CSAGSI
June 10, 2000
Meeting
On June 10th, Norbert Blei discussed Chicago Neighborhoods and his book regarding the same.
Author Norbert Blei opened his talk by recalling his early youth in Little Village and his school days in Cicero. When he began to write seriously, he noted the stories about ethnic minorities that were published in Chicago newspapers. His thoughts turned to the neighborhood in Cicero and he said: "I could do that." From that start came his two best-known books of ethnic remembrances:
"Chi town"
and
"Neighborhood."
The myriad people of Cicero inhabited his writings including the locksmith, the barber, and the sweet-bread baker.
Quoting excerpts from his books he showed how the memories of his childhood could be used to describe and illuminate those people with whom he grew up, such as grandparents and the individuals with whom they interacted. Then quoting from his book "The Ghost of Sandburg" he showed how the same memories could once more be enhanced by the author's fantasy into the characters of a work of fiction, at every step becoming more and more exotic.
Finally, the trauma attendant to late adulthood once more brought the old neighborhood into sharp focus; the poetic aspects of his earlier life slowly faded away. The death of his father forced the disposition of the family home and its goods. The neighborhood had changed irrevocably. It was still ethnic. But it was not of his ethnicity. The neighborhood was now for him, for myself, for all of us to be kept and held only in words.
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