#Review of Chicago: A Novel by Brian Doyle & #Giveaway via @StMartinsPress

“In this gorgeous novel, the protagonist is the setting. Although it’s full of interesting characters and surprising events, and the narrative is spun with great skill, the true spell it casts on the reader is the spell of atmosphere, its portrait of a time and place so complete that this becomes reading experience that feels like a life experience—the details are that vivid, and the immersion that complete. Chicago is memorable, original, and full of passionate exploration.” —Laura Kasischke, National Book Critics Circle Award winner for Space, In Chains

On the last day of summer, some years ago, a young college graduate moves to Chicago and rents a small apartment on the north side of the city, by the vast and muscular lake. This is the story of the five seasons he lives there, during which he meets gangsters, gamblers, policemen, a brave and garrulous bus driver, a cricket player, a librettist, his first girlfriend, a shy apartment manager, and many other riveting souls, not to mention a wise and personable dog of indeterminate breed.

A love letter to Chicago, the Great American City, and a wry account of a young man's coming-of-age during the one summer in White Sox history when they had the best outfield in baseball, Brian Doyle's Chicago is a novel that will plunge you into a city you will never forget, and may well wish to visit for the rest of your days.

Doyle's essays and poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, The American Scholar, Orion, Commonweal, and The Georgia Review, among other magazines and journals, and in The Times of London, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Kansas City Star, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Ottawa Citizen, and Newsday, among other newspapers. He is a book reviewer for The Oregonian and a contributing essayist to both Eureka Street magazine and The Age newspaper in Melbourne, Australia.
Doyle's essays have also been reprinted in:

* the Best American Essays anthologies of 1998, 1999, 2003, and 2005;
* in Best Spiritual Writing 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2005; and
* in Best Essays Northwest (2003);
* and in a dozen other anthologies and writing textbooks.

As for awards and honors, he has three startling children, an incomprehensible and fascinating marriage, and he was named to the 1983 Newton (Massachusetts) Men's Basketball League all-star team, and that was a really tough league.
Doyle has delivered many dozens of peculiar and muttered speeches and lectures and rants about writing and stuttering grace at a variety of venues, among them Australian Catholic University and Xavier College (both in Melbourne, Australia), Aquinas Academy (in Sydney, Australia); Washington State, Seattle Pacific, Oregon, Utah State, Concordia, and Marylhurst universities; Boston, Lewis & Clark, and Linfield colleges; the universities of Utah, Oregon, Pittsburgh, and Portland; KBOO radio (Portland), ABC and 3AW radio (Australia); the College Theology Society; National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation," and in the PBS film Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero (2002).

Doyle is a native of New York, was fitfully educated at the University of Notre Dame, and has been a magazine and newspaper journalist in Portland, Boston, and Chicago for more than twenty years. He and his family live in Portland, Oregon.

I fell in love with this book. And it made me love Chicago so much more!! I need Edward in my life, Like right now please. This book was not a fast read and I enjoyed that fact. When I had to put the book down, it was only because I had "Adult Responsibilities" (why do bills exist?). READ READ THIS BOOK!!!

"All opinions are 100% honest and my own." 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Disclaimer: Thanks to Goodreads and Amazon for the book cover, about the book, and author information. Buying via these above links allows my site to get a % of the sale at no cost to you. This money gets used to buy items for giveaways. In accordance with FTC guidelines regarding endorsements and testimonials for bloggers, I would like my readers to know that many of the books I review are provided to me for free by the publisher or author of the book in exchange for an honest review. I am in no way compensated for any reviews on this site. All donations are to help keep this site running via costs from shipping, .com charges, and other giveaways.

Comments are DELICIOUS! and now that were using this new format for comments the TOP 3 Commenters will all win bookish goodies each month! So that is just one more reason to comment!  This is open to everyone!  So get commenting!  

Don't forget to check out our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest! 

@CrossroadReview 

Posted in: 5 Stars, Giveaway, Review, Thomas Dunne Books