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Tales Of Chicago
109 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
22 people want to read
About the author
R.A. Lafferty
541 books314 followersRaphael Aloysius Lafferty, published under the name R.A. Lafferty, was an American science fiction and fantasy writer known for his original use of language, metaphor, and narrative structure, as well as for his etymological wit. He also wrote a set of four autobiographical novels, a history book, and a number of novels that could be loosely called historical fiction.
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January 11, 2019
Tales of Chicago is facially about the youth of some sort of magical being in early 20th century middle-America. But it's layered and unfocused. Like looking at a surrealist painting. Or a magic eye, or something like that. It might be about the magus Duffy, or it might be a way of thinking about youth in general. Or it might be sort of a metaphor for the great midwestern American cities (St. Louis, Chicago) at their height.
It's the product of great erudition. You'd get a lot more out of this if you were more familiar with the Western Canon than I am (passingly, but not steeped in it like Lafferty). There's some connection to a GK Chesterton epic poem called The Ballad of the White Horse.
It's fascinating, joyful and melancholy.
The only place where I think it stumbles a bit is when it dips its toe into that sort of a sarcastic conservative scoffing at the modern world ("nothing means anything anymore!"). But that's small.
Lafferty is just a remarkable talent. I think I need to read more of his "conventional" stuff before I continue delving into the Melchisedech universe.
Also, three cheers for interlibrary loan! This book is extremely rare and goes for hundreds of dollars on eBay. The Bellingham Public Library got a copy for for me in a week from U of Pitt!
It's the product of great erudition. You'd get a lot more out of this if you were more familiar with the Western Canon than I am (passingly, but not steeped in it like Lafferty). There's some connection to a GK Chesterton epic poem called The Ballad of the White Horse.
It's fascinating, joyful and melancholy.
The only place where I think it stumbles a bit is when it dips its toe into that sort of a sarcastic conservative scoffing at the modern world ("nothing means anything anymore!"). But that's small.
Lafferty is just a remarkable talent. I think I need to read more of his "conventional" stuff before I continue delving into the Melchisedech universe.
Also, three cheers for interlibrary loan! This book is extremely rare and goes for hundreds of dollars on eBay. The Bellingham Public Library got a copy for for me in a week from U of Pitt!
Displaying 1 of 1 review