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John Belushi, Walter Payton, Richard J. Daley, and Nelson Algren are some of the Chicagoans who inhabit and haunt this new collection of stories from a lauded American writer. In this first story collection since the award-winning Troublemakers, many of the stories deftly resurrect deceased Chicagoans or artifacts of Chicago pop culture, creating an impressionistic portrait of the city. Gene Siskel, impatient with the movie he’s watching, taunts Roger Ebert; Miss Betsy, the host of Romper Room, experiences her own awakening during the sexual revolution; railroad mogul George Pullman remembers his greatest triumph as he draws his last breath. Other stories tell of everyday people who must confront their own private ghosts—an accountant who falls in love with a woman who is in love with a man on death row; a boy whose fascination with movie monsters grows stronger as his mother’s pregnancy comes to term; a memoirist whose dark night of the soul leads him on a journey from which he may not return. Praised by writers as diverse as Richard Russo, Irvine Welsh, Elizabeth McCracken, T. C. Boyle, and Mitch Albom, John McNally is a voice to be savored.
Laura50
Posted July 24, 2012
Ghosts of Chicago is the best short story collection that I have ever read. The author is John McNally, a Chicagoan currently in exile at Wake Forest College where he teaches English. Each of the 17 stories show a different side of The Windy City from the viewpoint of the kind of people that you will find here. I found it humorous as I recognized characters that are exactly like people I know here in my hometown.
There are stories about local children's programming that every middle aged person watched when they were young. The Goose is one of my favorites. It took me back to one afternoon when Frazier Thomas read one of my jokes on TV and laughed like he thought it was funny. Garfield Goose was a show that every kid I knew watched and one of the show's features was to read a joke submitted by a viewer. I was popular at school for a week after that episode. Yep. Just a week. Whoever said fame is fleeting knew what they were talking about.
Stories about celebrities such as John Belushi, Walter Payton and former Mayors Daley are included as well as one about railroad tycoon George Pullman. Inside this collection you will meet characters who are in love with men on death row, who write inaccurate memoirs and a tattooed female bartender. The final story, "The Contributor's Notes," reads like the notes McNally may have written were it not for this short story.
I cannot write enough positive words about the Ghosts of Chicago. You need to experience it for yourself and you will probably thank me.
Overview
John Belushi, Walter Payton, Richard J. Daley, and Nelson Algren are some of the Chicagoans who inhabit and haunt this new collection of stories from a lauded American writer. In this first story collection since the award-winning Troublemakers, many of the stories deftly resurrect deceased Chicagoans or artifacts of Chicago pop culture, creating an impressionistic portrait of the city. Gene Siskel, impatient with the movie he’s watching, taunts Roger Ebert; Miss Betsy, the host of Romper Room, experiences ...