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THE CHAIRMAN

Name: THE CHAIRMAN
Author: Mark M. Quinn
ISBN: 978-1-4392-5559-9

: A NOVEL OF BIG CITY POLITICS

by Mark M. Quinn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 13, 2009

Of special interest to native Chicagoans, but will appeal to those who don’t mind keeping a scorecard of the many players.

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Along its meandering way, this narrative details the inner workings of a longtime political machine.

Set in a fictionalized city strongly resembling Chicago, this action-packed novel reveals–and almost exults in–the municipality’s political corruption by tracing the reluctant rise of city Alderman Eamon DeValera Collins, more generally known as â€œthe Chairman.” The novel chugs through the late 20th century, fueled by personal loyalty, behind-the-scenes reciprocity and just a little old-fashioned strong-arming. The Chairman is a career pol in the eighth ward whose sobriquet derives from his powerful and lucrative position as head of the city council’s zoning committee. An old-school backroom dealmaker in a city still ruled by monolithic machine politics, he’s set for life. But when the mayor is assassinated (apparently by organized crime, though no one seems eager to investigate too closely), a young reformer unexpectedly manages to get elected as his successor. The ensuing consequences–for the chairman and the city–take more than a decade to unfold, and the novel takes frequent detours to explore the nefarious infighting, nepotism and graft that motor the machine. But without being an apologia, the book also provides ample evidence of the machine’s efficiency, resilience and service to the public. Quinn, a journalist, provides a wealth of damning detail–both of the politicians’ shenanigans and the voters’ indifference, as long as their streets are safe and the city runs smoothly. What’s most interesting and original, though, is not the down-and-dirty politicking, but the discussion of how the machine adapts to changing times. These cagey bosses modernize their methods by courting the new populations taking over their old ethnic wards–here, African-Americans, Mexicans and gentrifiers replacing the Irish and Italians, among others–and encouraging their sons and daughters to earn fancy academic credentials. However, the book’s wealth of detail and concern for verisimilitude can sometimes bog down the action as the author retraces history to introduce a new character or digresses into anecdotes which may illustrate the city’s corruption, but don’t always further the plot.

Of special interest to native Chicagoans, but will appeal to those who don’t mind keeping a scorecard of the many players.

Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4392-5559-9

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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CARRIE

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1974

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...

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Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).

All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."

Pub Date: April 8, 1974

ISBN: 0385086954

Page Count: 216

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE
by Stephen King & Peter Straub

- BOOK REVIEW
NEVER FLINCH
by Stephen King

- BOOK REVIEW
YOU LIKE IT DARKER
by Stephen King

- PERSPECTIVES
Appreciations: Carrie Turns 40

- SEEN & HEARD
Stephen King Used ‘Carrie’ Advance To Support Mom

- BOOK TO SCREEN
New ‘Carrie’ Series in the Works at Amazon

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.