Studs Lonigan

Hello kids,
As way of introduction my name is Mike. I've been a reader of this fine blog from its inception and Shuttsie was kind enough to ask me for a humble weekly contribution. So here we go.

We'll start with one of my all-time favorites, the Studs Lonigan trilogy. James Farrell (1904-1979) is one of many Chicago authors who is now all but forgotten from the modern consciousness. If this town was true to its history and its artists Farrell would be taught in every high school in the city. But his stuff can be a little tough to swallow so to not be controversial the kids get John Knowles instead.

Anyway the Lonigan books are the signature works of Farrell's career. They describe the childhood of the character Studs Lonigan, an Irish-American youth on the south side of Chicago over a 14 year period ending during the Great Depression. Studs is such a sympathetic character to me probably because he reminds me of many kids I knew growing up. Sadly he reminds me of myself as a teenager as well. Farrell has the inner monologue of messed up teenager down pat. Its also a look at a city in a much different point in its history. I agree wholeheartedly with the review posted on Amazon regarding some of books' disturbing content. However its this content that gives the books and its characters such sad authenticity. So anyway give it a look if you have any interest in Chicago social history. It is fiction, but it is set in Farrell's neighborhood and populated by characters drawn from his own childhood. If you really like it you can move on to Farrell's five "Danny O'Neil" novels, set in the same time and place but based on his own life.

The Devil in the White City

I know, I know, lots of people have read this already. In fact, (book snob alert) in December when reading this book on the train to Chicago I kind of felt self-conscious, as if the other people on the train would be thinking "Has she been reading that for a year or what, what's taking her so long?". But its a worthwhile read, the story of the 1893 World's Fair Colombian Exposition intertwined with the story of a serial killer who took advantage to the fair to find victims. In retrospect while I enjoyed both halves of book in some ways the fair was more interesting. It's almost impossible to envision the White City of the fair over the face of modern Chicago, whereas creepy serial killers are all over CourtTV. Right now, Chicago is trying to be selected to host an Olympic games and the debate parallels the debate over the fair. The book was interesting and quite well written and I'd like to read more by Erik Larson.

Killer Stuff

The author of this book, Sharon Fiffer, is a native of Kankakee, Illinois. When I lived in that area, she gave a book reading at the local YMCA and I went to get a book signed for my mother, who is a huge mystery fan. The reading was great and so is this mystery, especially if you can't get enough of flea markets and garage sales (cough). Jane Wheel, the heroine is a Kankakee native living in the Chicago suburbs working as a "picker" for an antiques dealer (going to sales to get bargains on stuff to be resold later . She borrows her neighbor's Suburban for her treks, but returns to find her dead. This book and the others in the series have lots of great garage sale scenes (I need help, I accept that), and local Kankakee color as the mystery leads her back home, to her gruff but hilarious parents and best friend Tim, a gay florist who shares her love of antiques. A fun series, especially the first two.

Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?

This book is loosely a novel, but really is more a collections of vignettes about Eddie Ryan, a kid attending an all boys Catholic high school in Chicago and his assorted friends. I think the first copy I read of this was my dad's, which makes sense as he would be a contempory of Eddie and did the all boys Catholic high school thing, albeit in the suburbs. The book takes on the lies nuns, priests, and Catholic brothers told them about the opposite sex (such as the title question) and life in general and discusses their affect on typical teenage problems such as school, dating, and their future. The book is very funny and kind of heartwarming too. It's a look at a now disappearing way of life. The Last Catholic in America about Eddie's grammar school years is also a worthwhile read.

The Time Traveler's Wife

In honor of Valentine's Day we will be featuring romances over the next week. Although The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger isn't a "genre" romance, it definatly has romance at its center. I think my co-blogger Angstrat recommended this to me, but it took me a while to get to it. Don't be the same fool I was, drop what you are doing AND GO READ THIS BOOK. Henry De Tamble has Chrono Displacement Disorder, which basically means he is an involuntary time travaler. He mostly travels within the scope of his own life, often seeing himself or interacting with himself at a different age. As an adult he begins to travel to Michigan at the time of his wife Claire's childhood, and meets her over and over as she is growing up. Thus when she meet him in "real time" when she is 19, and he is 27, she's met him dozens of times, and he's never seen her before. The book is actually less confusing than this explaination (thank God). The time travel is handled beautifully, which is hard to do (just ask the Star Trek guys) and the story has a very strong Chicago setting. I couldn't love this book more, and my dog, Henry is actually named after the hero. I just hope Niffenegger writes another full length novel soon.

The Man with the Golden Arm

This book, The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren was recommened by a guy who I worked with for three years before I learned how much he loves "gritty Chicago" stories. Growning up in Chicago (or as we say around here, "the city") he loves books set there and particularly loves this one, for the great protrayal of the dark side of city life including drugs, crime and just plain hard luck. This was aslo made into a movie staring Frank Sinatra.