Literary Chicago - Jesse Ball, 'The Way Through Doors'

(via Calumet 412)

"Her fame grew. Her drawings sat upon walls of the Metropolitan Museum, of the MoMA, of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Modern, the Musee d'Orsay, the National Gallery, the Museo Nactional del Prado, the Smithsonian."

Considering Mr. Ball teaches at this school, this feels a bit obligatory. But for a surreal tale that keeps settings and timelines and much else vague, it's nice to see this little bit thrown in here with such a prestigious crew. 

And on the different topic of coincidences: I recently read the short story 'Lush' by Bradford Morrow in the 2003 O Henry Prize Stories collection. The story is about an alcoholic couple. The woman in the couple is named Margaret. The man, James, nicknames her Margot, after one of their favorite reds, Chateau Margaux. At a restaurant in The Way Through Doors, two characters drink a bottle of wine from Chez Margot in a Tunisian restaurant. I read 'Lush' on the way to San Francisco last week, and bought Ball's novel at Alley Cat Books in the Mission. An interesting coincidence, I couldn't help but notice.

Now to find a bottle of the stuff for myself. 

Literary Chicago: Ploughshares Summer 2015

Ploughshares, the collection of fiction and poetry put out three times a year by Emerson College (of which Denis Leary is a council member of the non-profit publication), was capaciously endowed with scenes from a Literary Chicago. Four stories mentioned this city, and at least three of the authors in the collection have called Chicago home at one point or another (Osama Alomar, Jesse Ball, Rebecca Makkai, and Alex Shakar). One story mentioning Chicago in a collection isn't particularly noticeable, but seeing the name of this city in four out of eighteen stories called for some attention, even if just a coincidence. Here's how a few contemporary writers fictionalized Chicago:

"That fall, she was starting graduate school at the Art Institute of Chicago. "Chicago," I said later that night, after our date. We were in bed; we'd just had sex. "You know, I've been a Cubs fan since I could stand on first base.""

"Later, we joked that the only reason I came to Chicago was because she needed someone to carry her paintings."

- Kevin A Gonzalez, Palau

"My racial color code as established by the Chicago Bank of Life is white...When I am donating to the Chicago Bank of Life, I do not think of her." 

- Fiona Maazel, Dad's Just a Number