Books Tue Sep 01 2015

Best Chicago Novels by Neighborhood

By Adam Morgan

Last week, the New York Public Library released its list of the Best New York City Novels by Neighborhood, pairing the city's best works of fiction with the neighborhoods in which they take place, from Henry James to Teju Cole. Since Chicago's literary history is just as impressive, I thought I'd take a crack at the City of Big Shoulders' best novels, neighborhood by neighborhood, from Henry Blake Fuller to Sandra Cisneros.

Andersonville

The Middlesteins, Jami Attenberg (2012). Jewish family life, food, and one of the city's funniest novels.

The Song of the Lark, Willa Cather (1915). Named after the famous painting that hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.

Back of the Yards

The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (1906). The definitive story of the old Union Stockyards.

Bronzeville

Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Brooks (1953). Our greatest poet's only novel.

Englewood

The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson (2004). A thriller set against the backdrop of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, serial killer H. H. Holmes' hotel was located in Englewood. It's non-fiction, but written like a novel. (GB tour of historic sites.)

Garfield Park

Windy McPherson's Son, Sherwood Anderson (1916). The author of Winesburg, Ohio's first, semi-autobiographical novel.

Hyde Park

Chasing Vermeer, Blue Balliett (2004). Two neighborhood kids embark on a Goonies-style art adventure. (GB Book Club interview.)

Letting Go, Philip Roth. The great American novelist's first book, about social tensions at the University of Chicago in the 1950s.

The Great Perhaps, Joe Meno (2009). A University of Chicago professor confronts his cowardice. (GB Book Club review.)

Lakeview

The Chicago Way, Michael Harvey (2007). Hardboiled detective fiction in the present-day city (the first in Harvey's "Michael Kelley" series).

Lincoln Park

The Lazarus Project, Aleksandar Hemon (2008). A turn-of-the-century murder mystery of sorts at Webster and Hudson.

The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore, Benjamin Hale (2011). The story of a chimpanzee from the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Little Village

I Sailed with Magellan, Stuart Dybek (2003). The immigrant experience during the reign of Richard J. Daley. (GB Book Club preview.)

Peel My Love Like an Onion, Ana Castillo (2000). Flamenco dancing and Chicano life in the far west side. (GB Book Club preview.)

The Loop and Near North Side

The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger (2003). Time-traveling Henry works at the Newberry Library, dines at the Berghoff, Fine Arts Cafe, and Ed Debevic's with his wife, but they also frequent a few Lakeview haunts, like Ann Sather's and the Vic. (GB Book Club preview.)

The Pit: A Story of Chicago, Frank Norris (1903). The golden age of the Chicago Board of Trade.

O, Democracy, Kathleen Rooney (2014). Semi-autobiographical tale of Rooney's time working in Senator Dick Durbin's office in the Loop.

Years of Grace, Margaret Ayer Barnes (1930). Coming of age in the Gold Coast.

The Cliff-Dwellers, Henry Blake Fuller (1893). Downtown Chicago in the age of Daniel Burnham.

Near South Side

The Girls, Edna Ferber (1921). Three women (77, 32 and 18) working as maids on the eve of World War I.

With the Procession, Henry Blake Fuller (1894). A socialite and grocer in the old Prairie Avenue District.

Near West Side

Chicago: A Novel, Alaa al-Aswany (2007). Egyptian students at post-9/11 UIC. (GB Book Club capsule review.)

Sister Carrie, Theodore Dressier (1900). A small-town Wisconsin girl moves to Chicago at the turn of the century.

Knock on Any Door, Willard Motley (1947). An Italian immigrant turns to a life of crime (and gets the Humphrey Bogart treatment).

Pilsen

The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984). Life among Chicanos and Puerto Ricans in one of the city's most vibrant neighborhoods.

Uptown

Death in Uptown, Michael Raleigh (1991). A contemporary murder mystery, and the beginning of Raleigh's Paul Whelan series.

Washington Park

Native Son, Richard Wright (1940). The seminal novel of life on the pre-war South Side.

The Studs Lonigan Trilogy, James T. Farrell (1932-1935). A different, Irish-American take on the neighborhood.

West Rogers Park

Crossing California, Adam Langer (2005). A tale of growing up in the traditionally Jewish neighborhood on Chicago's far north side, the California in the title refers to the street, not the state. (GB Book Club discussion.)

West Town & Wicker Park

The Man with the Golden Arm, Nelson Algren (1949). One of Algren's seminal works set in and around Ukrainian Village, later turned into a Sinatra movie.

The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow (1953). Bellow's Chicago version of Huck Finn, set in Humboldt Park during and after the Great Depression.

Office Girl, Joe Meno (2012). (500) Days of Winter along Chicago Avenue in 1999. (GB Book Club review.)