Book Description
Understanding Nelson Algren traces the career of a writer best known for his novels The Man with the Golden Arm and A Walk on the Wild Side. From Algrens first short stories through his final fiction, the posthumously published The Devils Stocking, Brooke Horvath surveys the literary contributions of a writer known as the voice of Americas dispossessed. Horvath offers an introduction to the life and work of the Chicagoan who wrote about the underclass in the Windy City and beyond, bringing to the fore their humanity and aspirations. He proposes that while it is appropriate to view Algrens work through the lenses of literary naturalism, disenchanted social critique, and in his later works, postmodernism, Algrens ideological concerns should not eclipse his considerable stylistic achievements, including his lyricism and humor.Examining Algrens eleven major works in the contexts of the writers life and societys changing literary tastes, Horvath sets Algrens evolution as a writer against the backdrop of Americas shifting social, political, and economic landscape. Throughout his analysis, Horvath considers the questions that plagued Algren and that reappear in his work: Why do so many Americas fail? How do they view their own failure? How do the "successful" view those at the bottom of the economic order? And to what extent do the middle and upper classes experience failure or require salvific intervention?
About the Author
BROOKE HORVATH is a professor of English at Kent State University. His recent work includes coedited volumes on William Goyen, Henry James, and Thomas Pynchon. He is also the coeditor of Line Drives: 100 Contemporary Baseball Poems.
Understanding Nelson Algren SYNOPSIS
Understanding Nelson Algren traces the career of a writer best known for his novels The Man with the Golden Arm and A Walk on the Wild Side. From Algrenᄑs first short stories through his final fiction, the posthumously published The Devilᄑs Stocking, Brooke Horvath surveys the literary contributions of a writer known as the voice of Americaᄑs dispossessed.
Horvath offers an introduction to the life and work of the Chicagoan who wrote about the underclass in the Windy City and beyond, bringing to the fore their humanity and aspirations. He proposes that while it is appropriate to view Algrenᄑs work through the lenses of literary naturalism, disenchanted social critique, and in his later works, postmodernism, Algrenᄑs ideological concerns should not eclipse his considerable stylistic achievements, including his lyricism and humor.
Examining Algrenᄑs eleven major works in the contexts of the writerᄑs life and societyᄑs changing literary tastes, Horvath sets Algrenᄑs evolution as a writer against the backdrop of Americaᄑs shifting social, political, and economic landscape. Throughout his analysis, Horvath considers the questions that plagued Algren and that reappear in his work: Why do so many Americas fail? How do they view their own failure? How do the "successful" view those at the bottom of the economic order? And to what extent do the middle and upper classes experience failure or require salvific intervention?
ACCREDITATION
BROOKE HORVATH is a professor of English at Kent State University. His recent work includes coedited volumes on William Goyen, Henry James, and Thomas Pynchon. He is also the coeditor of Line Drives: 100 Contemporary Baseball Poems.