Other books (fiction) on Chicago? I have Sister Carrie, Devil in the White City, and The Jungle. Any others?

Question

I'm looking for fictional books, but ones that are set in Chicago and/or concern Chicago's history, preferably around the 19th century. Amazon has been rather unhelpful.

Answer 1

Most of Saul Bellow's novels are set in Chicago in the 20th century; see nearly anything by Saul Bellow, especially "The Adventures of Augie March." Nelson Algren was a Chicago writer..... Scott Turow, who writes courtroom-drama novels, is a Chicago lawyer and aren't some of his books set in Chicago?...Sara Paretsky writes detective novels set in Chicago. ...I think Sandra Cisneros's novel "The House on Mango Street" is set in Chicago...If you're looking for highly readable nonfiction that will be historically illuminating, try anything/everything by Studs Terkel....By the way, "The Devil in the White City" is nonfiction.....More good nonfiction that's written in a novelistic, super-readable way includes "The Promised Land" by Nicholas Lemann, which is on Black Chicago, and anything by Tom Geoghegan especially "Which Side Are You On," which is on labor-history Chicago.... David Mamet, the playwright, is from Chicago, isn't he?... More history includes "Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and its Hinterlands" by I forget the author's name but it's a highly interesting book...There's also a nonfiction book that I have been wanting to read on the killer heat wave in Chicago in 1995 (or 1996?) that got a great review awhile back.... Anything that has to do with the development of the skyscraper, or Frank Lloyd Wright or Louis Sullivan or basically American architecture should have something about Chicago....anything about the development of the railroad should surely have stuff in it about Chicago...anything on the blues ought to have stuff in it about Chicago.... somebody help me vis-a-vis great books by African American authors set in Chicago, I am sure there are many??? Actually the Chicago Public Library has a web page that lists African American Chicago writers and some of their books, and the link is below..
I'm sure there is tons more but that's what is coming to mind right now.

Answer 2

The Five Man War by Chuck Belanger. It's pretty obscure, but the author is a Chicagoan and the setting, of course, is in Chicago. There's also Native Son by Richard Wright.

Answer 3

Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury. It's actually set in the suburbs of Chicago, but it's a great book.

Answer 4

You might like these Chicago area mysteries.

In "Murder in Wrigley Field" by Crabbe Evers,
"Dream" Weaver, ace pitcher of the Chicago Cubs, is shot dead in the tunnel leading from the field to the Cubs' clubhouse, before the start of a game. The killer vanishes, and police are baffled. The list of suspects grows as unnecessary. didn't yet know he was unsavory. aa Dream's unsavory private life is unearthed. Could the killer be one of Dream's many jilted girlfriends? A jealous boyfriend or husband (a category that includes several teammates and Cub executives)? One of the gamblers or drug suppliers who gravitated toward the pitcher? Duffy House, a retired sportswriter of the old school, is called upon by the commissioner of baseball to investigate sub rosa. With his beautiful niece, Petey, who is about to enter law school and shares her dear "Unk" 's love of baseball, unless you mean she loves baseball as much as she loves Unk. House follows trails that lead to an exciting after-innings finish in Wrigley Field. Evers uses many apt baseball metaphors, writes in hardboiled tradition (" 'Lila, it's been too long,' I said, taking her digits and feeling the current.") and employs familiar baseball names from the past, such as Cubs manager Freddie "Bonehead" Merkle.

In these mysteries by Sandra Tooley, Samantha (Sam) Casey is a Native American who can hear the dead speak and a detective sergeant in Chasen Heights, Illinois, and is featured in:
When the Dead Speak (1999)
Nothing Else Matters (2000)
Restless Spirit (2002)

Lee Driver writes about thirty-year-old, leanly handsome Chicago-area private detective Chase Dagger who employs 18-year-old, a reservation-raised shape-shifter Sara Morningsky as his assistant in "The Good Die Twice." As a sleek hawk, Sara witnesses the murder of a beautiful former model who supposedly died at sea some five years earlier. When Sara and Chase delve into her family background, they uncover hidden agendas, rivalries, and greed. The attendant breezy sex, violence, and action, coupled with bits of Indian lore and Einstein the talking macaw, should have readers clamoring for the projected next novel.
The other books in the series are:
Full Moon-Bloody Moon (2000)
The Unseen (2004)

Answer 5

Wikipedia has an answer for everything:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fiction_set_in_Chicago

also check this out:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1893121011