Airport, [by] Arthur Hailey. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1968. 440p.

Coordinating the operation of Lincoln International Airport on a normal day is a monumental task. On a day such as Arthur Hailey chooses for his novel, it becomes a feat bordering on the miraculous. As night falls, Lincoln International is rendered almost inoperable by a blizzard which is well into its third day. As the evening progresses, a pilot taxis his plane into a snow drift and blocks the longest runway, an irate delegation from a neighboring suburb stages an anti-noise demonstration in the lobby of the terminal, an air traffic control dispatcher panics and threatens suicide, and a distraught passenger bombs a plane in mid-flight. Add marital problems between the airport manager and his wife, and the situation becomes pandemonium. Set in Chicago, Lincoln International is a thinly disguised O'Hare Field. The storm is the blizzard of 1967, the worst in Chicago's history.

Book Review Digest, 1968, p. 551.

The Gifted, by Roswell G. Ham, Jr. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., [1952.] 215p.

Relations, marital and otherwise, are the subject of this slight novel concerning a group of wealthy Chicagoans, set in the early 1950s. Each, discontented with his lot in life is seeking change. Elise, married to a homosexual, wants a baby; Peter, unmarried, wants a wife; Ellen, married to her childhood sweetheart, wants a divorce; and Gertrude, divorced, wants to marry her childhood sweetheart. Efforts to achieve these goals result in embarrassment, degradation, and death.

Book Review Digest, 1952, p. 389.

Game Time, [by] Harvey Hanson. New York, N[ew] Y[ork:] Franklin Watts, Inc., 1975. 87p.

Skip Howard--colored as anybody can be in 1957; the best student to enter Frances E. Willard School in twenty-five years; a kid who is sarcastic and sassy and rude--struggles with life as it is and life as it is supposed to be. Chosen to represent his school in a speech contest, Skip's speech ''Why I'm Proud to be an American" is totally rewritten by his teacher to soften the harshness of truth as seen by a black. While waiting to give his speech Skip's mind wanders and he remembers being kicked out of dance class for wanting to improvise his own steps; he relives eight weeks in church camp which he terms "Just like being in the Army," and he reflects on his mixed feelings of regret, hatred, fear, and contentment after throwing a really good strawberry milkshake in the face of a white boy who greets him with "Hi, Nigger." Life for a black boy growing up in Chicago in 1957 is full of pitfalls, incongruities, and frustrations, particularly when that boy is shy with girls, afraid of the streets, and resentful of authority. But the author captures the flavor of the times and the character of the boy, which can be likened to his improvisation at the piano--"What a Friend We Have in Jesus" with a little "St. Louis Blues" thrown in--through short flashbacks marked by affectionate understatement.

Booklist, 10/1/1975, p. 326. Kirkus, 7/1/1975, p. 712. School Library Journal, 11/1975, p. 90.

In a Wild Sanctuary, by William Harrison. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1969. 320p.

During a late evening bull session, four University of Chicago students become involved in a serious discussion of suicide. They end the evening by entering into a suicide pact and drawing lots to determine the order in which they should die. A summer passes, and the four return to their studies in the fall, outwardly untroubled by their action of the previous school year, until Stoker is found dead at the base of a twelve-story apartment building. When the second of the boys follows suit, Stoker's father, suspecting foul play, returns to Chicago to confirm his suspicions and to help prevent other deaths. Suspense builds steadily as each of the characters is revealed. Clive, the instigator; sexually troubled Stoker; neurotic Adler; and Pless, brilliant and daring, each under sufficient pressure to drive him to the act of taking his own life. William Harrison demonstrates a keen awareness of the conflicts of youth and the ennui of middle-age, as he plays one against the other in a tense psychological novel guaranteed to hold the reader spellbound.

Book Review Digest, 1969, p. 568.

A Matter of Size, by Harry Homewood. Chicago: J. Philip O'Hara, Inc., [1975.] 154p.

Fred Hennessey, Chicago newspaper columnist, former Secret Service agent, and first-rank hero, is pressed into service again when Russian agents coerce a Chicago electronics manufacturer into designing and building a special mini-computer for their space program. As Hennessey probes into the case, he realizes that he is dealing not only with Russian agents, but with the Chicago crime syndicate as well, both of whom will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Kidnapping, murder, and counterespionage are sprinkled liberally throughout the novel, which is reminiscent of a James Bond extravaganza, but with less imagination and style.

