So Seedy

By Anonymous in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 17, 2005 3:28PM

Always wanted to find that special, out-of-the-way bar where everybody knows your name? Not particularly interested in good lighting, a clean floor, or the latest 'hood? Jonathan Stockton, Chicagoan and author of this quick-and-dirty guide to Chicago will read from and sign copies of his more in-depth guide Chicago's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Windy City tonight at Quimby's.

Joining him will be Kirby Gann, who tells us that, despite the bit written about him on the Quimby's event site (click on "Dive Bars and More"), he did not go to school in Chicago. We'll forgive him, though, because his new novel Our Napoleon in Rags is an interesting read. To be completely honest, when our roommate saw us reading it and asked how it was, we responded without thinking, and the response was "wordy." But then, to be fair, the back cover touts it as "nearly Victorian in its graceful storytelling," so we couldn't be too surprised. Regardless, the novel, which follows the considerable trials and pontifications of regulars in a dive bar in the "decaying heartland of America," is worth a read for its eloquently drawn characters and their meticulously articulated modern angst.

But, above all, our favorite thing about this reading is that the Quimby's blurb describes Stockton's book as a "seminal study of Chicago's seedy underworld." We're word nerds, so this makes us giggle.

Dive Bars & More
Quimby's, 7:00 Tonight
1854 W. North Ave.