Pete Lit: Lapham Brothers Shoe Store

« Quote | Main | "...it is not our blood that is being shed..." »

Lapham Brothers Shoe Store

Wow. From this 1880 image, Lapham Brothers looks more like the Library of Congress than a shoe store. Their selection surely would have put even DSW to shame today.

October 22, 2012 in Chicago Observations, History | Permalink

Comments

Recent Reads

Jonathan Messinger: Hiding Out
Enjoyable story collection which could have used more grit.

Matt Bell and Josh Maday: Dancing on Fly Ash: One Hundred Word Stories
Microfiction pieces that intrigue but don't quite fully connect.

Knut Hamsun: Tales of Love & Loss
Fascinating early stories from the Norwegian master.

Patrick Michael Finn: From the Darkness Right Under Our Feet
Joliet stories that hit you in the gut, and the heart.

Various Writers: Hair Lit Vol. One
Solid, fun, often touching collection of stories about hair metal songs.

Marilynne Robinson: Housekeeping
Good but not classic novel burdened by overwritten and digressive prose.

Anton Chekhov: The Duel
Priviliged but unhappy people take personal honor to its extreme.

Hans Keilson: Comedy in a Minor Key
Subtle but affecting portrait of a marriage, war and human compassion.

William Butler Yeats: The Wind Among the Reeds
Early collection of poems from the Irish master.

Samuel Beckett: Endgame
Bleak and quietly profound.

J.P. Donleavy: The Ginger Man
Loathsome protagonist, meandering narrative, overwritten prose. Mediocre.

William Trevor: Cheating at Canasta
Lovely, quiet yet powerful collection of stories about people who are lonely but often not alone.

Kurt Vonnegut: Armageddon in Retrospect
Funny, angry, incisive stories and essays about war, peace and humanity.

Elizabeth Crane: You Must Be This Happy to Enter
Mediocre collection of overly clever stories.

Edward J. Rathke: Ash Cinema
Haunting novel of grief, longing and reaching across time.

Margaret Atwood: The Penelopiad
Disappointing retelling of the classic Ulysses and Penelope myth.

Jeff Sypeck: Looking Up: Poems from the National Cathedral Gargoyles
Entertaining, lively collection of traditional poetry.

Ben Tanzer: This American Life
Funny collection of monologues and stories.

Larry Brown: Joe
Tense, biting story of family and retribution.

Mike Royko: Sez Who? Sez Me
Funny, witty, skewering collection of Royko columns from the 1970s and 80s.

Knut Hamsun: Victoria
Fine narrative of romantic tensions, slightly undone by a melodramatic and unrealistic ending.

Tarjei Vesaas: The Ice Palace
Haunting tale of childhood secrets and learning to grieve, and learning to live on.

Jason Fisk: Hank and Jules
Sobering portrait of a failing marriage, marked by frustration, heartbreak and temptation.

Kent Haruf: Where You Once Belonged
Prodigal son returns home to a hostile welcome.

Sinclair Lewis: Go East, Young Man
Fine stories with all the satirical wit and social commentary you would expect from Lewis.

Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim
Wry satire of midcentury British academia.

Nick Hornby: Juliet, Naked
Pop music and failed relationships - but still a letdown.

Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day
Lovely, quiet, dignified portrait of an English butler and a vanishing way of life.

Joe Meno: Office Girl
Deceptively light narrative that runs much deeper than it seems. Nicely done.

Richard Wright: Native Son
More polemic than novel, contrived narrative in service of the author's grand message.

Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment
Slow, ponderous, verbose, endlessly digressive. Not a classic.

Kjersti A. Skomsvold: The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am
Uneven debut novel of a lonely, lost old woman.

Matthew LeMay: XO
Good, but not completely convincing study of Elliott Smith's great album.

Ryan W. Bradley: Prize Winners
Crisp, quick and obsessed with sex.

James Joyce: The Dead
Excellent, atmospheric story of long-ago Dublin life.

Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man
Chaotic, propulsive, contemplative, visceral, devastating. Brilliant.

Michael Czyzniejewski: Chicago Stories; 40 Dramatic Fictions
Funny, imaginative, thoughtful monologues from Chicago's famous and infamous.

Tom Williams: The Mimic's Own Voice
Brilliant fictional biography of an artistic genius.

Ben Tanzer: My Father's House
Emotionally moving story of coping with grief before loss has even occurred.