A Little Night Music, by Barbara Hunt. New York [and] Toronto: Rinehart & Company, Inc., [1947.] 244p.

A Little Night Music is an amateur philosopher's delight, dealing thoughtfully with life, death, science, time, man, and assorted other topics. What may appear at first glance to be a hodgepodge of loosely connected ideas gradually assumes form as Gavin Macdowell, an aging bibliopole recently informed of his impending death, and Henry Stubbs, a nihilistic genius just returned from military duty, discuss the meaning of the world and existence. Gavin, Henry, and others who populate the novel will soon fade from memory for lack of development and substance, for they are mere vehicles through which the author presents her philosophy; but the ideas are substantial and will be remembered long after characters and plot have faded into oblivion. The scene is post-World War II Chicago.

Book Review Digest, 1947, p. 445.

Nobody's Perfect, [by] Curt Johnson. Illustration by David Dynes. Pomeroy, Ohio: Published by the Carpenter Press; Route 4, [1974.] 236p.

Two men journeying somewhat aimlessly across the United States encounter other purposeless and eccentric Americans. The reason for the trip is to finalize an agreement to publish a collection of short stories, but the two are easily distracted, and during the weeks that they spend on and off the road together they create a view of America, of the country's literati, and of the publishing industry that many may find appalling but that will fascinate an equal number of readers. A large portion of the time is spent in Chicago and Illinois.

Library Journal, 12/15/1974, p. 3183.

Mrs. Barthelme's Madness, by Susan Claudia, [pseud.] New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1976.] 281p.

Rachel Barthelme, wife of a Chicago businessman and mother of three children, is an ordinary suburban house-wife until an accident changes her life. She realizes that her marriage has turned sour and that her life is not all that it ought to be, but she can cope with the situation as long as an outward calm is maintained and no major confrontations occur. On Halloween, Rachel's car strikes a child, and Rachel runs away frightened. When the accident is reported but no injured child can be located, authorities and family turn to Rachel questioningly. As no answer is forthcoming family, friends, and even Rachel herself, begin to question her sanity. Mrs. Barthelme's Madness is a probing psychological thriller set in modern Chicago.

Kirkus, 5/15/1976, p. 607. Publishers Weekly, 5/31/1976, p. 191.

The Animal, a novel by Jack Jones. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1975. 220p.

Jo-Jo Jenkins has the size, the speed, and the skill to be a good football player, but he lacks the killer instinct necessary to become a pro. Jo-Jo has the sensitivity, the technique, and the desire to become an artist, but he lacks the spark of genius that will set him apart from the amateur. On the football field, in the studio, in his personal relationships ranging from business to love, he comes across as strictly second-rate; and a first-rate novel is difficult to develop around a second-rate hero. The setting is the Watts area of Los Angeles and modern day Chicago.

Best Sellers, 9/1975, p. 164. Kirkus, 6/1/1975, p. 623. Library Journal, 8/1975, p. 1443. Publishers Weekly, 5/26/1975, p. 53-4.

Some Came Running, by James Jones. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, [1957.] 1266p.

Dave Hirsh returns to his hometown, Parkman, Illinois, following World War II to find the town and its people virtually the same as when he left nineteen years earlier. Planning to stay only a short time, he changes his mind when he falls in love with Gwen French, an English instructor at Parkman College, who encourages him to resume the writing career he had abandoned before the war. Convinced that he is a potentially great author, Dave settles into a strenuous routine of writing, drinking, and sex (though not with Gwen), which he maintains rigorously throughout the remainder of this long novel. Jones' contemporaries have severely criticized him for the excessive number of sexual encounters which he wrote into Some Came Running, and for the poor grammar in which the book abounds. In light of today's movement toward sexual freedom, the first of these criticisms is no longer valid. However, passable grammar and good sentence structure are still in vogue.

Book Review Digest, 1958, p. 583.

The Bad-Ass Cell, A Novel by Raymond W. Jones, Jr. New York: Exposition Press, [1973.] 347p.

The offensiveness of the Rock County jail in Osage City, Illinois, is made palpably evident in this rough attempt to arouse sympathy and understanding for the jailed and an awareness of the motives and brutality of the jailers. The stories of Son-Jon, a young offender, and a variety of other unfortunates imprisoned in the same area are told in Part I. In Part II, Son-Jon, out on parole, tries unsuccessfully to go straight in Tiskilwa, Nebraska.