Chicago

On the last day of summer, some years ago, a young college graduate moves to Chicago and rents a small apartment on the north side of the city, by the vast and muscular lake. This is the story of the five seasons he lives there, during which he meets gangsters, gamblers, policemen, a brave and garrulous bus driver, a cricket player, a librettist, his first girlfriend, a shy apartment manager, and many other riveting souls, not to mention a wise and personable dog of indeterminate breed. A love letter to Chicago, the Great American City, and a wry account of a young man's coming-of-age during the one summer in White Sox history when they had the best outfield in baseball, Brian Doyle's Chicago is a novel that will plunge you into a city you will never forget, and may well wish to visit for the rest of your days.

About the Author :
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.

Review :
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" 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""