Chicago Loop [Hardcover]

Paul Theroux (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 1990

Set during a hot Chicago summer this is a deeply disturbing portrait of a psychopathic killer who is murdering female victims in a particularly gruesome manner by tying them up and mauling them in a wolf-like manner.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The secret life of a successful Chicago real-estate developer who murders a woman he meets through a personal ad is the subject of Theroux's forceful and disturbing novel.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Parker Jagoda, the central figure of this disturbing tale, is the latest in a series of Theroux characters who lead double lives. In one, he is a successful businessman with a family, flashy car, and house in the Chicago suburbs. In the other, he is a shadowy social chameleon who invents new identities hourly as he rushes to secret rendezvous with women he meets through personal ads. After he murders one of these women in a manner that leads the tabloids to dub him the "Wolfman," his two selves violently collide. Guilt forces him to face the monster beneath his slick yuppie veneer and sends him hurtling toward a fatal attempt at atonement. Mixing elements of social satire, psychological study, and thriller, Theroux presents a bleak vision of contemporary life--a world in which people divorced from nature, society, and self act out their darkest impulses. Recommended for most libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/90.
- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd (April 5, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0241129494
• ISBN-13: 978-0241129494
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,481,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Theroux's highly acclaimed novels include Blinding Light, Hotel Honolulu, My Other Life, Kowloon Tong, and The Mosquito Coast. His renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Dark Star Safari, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, and The Happy Isles of Oceania. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Better Map of Inner Landscape Than Outer, August 13, 2002

By 

Nicholas Watters "Nick Watters" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chicago Loop (Hardcover)

I have been transported by Theroux's fiction, especially his Collected Stories and My Other Life. But this book has problems. As an exploration of the anguish of a man trying to face the innate aggression of male sexuality, it sometimes succeeds. But the main character does not cohere, and his psychosis is no excuse for the author's failure. It reads as though the character had been rewritten at least twice, but was never integrated.
There are also problems with the setting. It might seem petty and provincial to quibble about details of local color, but Theroux is after all a famous travel writer. The neighborhoods and buildings depicted exist, but the businesses and people he describes would never occupy them. A Polish-American woman says she is from "Milwaukee Avenue," which would be like a New Yorker saying he came from "Third Avenue." Most unforgiveably, she puts ketchup on her sausage. This horrifying lapse makes me wonder whether he visited Chicago at all, or just referred at a map.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Over the top but highly readable, July 2, 2008

By 

James Manheim (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chicago Loop (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

Seeing the highly positive and negative reviews here I have to offer a mixed opinion. This is definitely on the very dark side, and at times it seems so disconnected from reality that you have to ask what the point is. But it's beautifully written, and if you're the type who doesn't ask that fiction be hunky-dory it's quite readable. I took it on vacation, which may seem perverse, but it's a page-turner in its way. It features what may be the kinkiest marriage in the history of literature. The book is a period piece from the late 1980s with effective use of icons of that time such as Robert Mapplethorpe's photography.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark, October 5, 2003

By 

frk040 (NYNY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chicago Loop (Paperback)

Having read Chicago Loop a few years ago, I felt compelled to offer my 2 cents due to the overly negative reviews posted here. It is a very good book by a great author, dealing with sexual desires and thoughts that some might find disturbing. I get the idea that this is what the author intended, and the hellish ride through the main character's psyche as he descends into the depths of despair and depravity is a hell of a good read.