[In the following excerpt from a review of the anthology Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters, Frankel discusses Algren's introduction to the work and the one story he contributed, "The House of the Hundred Grassfires."]

In his introduction to this anthology of 15 stories [Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters], Nelson Algren refers to the 1959 murder of a 3½-year-old Philadelphia girl. Her father wrote a letter to the citizenry which concluded with the statement: "Let no feeling of vengeance influence us. Let us rather help him who did so human a thing." Algren uses this murder and other references to evolve the point he wishes to make: "The stories that follow have the common hope that every man, no matter how lonesome nor what a monster, is deserving of understanding by us other lonesome monsters."

The plight of the lonesome monster has long engaged Mr. Algren's interest and sympathies. "The House of the Hundred Grassfires," a section of A Walk on the Wild Side and the editor-author's only contribution to the anthology aside from his introduction, is a case in point. His story of one night in the business life of a brothel offers more lonesome monsters a page than the other 14 stories combined. There are the girls and the madam, of course, a priest who is both defrocked and deranged, a nasty 6-year-old and a masochistic naval lieutenant who seeks to recreate the pleasure of the whippings he received as a child from his mammy. That Mr. Algren can create sympathy even as he builds revulsion is a reminder of his impressive talents.