enjoyment from this book than I did from 300 pages of Juneteenth. The Vonnegut comparisons are a stretch,
though. I think Griesemer was inspired by Catch-22
more than anything else.
Not so much a novel as transcribed
oratory. What little plot there is is very hard to
follow, and the characters don't converse so much as they proclaim to each
other. Ellison was an immense talent, and some of the passages here absolutely
sing. But after reading this and Kafka's The Trial, I'm swearing off any
and all posthumously-published novels. The editor admits that Ellison died
without leaving specific instructions as to how the 2000-plus pages of
manuscript should be put together, and the final result proves that, for the
most part, the editor was only guessing.
Lealan Jones and Lloyd Newman: Our
I'm pulling for these kids,
I really am. Lealan is very driven, and he'll
definitely make it. But I see Lloyd drifting, and I fear that his aimlessness
will keep him forever in the ghetto that Lealan is
escaping.
Definitely the most human of
Thompson's novels. I actually found myself cheering on the protagonist
although, Thompson being Thompson, I knew he'd come to an untimely demise.
Alan Ehrenhalt:
The Lost City: Rediscovering the Virtues of Community in 1950's
As much as Ehrenhalt claims to not be waxing nostalgic for an imagined
1950's idyll, that's exactly the case here. If you read Algren's works from
that decade, you get little sense of the city being a warm, embracing place.
Nor from Hecht's earlier writings, either.
Jim Redd:
The
As much about the
In the last fifteen years,
I've read and re-read this book numerous times, and each time I've experienced
it on a different level: physical starvation, religion, ambition, idealism,
artistic integrity, and even humor. Easily the greatest book I've ever read.
William Least Heat-Moon:
River-Horse: A Voyage Across
Like the cross-country boat
trip this book describes, getting through this book is a test of endurance. I
greatly enjoyed Heat-Moon's narrative as he journeyed through towns on the Hudson,
the Erie Canal and the Ohio, but things bog down quite a bit as he travels the
Missouri, whose valley is so wide that few towns are adjacent and the only
structures to describe are the inhumanly-scaled dams foolishly plunked down by
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Amusing, but ultimately most
essay material turns out to be little more than brain candy. This is no
exception. I can't imagine ever re-reading this stuff.
A totally unforgettable
book. A cautionary tale of misplaced, youthful idealism and its tragic
consequences.
Having received Juneteenth as a Christmas present, I thought I'd
re-read Invisible Man first. Nice idea, and the book is terrifically written,
but I only got halfway through before giving up and delving into my
ever-expanding unread pile.
This is the book that the
Chicago Chamber of Commerce didn't want the world to see. Instead of pumping up
the tourism and real estate industries with promotional-pamphlet blather,
Algren's essay presents the real history and state of