Young Lonigan: A Boyhood in Chicago Streets
Young Lonigan: A Boyhood in Chicago Streets,novel by James T. Farrell, published in 1932. This naturalistic study of the mind of a 15-year-old boy, utilizing a stream-of-consciousness technique, is the first part of the Studs Lonigan trilogy, which includes The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan and Judgment Day.
The son of a lower-class Catholic family, William Lonigan, nicknamed Studs, is depicted in the common experiences of a boyhood on the South Side of Chicago. He smokes secretly, plays baseball and basketball, experiments with sex, fights, swims, enjoys his first familiarity with the older toughs he admires, and participates in Jew-baiting, shoplifting, and other activities of the youthful gang. Lucy Scanlan, a girl of his own age, provides his first romantic affair; he has a comradely friendship with the tomboy Helen Shires; and shares with other boys the attentions of Iris, a 14-year-old exponent of “free love.” Other characters...
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