A WALLK ON THE WILD SIDE by Nelson Algren

 Finished Tu 3/4/25

This was one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read. However, I'm very glad that I made time to read this very compelling novel.

It's the story of Dove Linkhorn who is a sixteen year old 'nonconformist' from Texas who relocates to the sleaze of New Orleans. And, the reader is treated to a view of a whole cast of colorful & gritty characters. The novel is set in 1931 and at the height of the Great American Depression. 

'Potaguaya'- is the Spanish word for cannabis and means 'the drink of grief'. Who's kidding who?

A link to the book's page at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Walk_on_the_Wild_Side

From chasingbawa.com:

"A Walk on the Wild Side follows in the footsteps of 16 year old, illiterate Dove Linkhorn as he leaves Texas and his preacher father and drunk brother behind to better himself. In the first part, we meet Dove as he struggles to earn a few dollars working for and in turn being taught how to read by the much older and devout Terasina, the owner of the local chili parlour. Theirs is a short and bittersweet romance quickly ruined by pride, misunderstanding and violence, and Dove leaves Texas to find a better life for himself. On his journey to New Orleans, Dove encounters a whole slew of characters, the forgotten, the impoverished and the starving all trying to survive, including Kitty, a young, street smart orphan trying to pass herself off as a boy. Dove later falls in with a couple of bums as he learns to make some money as a salesman. But somehow, no matter how much he makes, he always seems to drift back to the lower echelons of society where the drugs and booze are plenty but there’s never enough money.

In New Orleans he meets the pimps and prostitutes who seem to define our image of 1930s New Orleans. Dove is once again sucked into this world forming tentative alliances and is recruited as a stud to deflower ‘virgins’, a job in which he excels. He runs off with Hallie, the only prostitute who hasn’t surrendered completely but returns when she leaves him. And when he returns, he is confronted by Hallie’s lover, lonely and angry Legless Schmidt whose dreams of being the strongest man in America was shattered by a drunken fall near a moving train, and is beaten almost to death. And we come back full circle as Dove returns once more to his hometown, a broken man, but looking for the one person he hurt but cannot forget.

Algren’s novel really surprised me. Considering the subject matter, I was expecting a gritty, dark and depressing book all about the lower dregs of society, especially during the Depression when the numbers swelled exponentially. But Algren’s prose is magical because he tells his tale in a poetic and very beautiful language. So although you are aware of the seedy nature of New Orleans, the bitter, empty lives of the poor and the sordid exploitation of women, you can’t but believe in the hopes that these characters have and applaud how they keep on going even though their lives are so hard. That’s a pretty mean feat to accomplish. If this book was written now, it would probably be too graphic and would leave you with a sour taste in your mouth."