A Walk on the Wild Side

‘Nelson Algren may be the funniest man around. Which is another way of saying that he may be the most serious… As with all good poets, the guy is a prophet.’

STUDS TERKEL

‘A book that at root, proves America has always been a third world country.’

The Crack

‘Awesome … one of the original urban jungle anthropologists to come back with reports of another America.’

Beat Scene

‘Algren is an artist whose sympathy is as large as Victor Hugo’s, an artist who ranks, with this novel, among our best American authors.’

Chicago Sun Times

‘The finest American novel published since the war.’

Washington Post (for The Man with the Golden Arm)

‘Looks back to Dickens and forward to Hubert Selby Jr and Irvine Welsh.’

Sunday Herald (for The Man with the Golden Arm)

‘This is a man writing and you should not read it if you cannot take a punch… Mr Algren can hit with both hands and move around and he will kill you if you are not awfully careful… Mr Algren, boy, you are good.’

ERNEST HEMINGWAY