Algren, Nelson - Kirkus Reviews (review date 1995)

Kirkus Reviews (review date 1995)

SOURCE: A review of The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren, in Kirkus Reviews, Vol. LXIII, No. 20, October 15, 1995, p. 1457.

[Below, the critic provides a positive review of The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren.]

Usually thought of as an urban midwestern realist, Algren (1909-81) also wrote gritty, cynical accounts of rural poverty and crime set in Texas during, and as transformed by, the Depression years. The stories [in The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren] are set in tank towns and hobo jungles and jails, and comprise a virtual sociology of life on the bum (where "God help you if you run and God help you if you fight; God help you if you're broke and God help you if you're black"). The best of these pieces, chosen by editor [Bettina] Drew (Nelson Algren: A Walk on the Wild Side, 1989), include several harsh excerpts from Algren's first novel, Somebody in Boots (1934),...

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