Sacred City

Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., Theodore C. Van Alst

• Publisher: UNM Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN:
  9780826362872
• Print ISBN:
  9780826362865

Chicago: home to urban Indians and immigrants and working folks and the whole gamut of people getting by in a world that doesn’t care whether they do so or not. Sacred City is an incomparable follow-up to Van Alst’s award-winning debut collection, Sacred Smokes. Our young narrator now heads deeper into the heart of the city and himself, accompanied by ancestors and spirits who help him and the reader see that Chicago was, is, and always will be Indian Country. Part love song and part lament, Sacred City explores what options are available to an intelligent, smart-assed young man who was born poor and grew up in a gang. Van Alst’s skillful storytelling takes us on a journey where Chicago will never seem the same.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Credits
• 1. The Boys are Back in Town
• 2. Simon City
• 3. Unsettling
• 4. The Beach
• 5. Where’s the Sunshine?
• 6. Tecumseh at the Tower
• 7. The Lamb
• 8. By the Slice
• 9. Oracle
• 10. When Two Tribes Go to War
• 11. The Prophet at the Wooden Nickel
• 12. Pop-Off
• 13. Gyros and Gaylords
• 14. Forever Young
• 15. Coyote Drinks
• 16. Black Hawk Goes to the Zoo
• 17. Indian Wars
• 18. Gold Coin
• 19. Boy Joe
• 20. Cedar
• 21. Up Yours, Tom Wolfe
• 22. We Still Call it Maize
• 23. Test Pattern
• Afterworlds
• Acknowledgments