[Below, Wilhelm comments favorably on The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren.]

Best known for his tales of urban slums, Algren also wrote eloquently about the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. He first experienced this region in 1932 as a wandering college graduate who could find no job. Surrounded by desperation and casual violence, Algren produced semi-autobiographical stories like "So Help Me," which dramatizes brutal exploitation. Set apart by his Jewishness, Algren also observed and recorded episodes of racism and discrimination. After stealing a typewriter, Algren spent several weeks in jail, and this experience provided impetus for his pervasive theme of the individual oppressed by corrupt authority. Later works in this collection [The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren], like "The Last Carousel," provide more detached and bemused treatments of Algren's Texas experiences. Spanning more than four decades, these 12 stories display nicely the evolution of Algren's style.