We fished all night

Article number 10123335

Power, compassion, brutality, the truth of its unforgettable characters these were the qualities that made KNOCK ON ANY DOOR a great American novel. Now once again Willard Motley has entered the se- cret hearts and minds of men and women to fashion a tremendous and angry book. In this novel he does for the haunted men of Chicago today what KNOCK ON ANY DOOR did for the victims of the West Madison slums. Don Lockwood longed to he a hero, dreamed of filling the place of his idol Wayne whom he had left dead on a battle- field. But he sold out instead to a dirty political machine and found himself trapped in the underworld of Chicago ward politics. This is primarily his story. But it is no less the story of Jim Norris, a leader among men, keen of eye and spirit, who was threatened by moral decadence, and of Aaron Levin, gentle and afraid, who was driven beyond the farthest edge of sanity. Through the Polish slums, the Lake Shore penthouses, the squalid back streets, the offices of cheap politicians, Willard Motley leads his company of utterly human characters. The men, tricked in politics, lost in apathy, are tortured by remembered battles. Their women seek to bring them comfort-and the reassurance of love. But they, too, live under the shadow of fear and disillusion. What is said here of the confusion and corruption of post-war America is true- and the truth is shocking. The author of KNOCK ON ANY DOOR has again re- vealed the emotional intensity and intel- lectual integrity of a major creative talent.

pp. 560, Fishing, Night, 1950s, American Literature, Willard