The Angel Esmeralda has a DeLillo tune to it. The prose is original, succinct, even playful at times. Yet, his stories have become darker with less room for a breath of relief. The reader is left in awe at his genius, amidst an unease that only comes from DeLillo's vigilant human observations. more ›

2009 marks the 100th birthday of Nelson Algren, the quintessential Chicago author. Long before the word "hipster" had even been coined, he chronicled the bleak existence of society's misfits, living on the fringe in West Town and Wicker Park. His best known books are The Man with the Golden Arm, Chicago: City on the Make and Never Come Morning, which no less than Hemingway declared "the best book to come out of Chicago." They describe a Chicago so different from our city today that they almost read like science fiction, yet when Algren lived here he often hung out at the Rainbo Club and the Gold Star. more ›