If I met you, I’m glad. I met a lot of fiction writers and liked them all (a first for me).
If I didn’t—well, next time. I liked Chicago, especially The Art Institute, the Magnificent Mile, and the Chicago Tribune building.
The streets are wider and grander than in New York. The buildings, many of them, are more interesting, more ambitious. It also still has what Manhattan tore down: an elevated train wending through the downtown avenues, neon lights, and not-so-special bars that cater to just-so folk. A lot was gone, though—there were vacant lots surrounding around my hotel, an area where Capone once had his office—but it felt like more of the past was present than in Manhattan.
It has history: countless labor riots; Prohibition-era gangs; police and mayoral corruption; Chicago ’68. It feels like a city once inhabited by giants.
But the cold! The wind! Never going to move there.
Ever.
