“The Jungle” and “The Devil in the White City” win, hands down, as the most loved two Chicago books of the candidates for mayor.
“The Jungle” was picked by three candidates, and “The Devil in the White City” was picked by four.
Great decisions both, we’d state.
Nothing beats “The Jungle,” by Upton Sinclair, as an uncover of the unbridled industrialism that fabricated this city for good and for evil, making a little club of heavy cats rich while armies of working individuals attempted to survive. On the off chance that you trust Sinclair, in excess of a couple of stockyard workers fell into the lard vats, where they lost body parts that went out into the world as Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard.
“The Devil in the White City,” by Erik Larson, strikes a cheerier note, in any event in the parts about how the brilliant Daniel H. Burnham made a standout amongst the most magnificent world’s fairs ever, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Be that as it may, the uplifting stuff is inter-spliced with the story of a psychotic serial killer, giving the book an unsettling equalization. Chicago is complicated that way.
In an Editorial Board questionnaire we sent to 18 applicants running for mayor, that was our last inquiry — name a most loved Chicago book. In particular, we asked: Other than “Boss” (since everyone says “Boss”) what’s the best book ever written about Chicago, nonfiction or fiction. There are no wrong answers, obviously, so we trust you’ll have some fun.
All the appropriate responses we got back — 14 candidates answered — were thoughtful, and they all revealed something about the applicants, which is the estimation of such an inquiry. What individuals read, or don’t read, says something.
We certainly think Lori Lightfoot, for example, should consider teaching English Lit on the side, Whether she wins this election or not. Her decision of Stuart Dybek’s short story collection, “The Coast of Chicago,” was unexpected and welcomed, and her take on the book — that Dybek “did a wonderful job painting pictures of his youth and neighborhood that are so quintessentially Chicago, but it’s also universal about young people trying to find their way” — struck us as precisely right.
La Shawn K. Portage’s remark about Alex Kotlowitz’ book about kids growing up in public housing, “There Are No Children Here,” also jumped out at us as especially well said: “We need good stories combined with hard truths.”
And we appreciated Bill Daley’s droll reaction to our guidance to pick any book aside from “Boss,” Mike Royko’s bring down of Bill’s father, Mayor Richard J. Daley. “Don’t worry,” Bill Daley wrote. “I was not planning to say ‘Boss.’ ”