Amazon.com: Chicago: City on the Make: Nelson Algren: Books

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chicago, warts and all, March 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Chicago: City on the Make (Paperback)

This is the book that the Chicago Chamber of Commerce didn't want the world to see. Instead of pumping up the tourism and real estate industries with promotional-pamphlet blather, Algren's essay presents the real history and state of Chicago: the back alleys, the dispossessed, the swindlers dressed up in their Prarie Avenue finery, the kill-or-be-killed ethos of this cutthroat "trader's town." Seldom has indignation been so lyrical.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse | Permalink

Comment Comment

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous prose paean for the city by the lake, September 11, 2003

By

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Chicago: City on the Make: 50th Anniversary Edition, Newly Annotated (Paperback)

Although I have lived in Chicago for many years now, I am not a native Chicagoan, and I have to say that the attitudes and visions of Chicago that one finds in Nelson Algren's are not held by most of the people I have gotten to know well in Chicago. But, then, most of the people I know are also not native Chicagoans. The swagger, the love-hate, the cynicism, and the love and civic pride that manage to emerge despite the cynical pessimism are very definitely found in many of those I have come to know who were born and raised in the city.

Nelson Algren's Chicago was one that was more strictly American than it is today, less international, more Midwestern, more radical, less conventional. It is a Chicago that in many ways no longer exists. This can be felt in the book's narrative voice. Algren writes in a prose that sounds like Carl Sandburg drenched in Baudelaire, and the various sections of the book sound more than anything like the kind of stuff that Baudelaire would have written had he strolled the streets of Chicago rather than Paris. The prose is always unique, frequently beautiful, oftentimes stunning. There are definitely times that it will be all but impenetrable to someone not well schooled in Chicago's geography and its history. If one really wanted to get all the references and historical citations, one should consider reading Donald Miller's CITY OF THE CENTURY, which will clue one in on most of the 19th century and more obscure references.

But in a sense, being able to identify all the names and places isn't all that crucial. The heart of the book is intelligible regardless. An essential literary work about one of the world's great cities, by one of its great writers.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse | Permalink

Comment Comment

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous - but WARNING: Prose Poem, March 17, 2003

By

Alyssa Brightman (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chicago: City on the Make: 50th Anniversary Edition, Newly Annotated (Paperback)

The city of big shoulders is my home, so perhaps I am too biased to write an objective review. In my opinion, however, I think this is one of the most gorgeous pieces of literature ever written.

I saw this performed live on the rooftop of a South Michigan Ave loft as the sun set over the west side and is started to rain. The little intertwined stories and metaphors and moments of beauty make the book a read that tastes tremendous on your tongue.

THE WARNING: yes, here is is. This is a prose poem. It's not a collection of short stories or a novel. It reads quite easily, but if you are turned off by that sort of thing, skip this book. There are moments of slightly inaccessible, albeit wonderful, language and it helps to know your history..

That said, if you love Chicago as I do, you will love Algren's City on the Make...

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse | Permalink

Comment Comment

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 12 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An unflattering view of an amazing city
Algren poetically describes how he sees Chicago; as a city that was and is a home for "hustlers" looking to make an easy buck. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Neal Groothuis

4.0 out of 5 stars The Many Uses of Chicago, City on the Make:
I bought it as a critique.

I read it as a love-letter.

I will remember it as the myth we keep telling ourselves...

Published 19 months ago by J. Edgar Mihelic

5.0 out of 5 stars Used to be a Writers Town & Always been a Fighters Town
Algren breaks down Chicago in a real way. Written in 1951 the book was banned in Chicago originally, even though it's really a lovesong to the city. Read more

Published on February 16, 2009 by M. S. Sonksen

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking Back With Anger
This is a magnificent prose poem-eulogy even- by Nelson Algren to his city.
He takes you through all the characters and diverse cultures and corruptions that ingrained the... Read more

Published on December 4, 2007 by An admirer of Saul

4.0 out of 5 stars An amazing book but...
I had the pleasure of reading Chicago: City on the Make in part, on a hot summer's day sitting in the back of a moving van with the door open, using a cargo strap as a seat belt... Read more

Published on November 5, 2007 by Mark

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Algren's Strongest Piece
For a great American writer like Algren and with his love of the city, one could expect more. Perhaps this sort of loose style (it has been called a prose poem) just wasn't his... Read more

Published on January 18, 2007 by empty pockets

4.0 out of 5 stars Youdve had to been there.
Well written though this is, ...City on the Make' does require a good knowledge of Chicago's history to keep going with it and to understand the connections. Read more

Published on May 25, 2003 by S Smyth

5.0 out of 5 stars Algren saw it all...
Nelson Algren expresses a vision of a city in Chicago: City on the Make like no other New York or Los Angeles had been envisioned. Read more

Published on March 6, 2000 by Maggie

5.0 out of 5 stars A 5-Star Gem!
"Chicago: City on the Make" is the work of a first-rate poet/novelist.

Algren is "sui generis" -- one of a kind! Read more

Published on September 17, 1998 by manna22@hotmail.com

› See all 12 customer reviews...

Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.

First Sentence:
To the east were the moving waters as far as eye could follow. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Troy Street, The Hink, New York, American League, National League, New Orleans, White Sox, Comiskey Park, Joe Felso, Middle Border, The Cap

New!
Concordance | Text Stats

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!