Chicago Loop

By Paul Theroux

Book Overview

"Riveting...CHICAGO LOOP is an icy tale brilliantly imagined." THE BOSTON GLOBE He knifes silently through the shadows of the steamy Chicago summer night, prowling for lonely souls who need his help. The desperate come to him, answering his ads with promises of romantic evenings and possibly a future, never suspecting that they are the prey, chosen to statiate a twisted sexual desire. Parker Jagoda is also a successful businessman with a wife, a child, and a house in the suburbs--respectable, health-conscious, and polite. Nobody knows about his jagged double life, his dark, hungry obsessions. He has fooled everyone except those who gasp their last dying scream. And, of course, he has not fooled himself--which may be the only glimmer of hope left inside the darkest of hearts....

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804111618
• ISBN13: 9780804111614
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Ivy Books
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Bizarre Tour with a Lunatic In Chicago, USA.

The main character here may be the perfect "dual" personality, that we read about in psychiatric texts. A successful,handsome, fit 35 year old with a nice (slightly kinky) wife, who seems to love him, a happy 6 month old boy,BMW, House in the "Burbs, good job in real estate development. One wonders how this guy even began on his quest to Singles Scene Ads, violence, cross dressing, and general bizarre behavior. When he strolls thru a Mapplethorpe exhibit with his wife, and a friend of the "artist", he seems as normal as you or I. Granted, he has some strange "dates" in a sleazy Chicago Hotel room, but they are with his wife, after all! So you wonder how this guy gets to be so weird! Mr. Theroux pulls off this difficult task of convincing the reader that it all happens, and the reader gets a grand tour through some of the seamiest sides of Chicago, not to mention humanity itself! Another star in the vast opus of the supertalented Mr. Paul Theroux!

Dark

Having read Chicago Loop a few years ago, I felt compelled to offer my 2 cents due to the overly negative reviews posted here. It is a very good book by a great author, dealing with sexual desires and thoughts that some might find disturbing. I get the idea that this is what the author intended, and the hellish ride through the main character's psyche as he descends into the depths of despair and depravity is a hell of a good read.

a solid, easily misunderstood novel

The few negative reviews posted here can, in my opinion, be discounted. If you're looking for likeable characters or a taut crime sage, er... you picked up the book. This is as chilling an account of a psychotic's interior life as one is likely to read (it buries Ellis' similarly-themed, far less insightful "American Psycho). The protagonist, Parker, isn't simply unlikeable, he is - for a time - eerily unknowable, and the book's greatest acheivement is how it mirrors this notion in the cunning narrative tricks Theroux employs. Once Parker's soul is indeed laid bare to him and us, the descent is a harrowing one, but worth the journey.