Coming-of-age fiction in Chicago (c. 1980ish)

November 18, 2011 7:53 AM

Please help me find fiction (especially coming-of-age stories; so-called Bildungsromans, the internet tells me; I didn't pay close attention in high school and college lit classes) set in 1970s through 1980s Chicago!

I read and thoroughly enjoyed Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude and Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor, mostly set in Brooklyn and Sag Harbor/Manhattan, respectively, and both set in roughly the 1970s and 1980s, when I grew up. In these books, the protagonists are growing up during the same time I did, and the sense of time and place in these books is terrific; they both feel nostalgic to me, but they are not set in my hometown of Chicago. I have done some searching for fiction set in Chicago, and there's plenty out there, but much of it is from earlier in the 20th century (e.g., Saul Bellow's books) or even earlier still (e.g., Sister Carrie).

I've got The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and Stuart Dybek's work on my radar, but both are set a little early to hit my narrow data-criterion.

All forms of written fiction (novels, short stories, graphic novels, whatever) are welcome suggestions. Thank you!

posted by anaphoric to Writing & Language (9 answers total)

Best answer: Crossing California is the book about Jews in Rogers Park in 1979.
posted by theodolite at 8:13 AM on November 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

The first part of the Studs Lonigan trilogy would count for this, and so would Native Son by Richard Wright.
posted by OmieWise at 8:21 AM on November 18, 2011

Yeah, I was going to recommend Crossing California, so I'll just say that there's also a sequel The Washington Story, which I didn't like quite as much.
posted by craichead at 8:56 AM on November 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

I read "American Skin" a few years back and really enjoyed it.

"Alex Verdi is on the lam, fleeing from the police who have arrested his parents on drug charges and want him for questioning. Traveling to Chicago, he joins a multiracial group of anti-Nazi skinheads and embarks on an odyssey that takes him from the city's embattled streets to an Army boot camp to Northwestern's plush campus, and finally lands him amid the horrors of maximum-security prison."
posted by bdk3clash at 6:33 PM on November 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, instead of reading "Ordinary People," a very fine coming-of-age book, unfortunately (for you) set in a suburb of Detroit, you could watch the equally fine movie, conveniently relocated to Chicago's North Shore.
posted by Bron at 7:32 PM on November 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

(Aack! so embarrassed -- "Ordinary People," both the book and the movie, are set in Chicago's North Shore area. My bad. I think she had another book set in Birmingham, Mich.)
posted by Bron at 8:08 PM on November 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Say Goodnight, Gracie is a YA novel published in 1989, about a 17 year old girl who loses her best friend in an accident. It takes place in and around Chicago.
posted by katyggls at 9:18 PM on November 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you for these excellent answers! I'm disappointed in myself for not somehow previously finding Crossing California; it seems especially pertinent, as I spent a fair amount of time in Rogers Park in the late 1970s into the early 1980s visiting my bubby (or maybe you spell it bubbe). Admittedly, it was east Rogers Park (near the Jarvis stop, and then later near Devon & Sheridan), but still, I spent many years later (1992-1995) living in Rogers Park and became very familiar with a lot of the area.

All of the other books mentioned are now on my radar, too. Thank you for contributing to the to-read pile.
posted by anaphoric at 9:55 AM on November 19, 2011

Response by poster: I found a pristine hardcover copy of Crossing California in a used bookstore for $6 this weekend. w00t!
posted by anaphoric at 11:15 AM on November 29, 2011