scrow1022's review
4.0
Grateful I had an annotated copy, I would have been lost without the references, and I grew up in the area and have lived here for 20 years now. So I'd like to reread this now that I know some of the references more and can read it without breaking the flow. But a fascinating portrait of the city, one that makes me love it even more. And the language is lovely and thrilling, it would be good to read this out loud.
bobbyknndy's review
4.0
A brilliant prose poem. Algren paints a vivid and devastating portrait of mid-century Chicago. The way he uses language is unparalleled in its convoluted dirty beauty, except sometimes I feel like his effort to create a unique turn of phrase gets in the way of his storytelling. I also found it a little difficult to reconcile the Chicago that Algren knew with the one I live in now. He loves his city for its ugliness and brutality; I'd be interested in seeing how he'd describe it now, if he'd even recognize it anymore.
ezekielbyu's review
4.0
"I submit that literature is made upon any occasion that a challenge is put to the legal apparatus by conscience in touch with humanity."
--Nelson Algren, from the Afterword
--Nelson Algren, from the Afterword
esselleayy's review
3.0
Poetic and atmospheric, although easily confusing for anyone who isn't well acquainted with Chicago history.
dane_h's review
3.0
I’m skeptical of anyone who loves their hometown.
Tucson is my “city on the make,” that literal source of my life with memories, landscapes, traditions, and family that are the proudest parts of who I am. But it’s also a place that disappoints me in the way that only a hometown could. Where you grew up, is after all, by necessity, the place where you learned about human nature. Nelson Algren expresses some true crestfallen despondency toward Chicago in the way that only a person with a natal connection to a hometown could.
But Chicago is my chosen home, and this prose poem feels painful and insulting — and overly cynical — as Algren comes close to basically wishing Lake Michigan would wash the entire city away. It’s the power and beauty of his prose that makes it sting even more. The criticisms of Chicago’s graft and desperate hustling are universally acknowledged— and I’ve personally witnessed my share of the Chicago-style inferiority complex and dishonesty through my experiences in this city’s film industry. I know it’s racist and segregated, that it’s a neoliberal basin, that low-income fifth-generation citizens are getting priced out of their neighborhoods left and right, that the political machine is internationally associated with corruption, that all the talented artists keep leaving for the coasts once they’ve gotten a taste of success.
But I like this city. I have hope for it. I have to, because I choose to live here.
But again, I get it. Hometown resentment is a powerful force of nature. At the end of the day though I’ll take Sandburg’s “Chicago” over this — the sweatier, more vibrant, hopeless but proud Chicago.
“You’ll know it’s the place built out of Man’s ceaseless failure to overcome itself. Out of Man’s endless war against himself we build our successes as well as our failures. Making it the city of all cities most like Man himself—loneliest creation of all this very poor old earth.”
Tucson is my “city on the make,” that literal source of my life with memories, landscapes, traditions, and family that are the proudest parts of who I am. But it’s also a place that disappoints me in the way that only a hometown could. Where you grew up, is after all, by necessity, the place where you learned about human nature. Nelson Algren expresses some true crestfallen despondency toward Chicago in the way that only a person with a natal connection to a hometown could.
But Chicago is my chosen home, and this prose poem feels painful and insulting — and overly cynical — as Algren comes close to basically wishing Lake Michigan would wash the entire city away. It’s the power and beauty of his prose that makes it sting even more. The criticisms of Chicago’s graft and desperate hustling are universally acknowledged— and I’ve personally witnessed my share of the Chicago-style inferiority complex and dishonesty through my experiences in this city’s film industry. I know it’s racist and segregated, that it’s a neoliberal basin, that low-income fifth-generation citizens are getting priced out of their neighborhoods left and right, that the political machine is internationally associated with corruption, that all the talented artists keep leaving for the coasts once they’ve gotten a taste of success.
But I like this city. I have hope for it. I have to, because I choose to live here.
But again, I get it. Hometown resentment is a powerful force of nature. At the end of the day though I’ll take Sandburg’s “Chicago” over this — the sweatier, more vibrant, hopeless but proud Chicago.
“You’ll know it’s the place built out of Man’s ceaseless failure to overcome itself. Out of Man’s endless war against himself we build our successes as well as our failures. Making it the city of all cities most like Man himself—loneliest creation of all this very poor old earth.”
sarsar450's review
5.0
A love letter to the City of Chicago with precise prose that rocked my world. The most lasting metaphors about the city - one of vice and virtue, the hustler and the square. Algren’s textual version of Chicago warrants fear and fame, admiration and disdain. Love this complicated little book.
brookeworm_reads's review
3.0
Beautiful writing and insightful reflections. However, it is topical and an understanding of context is key to reading this work.
andydost's review
5.0
Gorgeous prose poem to a city Algren loved and hated at the same time. Requires a bit of Chicago history knowledge to get anywhere reading it though. Make sure to get a copy with footnotes or endnotes for the same reason.
kristadutt's review
4.0
Took me a bit to get in to this - but wow - great passion and great understanding of the city - it is hard to believe that this is as good now as it was then