An American Summer

An American Summer

Adult nonfiction
"...The banner headline read 'Murder at a Good Address.' The
story reported on a dermotologist who was discovered bound and
brutally stabbed at his office on luxurious Michigan Avenue. I
admired the headline for its brazenness and honesty. Its subject was
one of 467 murders that year in the city, though others didn't warrant
such attention, mostly because who would want to read a feature with
the headline 'Murder at a bad address'? In Chicago, the wealthy and
the well-heeled die headline deaths and the poor and the rambling die
in silence. This is a book, I suppose, about that silence--and the
screams and howling and prayers and longing that it hides..."
If the name Alex Kotlowitz, quoted above, sounds familiar it's
because back in 2012 we read his There Are No Children Here. It was a
classic then. He'd gone where few writers would dare to tread--
Chicago's housing projects. He'd conducted hundreds of interviews and
spent much time with the subjects of the book over a period of years
to draw attention to his observation that, due to peril and privation,
kids in the projects had to grow up so fast they were denied
childhoods. He wanted people to care enough to actually do something.
With his most recent book, An American Summer: Love And Death
In Chicago, Kotlowitz takes us back to the hood. His stories, set
over a period of four months, are centered around incidents of
violence and their roots and consequences. You'll learn about:
*the grief of a mother on the first Mothers' Day after her son was
shot to death;
*the stress of a Chicago Tribune reporter covering the neighborhood on
the graveyard shift;
*the constant threats directed toward a young man, father of a toddler
who actually cooperated with police investigating a crime,
and so many more powerful and poignant stories.
Don't let the title fool you. Kotlowitz didn't just waltz in,
witness the incidents, and write and edit his manuscript. Over a
period of four years he interviewed about two hundred people "...in
their homes, at their jobs, over a meal, or, in the case of Marcelo,
over regular Sunday chess games. I attended bond hearings and trials,
hung out on street corners and on front porches, attended funerals and
vigils, visited people in prison, showed up at crime scenes, spent
time at a funeral home and in a hospital trauma unit, and on one
occassion drove from Chicago to Texas with Eddie to spend time with
his family..."
The man knows what he's talking about. Please let him enlighten
you.
On a personal note, I really enjoyed my phone conversations with my
kids and a visit from Adam and Asia. I was really happy that Eugene
got back from camp safely and refreshed. Otherwise time dragged.
Today I have a chore to wrestle with. Literally wrestle as on heavy
furniture. My reorganization of the shed involves moving two wooden
bookcases from Adam's old room out to the shed. Which I must do
myself since I don't live somewhere I have a neighbor who can lend a
hand. My husband would see no need for it. We have different ideas
for spring cleaning. For me it involves planning, comparing different
strategies to see which one would result in the most long term
efficiency, following through on my battle plan, and extensive
thinning out of stuff. His involves deep cleaning like windows and
stuff even if you have to move things back and forth. In my mind the
deep cleaning is the second step.
Great big shout outs go out to my amazing children, my dear husband,
and the best little cat in the world.
jules hathaway


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