The novel also offers quieter moments of emotional fullness. Short bursts of lovely prose skim across the surface of his world, breaking up long sections of dialogue that sometimes read lyrically. After high school, Claude matriculates to the University of Missouri’s prestigious journalism program, an experience that comprises the novel’s second half.īump’s fiction moves at a rapid clip. Claude’s life unfurls episodically, featuring a rich cast of characters - a high school football phenom named Chester Dexter who dates Janice - or the leader of the black nationalist “Redbelters” named Big Columbus. We follow Claude through his childhood and adolescence on the South Side as he comes to terms with his parents’ abandonment, struggles to relate to his emotionally volatile brother, and falls in love with a quirky girl at school named Janice. The narrative is narrated by Claude McKay Love, whose parents abandon him and his brother Paul to be raised by their tough-loving grandmother. His debut novel, Everywhere You Don’t Belong, captures the verve of the South Side while tangling with issues of identity and injustice in - and hope for - the black community in America. The most recent installment in this tradition comes from Gabriel Bump who grew up in the neighborhood of Hyde Park. The manhunt for Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright’s Native Son spans many of the city’s precincts. Stuart Dybek’s short stories use the south side as a backdrop. Saul Bellow called the University of Chicago his academic home for more than 30 years, and set many of his books nearby. The south side of Chicago has a rich literary history.
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