Slats Grobnik and Some Other Friends

by Mike Royko

book, used new age

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, History, Journalism

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Pulitzer prize columnist, Mike Royko was nationally known for his caustic sarcasm. Over his 30 year career he wrote for three leading Chicago newspapers, "The Daily News", "The Sun-Times", and "The Chicago Tribune", and was nationally syndicated.

The Polish-Ukranian son of a cab driver, Royko grew up on Chicago's southside and never left the city. At age 64, he died in Chicago of complications arising from a brain aneurysm in the spring of 1997. Royko was survived by his wife, Judy, a 9-year-old son, Sam, and 4-year-old daughter, Kate, as well as two grown children from his first marriage. His first wife, Carol, died in 1979.

Reviews

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slats Grobnik and Some Other Friends is an old (out-of-print?) collection of essays, originally published as columns in Chicago Daily News (1966-1973), by Pulitzer prize-winning writer Mike Royko.

I ate a lot of chicken nuggets while I read this book. And I read it at a super leisurely, once-a-week, sometimes-in-the-bathroom pace. It took me maybe two months, just reading a short column here and there. I don't know, it was nice! It felt like reading letters from a really funny friend, albeit a friend from another time and place.

Of course it is nice to read about Chicago mainstays like Billy Goat Tavern as they once were, so that doubles the book's charm. Most of Royko's writing is very light and fluffy, although he has his moments of incision. He's witty, but perhaps the dated lexicon of his time makes him sound almost twee.

So! If the thought of midcentury Chicago makes you feel a little warm and gooey, sentimental for maybe a place you're not really from (ahem), snatch this book right up!

[KennyO · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, yeah, it's dated but if you have a good sense of Richard J. Daley's Chicago [that's Richard pere, not Richard fils, the far, far lesser] this'll be a gem for you. It's a collection of Mike Royko's daily newspaper columns. Royko was of a time when a columnist published daily, not semiweekly. He also earned a Pulitzer Prize, demonstrating beyond doubt that the frequency of his column did not preclude high quality. He was adept at skewering (usually) and bludgeoning (often enough) Daley and his political machine. Jacob Weisberg wrote of Royko, "Reading these gems in the new posthumous selection, One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko, I found myself wondering: Why doesn't anyone write a newspaper column this good anymore?" I agree.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slats was Royko's vehicle in his Chicago Daily News column for regular skewering of the political machine. To think there were years and years when we got both Mike Royko and Studs Terkel(WFMT) 5 days a week!

[Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

✭✭✭½

[James Violand · Rating 3 out of 5]

A delightful romp through some of Royko’s humorous columns. Easy reading for a change.

[Timothy Kaylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew Mike. Worked there. The man was a genius and this is one of his best. Must read.