Chicago, by David Mamet.
Pulitzer prize-winning playwright David Mamet has
produced his first novel for some considerable time. As the cover shows, it’s a story of that city
and its lawless inhabitants set in the 20’s:
‘that toddlin’ town where anything goes’, the song that Sinatra made
famous all those decades later was not exaggerating. It was a city and a time that laughed at the
law, but was seen to pay lip service – and bribes – to the various Irish ‘Upholders’
(the police and politicians) so that some
crime was kept at a manageable level.
Prohibition
was openly flouted; Speakeasies and
brothels (run by the Italians led by Al Capone) flourished, and florists and
funeral parlours did a roaring trade ‘cleaning up’ after the various gang wars,
the florists often recovering flowers at the graveside so that they could
resell them while still fresh. The ways
to make money were myriad and infinite.
The
men who reported the daily news i.e. knifings, shootings, robberies and hijacks
were of a special breed, inured to emotion and suffering, only concerned with
presenting the facts – or as much fact as they were permitted; they scorned sentiment and had total belief
in journalistic honesty – and the restorative powers of the whisky always
stowed in their desk drawer.
Such
a man is reporter Mike Hodge, a veteran of the First World War. What he saw during the fighting in France
prepared him well for Chicago’s lawlessness;
no-one could be more detached than he – until the little Irish girl he
loves is shot dead in front of his eyes by a stranger in a long foreign
overcoat. Detachment is no longer
possible and, after nearly killing himself with booze (so much for
Prohibition), he decides he will find Annie’s murderer and exact the vengeance
her killing demands.
Mr
Mamet has painted a compelling and authentic picture of Old Chicago, peopled
with fascinating characters of all stripes and a most satisfying solution to
the mystery of Annie’s killing, but I have to admit to some confusion with the
speech patterns: the coloured characters
have a dialect that suits their humble origins, while the fearless reporters of
the Herald Tribune – and some of the villains – speak a courtly, old-fashioned
English that seems wildly at odds with their everyday life. And Mr Mamet is a lover of the comma and
italics, all of which are sprinkled like confetti in the strangest places! That said, ‘Chicago’ is like ‘The
Untouchables’ - a great amalgam of humour, horror and heart. FOUR STARS.
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