To write well about Chicago is usually to write about specific blocks, buildings or ethnic enclaves. This is the DNA of Chicago literature: neighborhood as subject, neighborhood as map of the heart.
In Chicago, it's possible to turn a certain corner and forget that it's not 1973, or 1952, or 1899. Chicago literature tends to take the city's past as part of its present.
Many Chicago reading lists begin and end with the first half of the 20th century, but one could start with Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, a novel set amidst the city's rich history.
Carl Sandburg's Chicago Poems includes the famous poem 'Chicago,' which paints a portrait of the city as 'Stormy, husky, brawling, / City of the Big Shoulders,' capturing its essence.
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