The Life and Death of an American Neighborhood
Starred review from September 15, 2019
Coval (A People's History of Chicago, 2017) rhapsodizes about his hometown of Chicago in this latest poetry collection. Accompanied by Langston Allston's illustrations, this series of profiles, vignettes, and discursive rants present a time capsule of late-1990s Chicago, when Coval returned to his family's old neighborhood in Wicker Park to settle and make a life of his own. A Portrait of the Artist in the Hood expresses the poet's inner conflict about moving back: what does it mean when we appear / the children of white flight / back / again . In laments over gentrification, Coval speaks for his neighbors and a neighborhood that slowly and detrimentally changes over time. Progressive anthems spring up, hailing the rewards of difficult, service-oriented work as in "Caf� Matou," which sonorously describes each staff member and their impact on the poet's life and "Ode to the Waitress," which showers idiosyncratic compliments to all who have waited on him. Coval's poems are accessible even as the references are personal, and Allston's drawings strengthen the connection. Chicago, in all its breaking and rebuilding, is portrayed honestly here and with a touch of hope.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)