The Beggar's Shore

I read this book the first time a couple of years back because it was published by Andrew Vachss and I thought that must make it good but what a tough time they're going to have. But the book was good, is good, is very good. A great, earth scorching, street level romp through Uptown Chicago. I picked this book up again recently, it's still great. I can't think of any book I've ever read quite like it.

Zak Mucha fills a gap in American (and even moreso, Chicago)literature. His starkly poetic realism forces the reader is feel the dismal urban world of his characters through their skin. We smell what they smell, plot what they plot, and recoil from the pain they feel. All this, and not a drop of sentimentality. It's the kind of approach one usually only is exposed to through certain foreign films, directed by mavericks not yet corrupted by the mandatory safeness of contemporary art. An excellent book, written by an exciting new author.

BEGGAR'S SHORE is not just a remarkable first novel it's a remarkable novel period. Reminescent of James T. Farrell and Nelson Algren, Mr. Mucha has captured the emotional vacancy and the desperation of Chicago's lesser known environs and their inhabitants. A very special achievment. Buy it. Read it. You won't be dissapointed.

I stumbled across this book at a friends house and just started leafing through it but pretty soon had to stop everything and read it cover to cover. It's the story of a runaway kid escaped from religious cult. He falls in with Uptown Chicago disenfranchised types; hookers, con men, and other lost souls and unblinkingly sees the underbelly of the world. The writing is clean and cuts right through, like a surgical knife. This is the kind of book that becomes part of your personal emotional repertoire.