Review: Impossible to stop reading this book!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 2, 2013
I bought Chicago Stories: West of Western because, well, I'm a Chicagoan and I haven't read many novels that take place in my city. Thinking that the cover was really good and the title cool, I opened the book and began reading and was astonished at the strong, remarkably original voice of the author which throughout the story did not wane. Not sure if the author has Italian roots, but she understands Chicago and its architecture and painting and Italian families and grief, and I love her line about the family's matriarch who had been enjoying "the brink of death" for a long time (my poor paraphrase, you'll have to read the book to get the full punch.) So I couldn't stop reading. It's a thriller and a mystery and a love story in its own right. The pace is fast, the characters full of flesh and blood and, I don't know, the book just spoke to me, especially Seraphy and her family, the friends she meets after she buys a building to rehab west of Western Avenue. Loved Richard and his lover, Emily and Black Jack. Some of the scenes and the dialogue were memorable, for instance, the dialogue between the main character and her mother. And I really liked the way the story began, almost as a prequel, such a great way to introduce the main character--pit her against everyone's real estate agent--and the end was a real surprise for me, didn't see it coming. But what's not to love about this book--cheaper than a latté, but delivers a much stronger punch. The sense of place was remarkable, the mood shifting from humorous to elegiac to tragic and the building Seraphy buys almost becomes another character. Sorry, can't think of anything bad to say about this book. I'm going to sit for a while in a quiet place and try to recover from the words and then buy Eileen Hamer's next one.