January 15, 2016
A nameless college graduate arrives in Chicago at the end of a 1970s summer. In his 15 months there, he grows in maturity and becomes a "storycatcher," a writer of empathy, insight, and passion. In a magical north-side apartment house near Lake Michigan owned by a quiet Greek heiress and maintained by a reclusive Navy retiree, the young man finds a home and neighbors who become friends. There's a librettist, a cricket fanatic, a Scots-born tailor who lives with a detective, and an elderly fellow with a foolproof method for betting on horse races. Every soul strides onto the page vivid and distinct, each drawn with clearsighted, open-hearted emotion. Most important, there's Edward, a dog "of uncertain heritage." Appearing in the narrative seamlessly and with humanlike emotions, thoughts, and behaviors reflected rather than declared, Edward is both dog and metaphor, with a silent wisdom and integrity that keep Doyle's novel from turning into a Mitch Albom feel-good fantasy. Each morning the young man rides the 5 a.m. Sound Asleep Bus driven by kindly and philosophical Donald B. Morris to a Catholic publication. There he reports for an editor straight off The Front Page. In this perhaps roman a clef, the young man mulls over the mores of street basketball and categorizes the blues as he follows gut-churning electric guitars into obscure Lincoln Avenue bars, cheers the White Sox, aids the apartment house owner's financial rescue, and, with Edward, tours odd corners and alleys of Chicago. Page follows page of evocative writing as Doyle celebrates "the shopkeepers and cops and nuns and bus drivers and carpenters and teachers who composed the small vibrant villages that collectively were the real Chicago." The quiet introspection and cleareyed focus on a vibrant and powerful American city makes Doyle's (Martin Marten, 2015, etc.) paean to Chicago a literary jewel.
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Starred review from February 15, 2016
Newly graduated from college, a young man takes a magazine job in Chicago and moves from the Northeast to the Midwest. Pursuing a dream, he takes an apartment right on Lake Michigan in the north of the city and for over a year explores Chicago and its people with an insatiable curiosity and an open heart. His boss at the magazine, the driver of the bus he frequents, and the gang members he plays basketball with all impart to him a greater understanding of life, but his greatest friendships are made even closer to home. In his own building he finds a common interest with neighboring sports fans during a great White Sox year and also nurtures a deeper connection with the genuine and honest superintendent and his mysterious but insightful dog. This heartfelt collection of vignettes is woven together by the narrator's earnest love of life and people and his desire to grow in his surroundings. Through the lens of one man's first foray into adulthood, Doyle (Martin Marten, 2015) pens a moving ode to the city of Chicago and the singular nature of its people. A warm and entertaining journey of discovery with occasional amazing quirks.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)
October 15, 2015
Luminous and sensitively rendered accounts of the interface between humans and nature, Doyle's Mink River, The Plover, and Martin Marten are among my favorite novels, and they're loved by folks in the Pacific Northwest as well; all three featured on the Pacific Northwest Book Association's best sellers list. In a departure, here Doyle follows a young college graduate to Chicago, where he acquires his first girlfriend and meets intriguing souls from gangsters and policemen to a talkative bus driver and a charming dog.
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