Dybek, Stuart. Coast of Chicago. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1990.
Reason read: June is short story month.
Coast of Chicago consists of fourteen stories. I read “Blight” and “Hot Ice” for the Challenge. While every short story has well rounded and thoughtful characters, it is the city of Chicago that steals the show. It is the largest personality in every story. Everyone describes Dybek’s language as “gritty” and I couldn’t agree more.
“Blight”
Remembering Chicago in the late 50s.
“Hot Ice”
The legend of the girl frozen in a block of ice ice.
Quote I liked from “Hot Ice”: “He’d been a butcher in every meat market in the neighborhood, but drunkenly kept hacking off pieces of his hands, and finally quit to become a full-time alky” (p 126).
Author fact: It should come as no surprise that Dybek was born and raised in Chicago. He illustrates the city intimately in Coast of Chicago.
Book trivia: Coast of Chicago is comprised of fourteen stories. “Hot Ice” won first prize in the O. Henry prize story collections in 1985. “Blight” won in 1987.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Good Things Come in Small Packages” (p 102).
~*LunaSea*~ 