Poll
We asked the experts to help us name Chicago's essential novels. Which one do you think best defines the city? Click here for the main story. |
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| None of these. My answer is in the comments box below. |
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| Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris |
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| My Sister’s Continent, Gina Frangello |
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| Hairstyles of the Damned, Joe Meno |
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| I Sailed with Magellan, Stuart Dybek |
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| 47th Street Black, Bayo Ojikutu |
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| The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros |
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| The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow |
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| Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Brooks |
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| The Man with the Golden Arm, Nelson Algren |
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| Native Son, Richard Wright |
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| The Studs Lonigan Trilogy, James T. Farrell |
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| The Jungle, Upton Sinclair |
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| Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser |
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| The Cliff-Dwellers, Henry Blake Fuller |
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Reader Comments:
The Year Diz Came to Town, by Robert Goldsborough
You forgot Stephen Elliott's HAPPY BABY, which details the contemporary seedy underside of Chicago, and--most importantly--the story of homeless/foster children left to fend for themselves in Chicago group homes.
Another book to add to your list, Nella Larsen's PASSING, written by a native who became a figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
I'm not sure how you overlooked Adam Langer's Crossing California (and its follow up, The Washington Story)--they capture West Rogers Park in the late 70s and through the 80s so perfectly. Also, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger feels like a quintessential Chicago novel to me too (especially for Chicago book lovers, with its scenes set in libraries and bookstores in the Chicago area.) I am a Chicagoan living in California, and all of these books helped me feel happily re-connected to my hometown.
Time Traveler's Wife. I think it's important to select a text that has sold a few copies.
Tough choice from a good list of great novels, but how can Willard Motley's novel, "Knock on Any Door" be excluded? And also, to a lesser extent, his follow-up novel, "Let No Man Write My Epitaph".
The Easy Hour by Leslie Stella or Crossing California by Adam Langer
The Devil in the White City
Time Traveler's Wife might have sold a few copies, but it's not very good.
Devil in the White City is creative non-fiction.
I like this list. It was full of surprises.
Time Traveler's Wife is a great book. Devil in the White City was entertaining. Some of Harry Stephen Keeler's books have great scenes around the city revealing a daily sense of place from the 1920s you don't get from a history book.