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A Walk on the Wild Side (Paperback)

by Nelson Algren (Author) "HE'S JUST a pore lonesome wife-left feller," the more understanding said of Fitz Linkhorn, "losin' his old lady is what crazied him..." (more)
Key Phrases: bust mine, little daddy, black mammy, Kitty Twist, Perdido Street, New Orleans (more...)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
"The intensity of his feeling, the accuracy of his thought, make me wonder if any other writer of our time has shown us more exactly the human basis of our democracy. Though Algren often defines his positive values by showing us what happens in their absence, his hell burns with passion for heaven."—The New York Times Book Review

"A Walk on the Wild Side . . . deserves to read by every Catch-22 and Cuckoo's Nest freak just so they can find out what opened the door for [these] two novels . . . It's not only that before Heller and Kesey there was Algren. It's that Algren is where they came from."—Rolling Stone

"Mr. Algren, boy, you are good."—Ernest Hemingway
-- Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"The intensity of his feeling, the accuracy of his thought, make me wonder if any other writer of our time has shown us more exactly the human basis of our democracy. Though Algren often defines his positive values by showing us what happens in their absence, his hell burns with passion for heaven."—The New York Times Book Review

"A Walk on the Wild Side . . . deserves to read by every Catch-22 and Cuckoo's Nest freak just so they can find out what opened the door for [these] two novels . . . It's not only that before Heller and Kesey there was Algren. It's that Algren is where they came from."—Rolling Stone

"Mr. Algren, boy, you are good."—Ernest Hemingway

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

Paperback: 346 pages
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 30, 1977)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0140035656
ISBN-13: 978-0140035650
Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #570,247 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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First Sentence:
"HE'S JUST a pore lonesome wife-left feller," the more understanding said of Fitz Linkhorn, "losin' his old lady is what crazied him." Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
bust mine, little daddy, black mammy

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Kitty Twist, Perdido Street, New Orleans, Dove Linkhorn, Big Stingaree, Old Dominion, Bull Durham, Fort Worth, Big Dad, New York, Country Kline, Tank Ten, Warren Gameliel, Little Luke, Lake Pontchartrain, Legless Schmidt, Natural Bug, Number One, Oliver Finnerty, Rio Grande, Watkins Man, William Makepeace Murphy, Canal Street, Coca Cola, Dockery's Dollhouse

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 11 books:

Somebody in Boots: A Novel (Classic Reprint Series) by Nelson Algren in Front Matter
Never Come Morning by Nelson Algren in Front Matter
Walk on the Wild Side by Jeanette Jones in Front Matter
Walk On! by Mel Williamson on page 345
Chicago: City on the Make: 50th Anniversary Edition, Newly Annotated by Nelson Algren in Front Matter

See all 11 books this book cites

69 books cite this book:

Understanding Nelson Algren (Understanding Contemporary American Literature) by Brooke Horvath on 32 pages
Sustaining New Orleans: Literature, Local Memory, and the Fate of a City by Barbara Eckstein on 11 pages
Conversations with Nelson Algren by H. E. F. Donohue on 9 pages
American Carnival: Seeing and Reading American Culture (Contributions to the Study of American Literature) by Philip McGowan on 9 pages
The Man with the Golden Arm: 50th anniversary critical edition by Nelson Algren on 8 pages

See all 69 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Understanding Nelson Algren by Brooke Horvath

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	83% buy the item featured on this page: A Walk on the Wild Side 4.0 out of 5 stars (11)
	8% buy Never Come Morning 4.7 out of 5 stars (9)
	4% buy The Man with the Golden Arm 4.6 out of 5 stars (21) $11.66
	2% buy Chicago: City on the Make: 50th Anniversary Edition, Newly Annotated 4.6 out of 5 stars (10) $12.75

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Neglected Classic, January 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Walk on the Wild Side (Classic Reprint Series) (Paperback)

In a perfect world, _A Walk on the Wild Side_ would be remembered as Algren's best book, and would be read in American literature classes.

Algren is a much-needed antidote to both romantics who idealize the poor and to conservatives who feel smugly superior to the lower classes but have no real sense of the difficulties they face.

Its social significance aside, _Walk_ should be read by anyone interested in literary style. Algren's narrative voice--pugnacious, amused, and quietly outraged--explains why Algren has always been read by writers, even if a larger general audience continues to escape him.

(While it is true this novel reworks material from _The Neon Wilderness_, it is put to much better use here--read _Walk_ first!)

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16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Algren's most polished work., November 10, 2000

By	S Smyth (Belfast, Co Antrim United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Walk on the Wild Side: A Novel (Paperback)

Country boy Dove Linkhorn, son of Fitz ( hell-fire preacher and cesspool cleaner ),defiler of women, smarter than he looks bum, leaves Texas for New Orleans where he fits right in for a while, with the depression-era cripples, prostitutes, pimps, flimflam artists,and prison-life.

Much of this book is a re-run of Somebody in Boots and Never Come Morning, with modifications. Unlike those books, the prose style is Algren at his most polished. Even so he overdoes it on many occasions where a simple statement would have sufficed. But redeems himself by pretty much avoiding the annoying switch in viewpoint within multiple character scenes that mar his other, otherwise excellent work.

Nelson Algren didn't write all that many books in his long career, a state of affairs that could be condensed into two titles: A Walk on the Wild Side and The Man with the Golden Arm.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant poetry in prose, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Walk on the Wild Side: A Novel (Paperback)

Having read the book a long time ago I can't describe particulars, but it remains years later my #1 favorite book of all time. If you enjoy beautifully written stories about not-so-beautiful people, this novel is a must-read. The characters are from society's underbelly, and, while Algren does not glorify them, he makes you feel great empathy for them. Besides presenting you with powerful characters, his use of words is astonishing. I can only describe Algren's language as "raw poetry." His words are poetic while the content is not (as opposed to, say, Henry Miller's language, which is powerful and raw but can't exactly be described as poetic [in my opinion, anyway]). This is simply a beautiful book most people would call you crazy for describing as beautiful.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad poetry, worse fiction
I was excited to read this, having read an Algren interview in the Paris Review wherein his off-the-cuff stories were more entertaining than most polished fiction (No, I haven't... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Bardamu

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely stunning
Nelson Algren's novel relates the adventures of Dove Linkhorn, an illiterate young man who leaves poverty and a failed love affair behind him to wander the countryside. Read more

Published 10 months ago by David Bonesteel

4.0 out of 5 stars Down Those Mean Streets with Algren
As I have mentioned in other reviews of Nelson Algren's work, such as The Man With The Golden Arm, I am personally very familiar with the social milieu that he is working. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Alfred Johnson

4.0 out of 5 stars A flawed masterpiece
You are a good person, pay your taxes, honour your parents, do an honest's days work...so nothing in common with whores, drug addicts, boot-lickers, queers, hustlers, drunkards,... Read more

Published 18 months ago by John

3.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly an uplifting read
I've read this book twice now. First in college for a literature class, and again 8 years later. Both times it depressed me. Granted, that is the book's purpose. Read more

Published on July 2, 2003 by La Chenille qui a fait des trous

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites
This book is about people who have nothing to lose, so they can afford to take chances.

It's funny, sad and provocative. Read more

Published on December 21, 2002 by Amy Decelles

5.0 out of 5 stars all-time best book
a most beautiful combination of words in the english language concerning white trash

Published on September 19, 1999

2.0 out of 5 stars A Rehash of The Neon Wilderness
On its own, this might be worth three and a half stars. The problem is that it contains too many segments lifted right out of The Neon Wilderness. Read more

Published on August 10, 1999 by David Marasco

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