|
Brand new stories by: Neal Pollack,
Achy Obejas, Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski, Adam Langer, Joe
Meno, Peter Orner, Kevin Guilfoile, Bayo Ojikuto, Jeff Allen,
Luciano Guerriero, Claire Zulkey, Andrew Ervin, M.K. Meyers,
Todd Dills, C. J. Sullivan, Daniel Buckman, Amy Sayre-Roberts,
and Jim Arndorfer.
The City of Chicago has spent much
time and money over the last decade marketing itself as a
tourist-friendly place for the whole family. It's got a shiny
new Millennium Park, a spaceship in the middle of Soldier
Field, and thousands of identical faux-brick condo buildings
that seem to spring from the ground overnight. Chicago's rough-and-tumble
tough-guy reputation has been replaced by a postcard with
a lake view.
But that city's not gone. The hard-bitten
streets once represented by James Farrell and Nelson Algren
may have shifted locales, and they may be populated by different
ethnicities, but Chicago is still a place where people struggle
to survive and where, for many, crime is the only means for
their survival. The stories in Chicago Noir reclaim
that territory.
Chicago Noir is populated
by hired killers and jazzmen, drunks and dreamers, corrupt
cops and ticket scalpers and junkies. It's the Chicago that
the Department of Tourism doesn't want you to see, a place
where hard cases face their sad fates, and pay for their sins
in blood. These are stories about blocks that visitors are
afraid to walk. They tell of a Chicago beyond Oprah, Michael
Jordan, and deep-dish pizza. This isn't someone's dream of
Chicago. It's not even a nightmare. It's just the real city,
unfiltered. Chicago Noir.
Neal Pollack worked as a reporter
for the Chicago Reader from 1993-2000, where he wrote
the "Petty Crime" column, among many other assignments. He's
the author of three books of satire, including the cult classic
The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature and
the rock-n-roll novel Never Mind the Pollacks. His
short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and magazines,
and he's a regular contributor to Vanity Fair and Nerve.
|