William Trevor: Felicia's Journey
Lovely novel of loneliness, longing and regret, and two vivid characters whose lives briefly cross, with only one emerging unscathed.

Various Writers: Great Tales of City Dwellers
Strong 1955 short story anthology - Algren, McCullers, Wolfe...

Jane Addams: Twenty Years at Hull-House
Memoir of the first twenty years of the pioneering Chicago settlement house, by the great social reformer.

David A. Taylor: Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America
Great subject matter, less than great presentation.

Peter Orner: Esther Stories
Solid story collection of lonely lives.

Jim Thompson: Savage Night
A hitman's compelling tale and surreal fate.

Ben Katchor: The Cardboard Valise
Weird and wonderful graphic novel from the best one going.

Aharon Appelfeld: The Iron Tracks
Grim, joyless yet quietly powerful story of memory and revenge.

Sholom Aleichem: Selected Stories
Delightful tales of Eastern European Jews of a now-distant yet vivid past.

Isaac Bashevis Singer and Richard Burgin: Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer
Stimulating discussions on literature and humanity.

Bohumil Hrabal: Too Loud a Solitude
Thoughtful, philosophical, funny and tragic novel about the power of the written word. Stunning.

Alan Heathcock: Volt
Strong, sometimes brutally real collection of short stories set in small-town America.

Thomas Hardy: Jude the Obscure
Love versus marriage, happiness versus obligation, scholarship versus real life.

Jason Fisk: Salt Creek Anthology
Suburban story cycle of mostly empty lives.

Charles Dickens: Great Expectations
Fine but overlong story of ambition, resignation and redemption.

Ben Tanzer: You Can Make Him Like You
Funny, thoughtful novel of looming fatherhood.

Per Petterson: Out Stealing Horses
Quietly intense, impeccably narrated, simply beautiful.

Nelson Algren: Nonconformity: Writing on Writing
Passionate book-length essay on writing, artistic freedom and championing the downtrodden.

Sebastian Barry: The Secret Scripture
Beautiful prose doesn't quite save the structural and narrative flaws of this otherwise promising novel.

Len O'Connor: A Reporter in Sweet Chicago
Interesting memoir of the longtime Chicago journalist.

Scott Phillips: Rut
Dysfunction and corruption reign in a forlorn Colorado town.

Stona Fitch: Senseless
Tense, disturbing thriller of political extremism and one man's fight for survival.

Sinclair Lewis: Elmer Gantry
Entertaining satire of religious ambition and hypocrisy - but more of a polemic than a novel.

Austin Kleon: Newspaper Blackout
Innovative, fun collection of found poetry, all created by blacking out newspaper articles.

Jamie Iredell: Prose. Poems. A Novel
Lyrical portrait of a dissolute life, glimmering slightly at the conclusion.

Corey Mesler: The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores
Lust, murder and dark hilarity consume a fictional Arkansas town.

Mel Bosworth: Grease Stains, Kismet and Maternal Wisdom
Boy meets girl, heartbreak unexpectedly does not prevail.

George Ade: In Babel: Stories of Chicago
Wonderful collection of short stories, originally published as newspaper columns.

Ring Lardner: The Portable Ring Lardner
Terrific collection of novellas, short stories and satirical essays.

Finley Peter Dunne: Mr. Dooley Remembers
Fine collection of the final essays of the great humorist, along with twelve classic Mr. Dooley columns.

Andrew Ervin: Extraordinary Renditions
Strong, sharply-written debut about three intersecting lives in Budapest.

Studs Terkel: Working
Lively, compelling, indispensible oral history of Americans talking about their jobs.

O.E. Rölvaag: Giants in the Earth
Magnificent epic of South Dakota pioneers.

Seamus Heaney (translator): Beowulf
Modern, flowing verse interpretation of the great epic poem.

Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass
Whitman's love song to America, best enjoyed in small doses.

Stendhal: The Red and the Black
Long, plodding disappointment.

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart
Good but less than essential novel of African tribal life, tradition versus modernity.

READINGS 2001-11

Pete Lit

Literary pretendings, off-the-cuff insights and the occasional rant.

Lapham Brothers Shoe Store

Comments

About Me

Reading

Listening

Writing

More Me

My Women

Friendly Links

Distant Worthies

Web Ring

Archives by Category

Archives by Month

Search Site

Recent Reads