Synopses & Reviews
In these frank and often devastating conversations Nelson Algren reveals himself with all the gruff humor, deflating insight, honesty, and critical brilliance that marked his career. Prodded by H. E. F. Donohue, Algren discusses everything from his childhood to his compulsion to write to his relationship with Simone de Beauvoir. The result is a masterful portrait of a rebel and a major American writer.
About the Author
H.E.F. Donohue is also the author of
The Higher Animals.
Nelson Algren (1909-1981) won the National Book Award in 1950 for The Man with the Golden Arm. His works include Walk on the Wild Side, The Neon Wilderness, and Chicago: City on the Make, the last published by the University of Chicago Press.
Table of Contents
Foreword- About Nelson Algren
PART I: FROM THE GRANDFATHERS
1. The Child
2. The Young Man
3. The Army and the Writing
PART II: ALGREN VS. HOLLYWOOD
4. The Con Within the Con
5. A Question of Innocence
PART III: THE INNOCENT ABROAD
6. The Far East
7. Paris and Friends
PART IV: CONTROVERSIES
8. Where Is the American Radical?
9. Liberties, Civil and Otherwise
PART V: REPRISE AT FIFTY-FIVE
10. The Open Society
11. Writers and Writing
12. The Writer at Fifty-five
NOTES
About the Book