Does Chicago Lack a ‘Recognizable Narrative’?

Over at The Smart Set, Jessa Crispin speculates about what her one-time hometown means to the outside world. She writes:

Because Chicago has no new compelling storyline, the old ones will have to do for the rest of the world. Even the renowned literary magazine Granta—after spending who knows how long creating its recent issue devoted entirely to Chicago—used Al Capone as its first example of what defines Chicago in the issue’s introduction.

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