Chicago students in fiction

marlowe1
Thu, 17 May 2018 12:18:09 +0000

Here’s another novel: Peter de Vries’ “The Blood of the Lamb”. It begins with a comical description of a Chicago Dutch immigrant family that includes a first-generation U of C student who has “lost his faith”. To an uncle who offers to pray for him, the wise-cracking kid sarcastically replies: “'Do dat,'said Louie, whose Chicago street diction was slowly being refined by the influences of the Midway.” There is some comical jousting between the Bible-quoting uncle and the Darwin-quoting student reminiscent of exchanges in the Scopes Trial. The uncle concludes that “it’s that damnable school where they teach you such things.” --That reminded a lot of us of a certain tension that once existed in poor families that sent a bright kid off to the godless University of Chicago.