The Plan of Chicago - by Barry Pearce (Paperback)

About the Book

"An Irish painting contractor in a changing neighborhood struggles with the complications of befriending a Black worker. The edgy enclave he fled haunts a South Side exile, upending his life. A boy who helps his father fake accidents for insurance claims reaches a turning point. A woman from a rough patch of South Shore remembers her first girlfriend. And a Census taker learns empathy as she counts people. Their lives weave through colorful, gritty streets in The Plan of Chicago, Barry Pearce's absorbing debut of heartbreaking division, unexpected intersections, and dim but possible dreams"--

Book Synopsis

An Irish painting contractor in a changing neighborhood struggles with the complications of befriending a Black worker. The edgy enclave he fled haunts a South Side exile, upending his life. A boy who helps his father fake accidents for insurance claims reaches a turning point. A woman from a rough patch of South Shore remembers her first girlfriend. And a Census taker learns empathy as she counts people. Their lives weave through colorful, gritty streets in The Plan of Chicago, Barry Pearce's absorbing debut of heartbreaking division, unexpected intersections, and dim but possible dreams.

Review Quotes

"Voices from all over the map of the city's neighborhoods combine for a chorus that is singularly Chicago's. With deep empathy and granular detail, these stories take the measure of a city on the make."

-Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Pearce illuminates the soul of Chicago and the perplexities of human nature with exquisite sensitivity, authenticity, and artistry."

-Booklist, starred review

"Trenchant . . . an accomplished and assured first outing."

-Publishers Weekly

"Pearce gives us a Chicago true to its time and troubles but also to its dreams . . . ever surprising and compelling."

-Chicago Tribune

"This is Nelson Algren territory. . . . These stories are smart and precise, and persistently imbue the reader with a sense of the fragile ecosystem that impacts our quality of life."

-Chicago Review of Books

"The modern day Algren . . . direct and empathetic."

-Chicago Magazine

"The people in these stories live lives that, for the most part, unknowingly, are intertwined. These stories provide a unique, grass-roots biography of Chicago, as it is and as it's lived."

-Third Coast Review

"If there were ever a moment when the country and the world could use such a poignant collection of vignettes from neighborhoods across the city in a garden-that moment is now. . . . as well, offering a glimpse of our sanctuary city, and the humans within it, in all of their complexity."

-Newcity Lit

"Compelling and haunting . . . like Algren, Brooks, Bellow, Terkel, Cisneros, and Kotlowitz."

-Stuart Dybek, author of The Coast of Chicago

"Pearce renders contemporary Chicago in loving and brutal complexity."

-Antonya Nelson, author of Funny Once

"Beautifully crafted and carefully written, and while the book is utterly unsentimental, a deep love of place bleeds through the prose."

-Robert Boswell, author of Tumbledown

"A glorious, living map by a master storyteller."

-Alex Shakar, author of Luminarium

"Pearce captures his characters' resolute spirits while summoning the soul of their city."

-Bayo Ojikutu, author of 47th Street Black

"A tapestry . . . moments of crisis revealing the raw, unfiltered truths of who we are."

-Achy Obejas, author of Days of Awe