Our choice for March is I Sailed With Magellan, by Stuart Dybek. We meet Tuesday, March 21 at 6.30PM.
Travel back to the South Side Chicago ghetto of the ’50s and ‘60s, not yet a black but then a Polish neighborhood, in Stuart Dybek’s I Sailed With Magellan, a collection of stories recounting memories of Perry Katzek. Perry the little boy croons in dives to earn whiskey for his uncle Lefty Antic (and a root beer for himself); the youth meets eccentric locals such as Chickenman; the teenager hatches a plan to raise money for a trip to Mexico by stealing and re-selling orchids. You can laugh at most of these stories, but ponder some solemn moments, too. The book rates a listing in Francine Prose’s Books You Should Read Immediately. Dybeck’s mastery of the short story genre won him the O’Henry award.
