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Unrelentingly grim story of two gritty, shitty cities: Chicago and Bucharest ca. 1980. What‘s particularly depressing is how little Chicago has changed - same old same old miserable racial politics. And yes, this is the first edition I bought when I was in high school, a bookseller at my local Waldenbooks. Love the book, though: Bellow was such a humane writer, so well-read and deeply thoughtful.