Criticism > Short Story Criticism > Algren, Nelson - Kirkus Reviews (review date 1995)
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),...
[The entire page is 251 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
- Introduction
- Principal Works
-
Criticism
- John Woodburn (review date 1947)
- Catherine Meredith Brown (review date 1947)
- George Bluestone (essay date 1957)
- Maxwell Geismar (essay date 1958)
- Haskel Frankel (review date 1963)
- R. W. Lid (essay date 1966)
- Daniel R. Silkowski (essay date 1971)
- James R. Frakes (review date 1973)
- Saul Maloff (review date 1974)
- Commonweal (review date 1947)
- R. W. Lid (essay date 1975)
- Martha Heasley Cox and Wayne Chatterton (essay date 1975)
- Tom Carson (essay date 1986)
- Kirkus Reviews (review date 1995)
- Albert E. Wilhelm (review date 1995)
- Bettina Drew (essay date 1995)
- Further Reading
- Copyright
