Chi Boy: Native Sons and Chicago Reckonings

In Chi Boy, Keenan Norris melds memoir, cultural criticism, and literary biography to indelibly depict Chicago-from the Great Migration to the present day-as both a cradle of black intellect, art, and politics and a distillation of America's deepest tragedies. With the life and work of Richard Wright as his throughline, Norris braids the story of his family and particularly of his father, Butch Norris, with those of other black men-Wright, Barack Obama, Ralph Ellison, Frank Marshall Davis-who have called Chicago home. Along the way he examines the rise of black street organizations and the murders of Yummy Sandifer and Hadiya Pendleton to examine the city's status in the cultural imaginary as "Chi-Raq," a war zone within the nation itself. In Norris's telling, the specter of violence over black life is inescapable: in the South that Wright and Butch Norris escaped, in the North where it finds new forms, and worldwide where American militarism abroad echoes brutalities at home. Yet, in the family story at the center of this unforgettable book, Norris also presents an enduring vision of hope and love.

Author: Keenan Norris
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Published: 01/09/2023
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.67lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.54d
ISBN: 9780814258538

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 08/29/2022
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2022
Booklist 10/15/2022 pg. 8
Foreword 10/27/2022

About the Author
Keenan Norris has written for the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. His books include the novel The Confession of Copeland Cane and the anthology Street Lit: Representing the Urban Landscape. He teaches at San José State University.