Subject: Re: Pandora/Gene Wolfe/Girl Who Owned a City

From: Dick Smith <smith!dick at ast.dsd.northrop.com>
Date: Sat, 09 Feb 1991 08:30:37 +0000

Cynthia Teague wrote:
>I have just finished *Pandora by Holly Hollander* by Gene Wolfe.  This is
>a mystery, not sf, ... ... ...
>What really threw me, though, is that the book is set in my home town.
>Wolfe has taken the town, made some transparent and funny-sounding name
>changes, and used it as is.  For example, Barrington becomes Barton,
>which is surrounded by Barton Hills (the rich part of town) and South
>Barton (still fairly rural); their counterparts surround Barrington.

Seth Alan Tisue responded:
>I know Wolfe lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, probably in
>Barrington itself from what you say.  (Doesn't Frederik Pohl live around
>there somewhere?)  I'm from around there myself so I'll be especially
>interested in reading the book.

That's correct; Gene Wolfe does live in Barrington.  Other Chicago area SF
authors include A.J.Budrys (notice Evanston mentions in _Michaelmas_),
Roland Green, and Phyllis Eisenstein.  Fred Pohl moved here (Chicago
Northwest suburbs) a few years ago, and has used some Chicago area color in
several of his recent stories.  Recently, Martha Soukup started selling,
and moved away; I don't know if her Chicago area background will show in
her future writing.

You might also notice Chicago color in Fred Saberhagen's vampire stories,
but I don't know if he has/had any connection with the city.

I have a vague memory of some new-wave-ish writer who seemed to use Chicago
as his prototype city; I had trouble suspending disbelief when he was
writing about the tides.  Can anyone remind me who this was.  I'm sure the
story collection is here someplace, but I cannot remember the author at
all!  I think the paperback was yellow-green?

More accurate, if only a little less scientifictional, is Daniel
Pinkwater's Chicago references in the two Snarkout Boy's books.  Pinkwater
fans who attend the upcoming WorldCon in Chicago may wish to seek out the
Number 22 bus, and see if it compares with the one which runs along Snark
Street; I assure you that Clark Street is nearly as strange.  And many
Pinkwater fans will realize that the WorldCon's hotel is located at one end
of Lower North Aufzoo Street.

Dick Smith
Wheeling, Illinois