A coming-of-age story set in Chicago, from the beloved author of Mink River.
Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, and the author of twenty books of essays, fiction, poems, and nonfiction, among them the novels Mink River, The Plover, and Martin Marten. Honors for his work include the American Academy of Arts & Letters Award in Literature. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Praise for Chicago "In this gorgeous novel, the protagonist is the
setting. Although it's full of interesting characters and
surprising events, and the narrative is spun with great skill, the
true spell it casts on the reader is the spell of atmosphere, its
portrait of a time and place so complete that this becomes reading
experience that feels like a life experience--the details are that
vivid, and the immersion that complete. Chicago is memorable,
original, and full of passionate exploration."
--Laura Kasischke, National Book Critics Circle Award winner for
Space, In Chains Page follows page of evocative writing as Doyle
celebrates the shopkeepers and cops and nuns and bus drivers and
carpenters and teachers who composed the small vibrant villages
that collectively were the real Chicago. The quiet introspection
and cleareyed focus on a vibrant and powerful American city makes
Doyle's paean to Chicago a literary jewel.
--Kirkus Reviews This heartfelt collection of vignettes is woven
together by the narrator's earnest love of life and people and his
desire to grow in his surroundings. Through the lens of one man's
first foray into adulthood, Doyle pens a moving ode to the city of
Chicago and the singular nature of its people. A warm and
entertaining journey of discovery with occasional amazing
quirks.
--Booklist (starred review) Doyle's charming tale of a young man's
brief residency in this 'rough and burly city in the middle of
America.' --Chicago Reader A lyrical coming of age story. ... While
Doyle's reputation as a gentle storyteller precedes him - I've
encountered his essays online - I wasn't prepared for the sheer
musicality of his prose, which is positively Fitzgeraldian.
--Arkansas Democrat-Gazette As its title suggests, Chicago's
foremost subject is the city itself, and the book is very much a
paean to Chicago.
--Paste Magazine "This coming-of-age novel follows a young grad
student who moves to the city and meets a wide cast of colorful
characters during his five-season stay. Described as 'a love letter
to Chicago, ' Doyle's novel takes us back to a Chicago of years ago
that feels both foreign and familiar."
--Chicago Tribune "Brian Doyle's Chicago, despite breaking all the
rules in the fictionist's handbook, works. It is certainly the best
book I've read this year."
--Washington Independent Review of Books Praise for Brian Doyle
Doyle is a born storyteller. --Seattle Times Brian Doyle writes
with Melville's humor, Whitman's ecstasy, and Faulkner's run-on
sentences. --Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See
Brian Doyle's writing is driven by his passion for the human,
touchable, daily life, and equally for the untouchable mystery of
all else. --Mary Oliver, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Brian Doyle
has a fine quick mind alert for anomaly and quirk--none of them
beyond his agile pen. --Peter Matthiessen, National Book
Award-winning author of Shadow Country "Doyle's sleights of hand,
word, and reality burr up off the page the way bits of heather burr
out of a handmade Irish sweater yet the same sweater is stained
indigenous orange by a thousand Netarts Bay salmonberries." --David
James Duncan, author of The Brothers K and The River Why
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