I wish I could give this just one more half star.

For me, this was a great Chicago novel, though not a great novel. I never felt like the little chapters added up to anything substantial enough and it began to feel rushed by the end.

But golly, it was fun to read about the city. ( )

I am not sure about this one, but I am intrigued...."....Peter Orner illuminates the countless ways that love both makes us whole and completely unravels us."

The writing style was so unusual and also somewhat difficult for me. I did not feel that I knew most of the characters well, but I was interested in them and their lives. I would like to learn more about many of them. ( )

As another Goodreads reviewer put it, it's an "epic book about non-epic happenings". ( )

Love and Shame and Love came to me through the First Editions Club at Book Passage. It's the story of a secular Jewish family in Chicago, focusing primarily on Alexander Popper but including significant parts of his parent's and grandparent's lives. The earlier generations were self-made men who one reviewer likens to the characters in Saul Bellow's novels. Alexander struggles to find his identity throughout the book which follows his life from childhood to his 30's. The book moves back in forth in time alternatingly dealing with the three generations, a stye that Booklist described as "iridescently mosaicked". I found it somewhat distracting in the beginning but got used to by the end. All by all I enjoyed the book and would say it's definitely worth a read. ( )