Ferdinando Scianna/Magnum Photos This week in The New York Times Book Review, Rachel Shteir reviews three new books about Chicago, told from personal and historical perspectives. About one of the books â€" “The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream,†by Thomas Dyja â€" Ms. Shteir writes:
Some of this is familiar, but Dyja zooms in on the qualities Chicagoans value and does it better than anyone else I’ve read: informality; the desire to be “regularâ€; the conviction among artists that “the process was as important as the product.†These attributes created hospitable conditions for such distinctive genres as Modernist architecture, storefront theater, improv comedy, poetry slams, oral history (perfected by the city patron saint Studs Terkel) and outsider art, even as they alienated writers and artists interested in more than functionality and social reform.
On this week’s podcast, Ms. Shteir talks about the Windy City; Meg Wolitzer discusses her new novel, “The Interestingsâ€; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.
