Prepare to laugh. Prepare to cry. In the hospital recovering from a stab wound, 15-year old Dennis Foley has far too much time on his hands. He can only stare at the ceiling tiles and study the beige painted walls for so long. Foley is forced to confront his past and examine the path that almost led to his death. Chicago's Southside neighborhoods of the 1960s and 1970s spring to life in this mem-fic (part memoir-part fiction), where Foley intertwines stories about his drunken father's escapades, alongside stories about the strange solitude he seems to enjoy during his 10-day stay in the Intensive Care Unit, where he befriends an old man dying of cancer.

The Drunkard's Son

Literature & Fiction

Dennis Foley

Literary

Side Street Press

Fiction. Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Edited by Bill Donlon and Dennis Foley. WE SPEAK CHICAGOESE features short stories, creative essays and poems about Chicago by some of the top literary voices to ever roam the Windy City's streets. And that voice—it pounds, it pulsates, it oozes with city life. From Marquette Park to Humboldt Park, from the shores of Lake Michigan to the old Chicago stadium, from flea markets to barstools, WE SPEAK CHICAGOESE gives the Chicago voice its due and then some.

We Speak Chicagoese: Stories and Poems by Chicago writers

United States

Literary Nonfiction. Women's Studies. "These are the moments I want to tell, to write, the ones that leave me a little raw, that hold love and memory and pain and suffering and survival."—Patricia Ann McNair, from "We Are All Just Stupid People" Dancing to the jukebox in dark taverns; saying goodbye to her father on the last morning of his life; having sex in the backseat of a car at a drive-in movie; drinking scotch in a nightclub in Havana, Cuba, and coffee in Paris; making up stories on the run; flirting with boys on summer nights on a Chicago beach; finding the perfect sentence; gathering the entirety of her recently deceased brother's things in two plastic garbage bags—these are just a few of the raw and loving moments that Patricia Ann McNair shares in her essays and riffs. This is how things become true, she tells us in a piece about her father s FBI file... with each retelling... AND THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES are the stories McNair tells and retells. At turns funny and heartbreaking, these brief pieces are full of truth and not just her own, but ours as well. "Short story writer McNair (The Temple of Air, 2011) proves to be an irresistible personal essayist of refreshing candor, vibrant openheartedness, rueful humor, and unassuming wisdom. In the title piece, which opens this companionable, down-to-earth collection, young McNair joins her beloved father at Sullivan's, his favorite tavern, bugging him for coins for the jukebox and dancing happily by herself. Enthralled by music, hubbub, and motion, McNair remains adventurous and omnivorously curious. Swinging backward and forward in time, she vividly chronicles such indelible experiences as spending her seventeenth summer as a volunteer at a dental clinic in Honduras, how she set about losing her virginity after her father died when she was 15, her bartender days, a fling in Cuba, and marriage. McNair frankly addresses sexuality and sexual abuse, the last two presidential elections, and the lives and deaths of loved ones. Throughout these vital, confiding, potent, and superbly well-crafted essays, McNair also muses on her path to becoming a writer and a writing teacher, generously sharing insights into the creative process and 'the yearning toward wonder.'"—Donna Seaman, Booklist

AND THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES: A Chicago gal riffs on death, sex, life, dancing, writing, wonder, loneliness, place, family, faith, coffee, and the FBI (among other things)

McNair, Patricia Ann

History & Criticism

Fiction. In THE BLUE CIRCUS, award-winning author Dennis Foley offers a wild romp through assorted Chicago neighborhoods, dive bars, shady political deals and more that only an insider can tell. In Foley's story, Danny Lonigan, a disbarred attorney, gets a job as a City of Chicago electrician with the help of his union boss big brother and attempts to earn an honest paycheck and stay clean. But once he befriends mob-connected city worker, Jimmy "the Hat" Scarpelli, Danny Lonigan's world will never be the same. From Roger's Park to Hegewisch, from the mayor's office to tiny Street's and San yard lunch rooms, at times tender, often humorous, and always gritty, THE BLUE CIRCUS offers insight into the politics of the City of Big Shoulders and the Lonigan family as its members fight to survive. "Chicago speak is such a great language and in THE BLUE CIRCUS, Dennis Foley, a native Southsider, brings that language, the city itself and its rambunctious characters to life. Neighborhood streets, dive bars, and shady city deals waltz across the page, spread out like a deck of cards. But Foley holds some of the cards back and delivers them in a timely fashion, causing the reader to shake his head and marvel. This is a wonderful story about the City that Works, or doesn't work, and a family trying to push forward to survive, as only an insider can tell."--Reviewer's Bookwatch "This left-jab-and-a-solid-right-hook-to-the-jaw of a novel packs as powerful a literary punch as I've seen in years. That 'stormy, husky, brawling' city that Sandburg described is still with us, and it comes surging to life in these pages. THE BLUE CIRCUS is Southside Chicago down to the very marrow of its bones."--Jack Lynch "THE BLUE CIRCUS, which is set firmly in the gritty world of Chicago politics and crime...has a sure-footed and clear-eyed sense of this city and its unusual ways and power structures. With snappy dialog and compelling characters, it is part family saga and part mystery and wholly satisfying."--Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune "If you want to really get to know the unique characters of a unique city--read THE BLUE CIRCUS. It's based on the real Chicago that only a former city worker like Dennis Foley understands."--Bob Sirott, Chicago broadcast legend

The Blue Circus

Foley, Dennis

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Side Street Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Side Street Press

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Side Street Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Drunkard's Son

We Speak Chicagoese: Stories and Poems by Chicago writers

AND THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES: A Chicago gal riffs on death, sex, life, dancing, writing, wonder, loneliness, place, family, faith, coffee, and the FBI (among other things)

The Blue Circus