Audio only
Length10h 16m
About this audiobook
As rock and roll novelist Tom Carson writes in his introduction, “The Neon Wilderness is the pivotal book of Nelson Algren’s career—the one which bid a subdued but determined farewell to everything that had earlier made him no more than just another good writer, and inaugurated the idiosyncratic, bedeviled, cantankerously poetic sensibility that would see him ranked among the few literary originals of his times.”
Algren’s classic 1947 short story collection is the pure vein Algren would mine for all his subsequent novels and stories. The stories in this collection are literary triumphs that “don’t fade away.”
Among the stories included here are “A Bottle of Milk for Mother,” about a Chicago youth being cornered for a murder, and “The Face on the Barrome Floor,” in which a legless man pummels another man nearly to death—the seeds that would grow into the novel Never Come Morning. Algren’s World War II stories whose final expression would be in the novel The Man with the Golden Arm are also part of this collection. “So Help Me,” Algren’s first published work, is here. Other stories include, “The Captain Has Bad Dreams,” in which Algren first introduced the character of the blameless captain who feels such a heavy burden of guilt and wonders why the criminal offenders he sees seem to feel no guilt at all. And then there is “Design for Departure,” in which a young woman drifting into hooking and addiction sees her own dreaminess outlasting her hopes.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.2 (1K)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, LibraryThing, StoryGraph
GenreGeneral Fiction
Length10 hrs 16 mins
Narrated byRichard Poe, Richard Ferrone, Ramiz Monsef
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJan 11, 2020
LanguageEnglish
More from Nelson Algren
Entrapment, and Other WritingsNelson Algren9h 33m4.0 (54)$20 · $0.00
A Walk on the Wild SideNelson Algren10h 42m4.0 (1.8K)$20
Algren at Sea, Centennial Edition, 1909–2009Nelson Algren17h 14m4.2 (115)$25 · $0.00
The Last CarouselNelson Algren19h 2m4.0 (110)$30 · $0.00
Never Come MorningNelson Algren10h 31m4.2 (718)$21
The Man with the Golden ArmNelson Algren14h 26m4.0 (4K)$25
NonconformityNelson Algren2h 54m4.4 (275)$20 · $0.00
Somebody in BootsNelson Algren11h 57m4.0 (151)$23 · $0.00
The Devil’s StockingNelson Algren9h 36m$20 · $0.00
Nelson Algren Reading from The Man with the Golden ArmNelson Algren17m$2
Great American Authors Read from Their Works, Vol. 2Nelson Algren, Bernard Malamud, John Updike, James Jones1h 15m$15
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett11h 23m4.5 (189.9K)$29 · $0.00
Glen AffricKarine Giebel22h 51m4.5 (3.2K)$46 · $0.00
The Book Of NegroesLawrence Hill15h 45m4.5 (107.3K)$33 · $0.00
Lieutenant Hornblower (Annotated)C. S. Forester11h 41m4.5 (2.9K)$2 · $0.00
You may also like
The Man with the Golden ArmNelson Algren14h 26m4.0 (4K)$25
South of No NorthCharles Bukowski6h 1m4.1 (14.5K)$24 · $0.00
Complete Novels of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Unabridged) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoyevsky225h 57m4.6 (2.9K)$1.99 · $0.00
The Complete Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Novels, Short Stories and Autobiographical WritingsFyodor Dostoyevsky270h 59m4.7 (2.5K)$2 · $0.00
Crime and punishmentFYODOR DOSTOEVSKY22h 23m4.4 (1.3M)$3.50 · $0.00
ScorpionsWalter Dean Myers5h 22m3.9 (5K)$24 · $0.00
Dog FoodRaynesha Pittman5h 25m4.4 (2K)$20
CRIME AND PUNISHMENTFyodor Dostoevsky24h 15m4.4 (1.2M)$1 · $0.00
MoreGünday, Hakan12h 1m4.1 (4.7K)Free
BrightonMichael Harvey8h 28m3.8 (4.4K)$26 · $0.00
Maggie A Girl of the StreetsStephen Crane2h 41m3.6 (16.7K)$2.30
Hot Water MusicCharles Bukowski5h 53m4.0 (19.1K)$24 · $0.00
PimpIceberg Slim11h 16m4.1 (27.2K)$21
Ghetto BastardK’wan7h 37m4.6 (2.9K)$20
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoyevsky20h 57m4.4 (1.2M)$18 · $0.00
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky21h 47m4.4 (1.2M)$13 · $0.00
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoevsky24h 25m4.5 (15.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
Lullabies for Little CriminalsHeather O'Neill9h 2m4.1 (37.7K)$29 · $0.00
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky21h 8m4.4 (1.2M) · 3815Free
Coldhearted & CrazyMs. Michel Moore5h 25m4.2 (1.3K)$20