Customer Reviews

The Wagon and Other Stories from the City (Chicago Visions and Revisions)

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

 

 

Just finished reading "The Wagon" by Chicago Police Officer Martin Preib. It is indeed an unusual book. Most definitely a memoir... not presented chronologically, but neatly dovetailed together into a most interesting life narrative.

I find his writing ebbs and wanes throughout the book, from introspective, philosophical and metaphorical to straight forward "cop story" sections that would be more typical of what one might expect from a cop on the street. A byproduct no doubt of the book being written in sections over a long time period. Never-the-less, overall, I find it to be an exceptional book, one of the few that I will re-read very shortly to gain a keener insight into his meaning, or he terms it, his "form." I have a habit of reading myself to sleep at the end of the day and this book requires a more alert, brighter mind.

It is not just another cop book. I think it is head and shoulders above that. Only 164 pages, but not what I would call a quick read. Pay attention, there's a lot to think about buried in those pages.

An earlier version of Chapter Two was previously published in the Virginia Quarterly Review in the summer of 2005. It is a good preview of the book. The link is below.

[...]

The guy who writes this is talented; however, I found myself flipping pages to get to actual stories - real life stories were far and few between. The title should have been "my ramblings on life." There are no "stories from the city" here. Found it frustrating to have to pay so much for such a misrepresented book. I would not recommend this book. After a few weeks, I must change my review to a single star. What could have been a good book somehow got lost along the way. While I respect other's views, I find it almost disconcerting how these five star reviews keep popping up for this book.

Dear Officer Preib,
I would like to commend you for your book and wanted to encourage you to continue your dream and passion of writing!
You were able to articulate many of the feelings that I share about Chicago. Born and raised; my father a Chicago Police officer, and I grew up hanging out playing softball with them all at Grant Park... only after getting married to my husband, who is a firefighter, did we move to Mount Prospect about 10 years ago. It's close enough to drive to the city every day - but it sure seems like another planet sometimes. (We live in an orderly neighborhood, on a cul-de-sac, filled with old folks obsessed with perfecting their lawns. After reading your book, I asked my husband if he missed alleys... he thought I was nuts. The missing alleys seem to remind me the most of how different our lives are now, however odd that sounds.) I clearly remember as a child being mesmerized by the sheer, overwhelming beauty of snowflakes drifting through the light of a streetlamp in a rare quiet moment along Melvina Avenue. And many summer nights walking up and down Montrose Avenue, restless, wondering about the stories of each building and person I passed. Who were these people, what are the stories of their lives? The ever present murmur of traffic from living off Montrose - comforting, yet obnoxious and intrusive at the same time. For years I took the el downtown to college and never lost the amazement of certain moments - smells, strands of music from the street musicians, the beauty of pigeons taking flight through a shaft of sunlight falling between the dirty, grimy buildings. I still feel a yearning to return to the city, however, I know that the city that I love and remember and feel called to is elusive -the neighborhoods, security and friendship we experienced as children simply does not exist anymore. On a side note, I was also a cop for a while... and I also wrote case reports using vocabulary and sentence structure that I later was told caused more than one sergeant to chuckle. Your stories are authentic and a joy to read. Thank you again for letting me wander my city, at least for a few hours, from the comfort of my home. Keep at it. God bless.

Preib writes with an authenticity few writers could bring to this task. Hands down, this is one of the best inside looks at policing you'll find. The nice bonus is that Preib is a truly gifted writer. I hope this is the first of many books from him.

I met Martin Preib casually nearly two years ago and perceived him to be quite the passionate thinker. Such an unassuming and remarkable mind... That being said, this book completely blew my expectations away. Preib patiently takes his time in depicting the real midwest in this semi-memoir piece. Yet it is also an important read for police skeptics and supporters alike. Read it, and then read it again.

Martin Preib is a good writer, and like a lot of good writers he's a little in love with the sound of his own voice. Sadly, this almost ruins what could have been a great book about being a cop in Chicago. Mr. Preib's life story is interesting and provides valuable context for why he sees the city in the way that he does. Unfortunately, he gets carried away with his philosophizing and doesn't let his stories do the work for him. Basically, he commits a writer's greatest treason: He tells us instead of showing us.

Much of the book is composed of his musings, some of which can only be categorized as "rambling." For a book which is sold as "Stories from the City," there are precious few stories to be had.

What makes this so frustrating is that when Mr. Preib does present stories he does so in a compelling and honest fashion. This keeps you reading through the book, looking for the next one of these gems.

I think that Mr. Preib has a good -- maybe even great -- book in him. This, unfortunately, isn't it.

It was ok. I was expecting a more detail of Chicago's police work. It was his emotional feelings about life in general. Personal family problems.
Thank you.

The title of this review says it all.

A pretentious and boring example of "Look how intelligent and all literary I am".
Sold as a true story about Chicago police work and running the wagon, it's instead a rambling, drifting trip to nowhere with not much about being a cop.
The wagon makes only a brief appearance, and police work is really only mentioned in passing.
It reads like one of those short stories written by someone who's just taken a writing course and tries to cram in all the flourishes the instructor (who's a failed writer) told them about.

This one is the publishing version of being told you're getting a steak dinner and instead being fed a can of cold hash.
In short, boring, uninteresting, and pointless.

I read the first 5 pages and was hooked. Unique perspective on a unique city. Very interesting and well written! Pick it up - great book!

This is an extraordinarily well-written book. Many police-related books are written by cops/former cops who decide to try their hand at writing. This is written by a writer who became a cop. The richness and depth of the prose is rarely seen in this genre.