by Studs Terkel
At his best, Terkel manipulates words the way his old target Mayor Richard J. Daley did people, with little elegance but much efficiency. This slender volume is illustrated by the work of five Chicago-based photographers. It revolves though around rambling commentary on the city Terkel says vacillates between an inspiring sense of community and an imposing sense of venality. ("Chicago is not the most corrupt of cities. The state of New Jersey has a couple. Need we mention Nevada? Chicago though is the Big Daddy. Not more corrupt, just more theatrical, more colorful in its snadiness.") The book is best when Terkel, the past master of popular oral history, just quotes people. One is a bag lady he asked for an opinion on the Picasso sculpture that stands on Richard J. Daley Plaza. "Oh, yeah," she said. "It's great to snuggle under at night. When it ain't too cold." In Terkel's own commentary, there's an ingratiating, populist attitude that often rings false. He reminisces about the celebration in Chicago's black community in 1938 when Joe Louis knocked out Max Schmeling. Then, as if this celebration represented a social achievement instead of a catharsis, he wonders where the black people he met that night are and writes, "I wonder what's become of us? What the hell have we done to a dream?" He does at least come back to earth on occasion. After recalling how Chicago's population was brought together by the great snowstorm that immobilized the city in 1967, he quotes columnist Mike Royko on the real significance of the event: "It gave people a chance to stay downtown overnight and get drunk." (Pantheon, $15.95)
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