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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2008 > February > 01 > Entry
some hot new paperbacks
Two of my favorite books from 2007 have just been issued in paperback. CANAAN (WW Norton) by Donald McCaig is the long awaited sequel to his Civil War novel JACOB’S LADDER. This one is set during the years following the Civil War and runs up to the time of Custer’s Last Stand at the Little Big Horn. It is a sprawling good read, a western of the grand old style with bigger than life characters and action that spreads across the pages with cinematic expansiveness. I think McCaig is at the top of his game here. I interviewed him when this book came out in hardcover and he agreed, he thought this was his best writing.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw the book WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP by Michael Lesy. It was in the early ‘70’s and the book has haunted me ever since. Lesy has finally published a book that seems like a fitting bookend to that other book; MURDER CITY - The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties (WW Norton) is a chilling death trip back to a Windy City that was gripped in a kind of homicidal madness. Sure, there were lots of gangster killings in Chicago during that time but Lesy has chosen to focus on a number of other murders that took place during that period. Lesy told me in an interview that he spent a long time going through the photo archives to select the perfect shots for these narratives; mostly killers who look at the camera with doomed expressions. Some look quite insane.
Lesysifted through the newspaper archives of the time and has assembled a series of senseless crimes that once captivated readers with gruesome headlines. People were killing each other for a car or a few dollars. One guy murdered the car salesmen then took his mother for a cruise in his new ride.
Some of the murders were the acts of WWI vets returned from the killing fields of France. These were sensational and thoroughly outrageous offenses. One particularly disturbing homicide was the act of a woman. Something was really messed up about Chicago during this period and Lesy has put together a volume that is almost as haunting as WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP. Don’t read this book late at night. It may give you ghastly dreams.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: looks good on paper
Comments
By lmj
February 1, 2008 6:31 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the info. I’ll add them to my list.