false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173228087m/261521.jpg 261521 4 <div>Ernest Hemingway once said of Nelson Algren's writing that "you should not read it if you cannot take a punch." The prose poem, <i>Chicago: City on the Make</i>, filled with language that swings and jabs and stuns, lives up to those words. This 50th anniversary edition is newly annotated with explanations for everything from slang to Chicagoans, famous and obscure, to what the Black Sox scandal was and why it mattered. More accessible than ever, this is, as Studs Terkel says, "the best book about Chicago." <br><br>"Algren's Chicago, a kind of American annex to Dante's inferno, is a nether world peopled by rat&#8212;faced hustlers and money&#8212;loving demons who crawl in the writer's brilliant, sordid, uncompromising and twisted imagination. . . . [This book] searches a city's heart and mind rather than its avenues and public buildings."&#8212;<i>New York Times Book Review</i><br><br>"This short, crisp, fighting creed is both a social document and a love poem, a script in which a lover explains his city's recurring ruthlessness and latent power; in which an artist recognizes that these are portents not of death, but of life."&#8212;<i>New York Herald Tribune</i><br><br>Nelson Algren (1909-1981) won the National Book Award in 1950 for The Man with the Golden Arm. His other works include Walk on the Wild Side, The Neon Wilderness, and Conversations with Nelson Algren, the last available from the University of Chicago Press. David Schmittgens teaches English at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, Illinois. Bill Savage is a lecturer at Northwestern University and coeditor of the 50th Anniversary Critical Edition of The Man with the Golden Arm. <br></div> 1787038 1951 Chicago: City on the Make: 50th Anniversary Edition, Newly Annotated total:156|5:63|4:55|3:31|2:6|1:1| 156 641 236 32 3 1 false false Mon Dec 03 07:31:36 -0800 2007 Fri Mar 21 12:19:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Sep 04 19:08:29 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 04 19:52:42 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 19:13:57 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 19:23:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun May 17 21:11:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 19:40:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2000 Sat May 23 20:32:17 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 20:47:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 08:15:31 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 11:00:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Sun Jan 11 13:13:57 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 13:54:30 -0800 2009 5 1 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 19:43:58 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 19:45:22 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Aug 03 14:11:44 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 03 14:31:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Mar 09 16:49:08 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 16:49:44 -0700 2009 5 0 true false Mon Nov 19 11:16:36 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 09 07:07:37 -0800 2009 a zillion
(I also reread this whenever my love-hate relationship with...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 09 14:39:19 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 07:58:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Apr 03 13:32:08 -0700 2007 Tue Apr 03 13:38:34 -0700 2007
Note: my five-star rating pertains to the story/prose poem itself, not the afterword, ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Fri May 23 15:39:01 -0700 2008 Thu Nov 13 14:58:10 -0800 2008 don't remember 5 0 false false Fri Sep 19 15:59:30 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 19 16:04:57 -0700 2008 On the Road" and pick up "The Man With the Golden Arm" or "A Walk on the Wild Side" ]]> 4 0 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Mar 07 19:18:51 -0800 2007 Wed Mar 07 19:21:46 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Thu Nov 13 16:20:14 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 13 16:23:03 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Fri Jan 04 08:16:31 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 15:46:01 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 1999 Thu Sep 06 20:46:37 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 20:47:59 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Sun Apr 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 22 14:32:40 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 27 14:44:09 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=261521