Algren, Nelson | Commonweal (review date 1947)

Commonweal (review date 1947)

SOURCE: A review of The Last Carousel, in Commonweal, Vol. XCIX, No. 18, February 8, 1974, pp. 467-69.

[In the following excerpt, the critic praises the short stories in The Last Carousel and discusses the similarities between Algren's fiction and nonfiction.]

Nelson Algren hasn't written any novels for going on 20 years now—which is sad in a way. But it's not like he's been exactly idle in the years between: The Last Carousel is the third collection of short pieces he has published since his last novel. Unlike the other two (Who Lost an American? and Notes from a Sea Diary), this one contains a lot of short fiction. There is a sad-funny section on whore-house life that had been cut from A Walk on the Wild Side, titled "The House of the Hundred Grassfires." And there are a good-sized handful of short stories that have appeared over the years in...

[The entire page is 541 words long]

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