A particular partaker of elementary alleys and slum-glum crumb-bum city streets, Nelson Algren ascends into this dream in “The Man With The Golden Arm”: “‘Now look at him sleep, with all his woes,’ Louis teased him almost tenderly; and Frankie heard from a dream of falling snow. The snow fell in a soft, suspended motion, as snow does in dreams alone. He coasted without effort around and around and down a bit and then up like that kite with the broken string and came coasting, where all winds were dying, back down to the table where Fixer sat waiting. ‘I got no woes,’ he laughed among slow-falling flakes, seeing Louie smiling through the snow. ‘You got a woe, Fixer?’ he asked. ‘It’s what I been needin’—a couple good old secondhand woes.’” (Ray Pride)
Best of Chicago 2018
