You Were Never in Chicago

by Neil Steinberg

In 1952 the New Yorker published a three-part essay by A. J. Liebling in which he dubbed Chicago the "Second City." From garbage collection to the skyline, nothing escaped Liebling's withering gaze. Among the outraged responses from Chicago residents was one that Liebling described as the apotheosis of such a postcard that read, simply, "You were never in Chicago."

Neil Steinberg has lived in and around Chicago for more than three decades—ever since he left his hometown of Berea, Ohio, to attend Northwestern—yet he remains fascinated by the dynamics captured in Liebling's anecdote. In You Were Never in Chicago Steinberg weaves the story of his own coming-of-age as a young outsider who made his way into the inner circles and upper levels of Chicago journalism with a nuanced portrait of the city that would surprise even lifelong residents.

Steinberg takes readers through Chicago's vanishing industrial past and explores the city from the quaint skybridge between the towers of the Wrigley Building, to the depths of the vast Deep Tunnel system below the streets. He deftly explains the city's complex web of political favoritism and carefully profiles the characters he meets along the way, from greats of jazz and journalism to small-business owners just getting by. Throughout, Steinberg never loses the curiosity and close observation of an outsider, while thoughtfully considering how this perspective has shaped the city, and what it really means to belong. Intimate and layered, You Were Never in Chicago will be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of all Chicagoans, be they born in the city or forever transplanted.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Travel, Ebooks, Urban, Biography Memoir

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2012

About the author

Neil Steinberg is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, where he has been on staff since 1987.

Reviews

[Wealhtheow · Rating 2 out of 5]

The tale of a reporter's time in modern Chicago, with nuggets of history about the city's birth and development. I loved the insider look into Chicago politics, but there's a strange amount of time spent defending the author's choices, not least in helping his brother get a job.

[Mimi V · Rating 3 out of 5]

as a life-long Chicagoan, i fell into the trap described by Steinberg: we ("real" Chicagoans) have very specific rules about who is a "real" Chicagoan, and who isn't. sure, he lived in Chicago for years, but he wasn't born here and he lives in THE SUBURBS now, so i don't really consider him a true Chicagoan. PLUS i object to the spelling he used of the neighborhood he lived in. sorry, Neil; i used to live there, too, and Lakeview is one word, not two. (check the Chamber of Commerce usage.)

Neil writes for the Chicago Sun-Times, which i haven't read in years (sorry, again!) so i wasn't familiar with him, but my husband bought this book for me for our anniversary. he knows how much i love Chicago and that i was interested in learning more about the history.

in any case, i loved the book. i appreciate how Neil wove his own story with Chicago's history; and i learned a few things about Chicago that i didn't know. some of the anecdotes about Chicago figures were pretty funny and insightful about what makes Chicago "Chicago." it's a peculiar place, and we're a peculiar bunch and he did a great job of capturing that.

maybe i'll pick up a Sun-Times on my way home tonight.

[Kimberly Schlarman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Steinberg is an excellent writer and--especially as a recent transplant to the city--I really enjoyed his descriptions of Chicago and what it means to be a "Chicagoan." However, I did not realize that this book would be more of a memoir of the author instead of a cultural history of the city. I wouldn't have minded a memoir so much if Steinberg just weren't so unlikable. Maybe it's just his writing style but he comes off as very pompous and arrogant and I found it off-putting and almost didn't finish the book because of his many "humble-brags" ... or just outright brags. He also spends too much time trying to justify using his Chicago connections to get his brother a job with Cook County. He uses that experience to almost justify all the nepotism and cronyism in Chicago. ugh.

There are some lovely passages about the city and about what makes living in Chicago so wonderful. It was interesting to pair this book with "The Third Coast" by Thomas Dyja: Steinberg's book being more of a fluffy love letter to Chicago and Dyja's being a more scholarly cultural history of the city.

[Jonathan Hiskes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A longtime Sun-Times columnist muses on his city, patronage, the multifarious world of manufacturing, fatherhood, the role of a general interest columnist, and the question of who counts as a "real" Chicagoan. Steinberg occasionally got under my skin. He played police brutality for yucks ... he doesn't seem to think journalism needs to be particularly concerned with justice and social change ... but he's attentive, interesting, and an engaging storyteller.

[Karol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for Chicago books in general. This one was a memoir, series of observations, look into the world of the Sun-Times, and glimpse of Chicago life, all in one, so I'd call that a win. More importantly to my history-obsessive inclinations, it offers a good look at the City as it changes throughout the 80s, 90s and 00s, something I always like to read about from more perspectives.

[Stephen Rynkiewicz]

Neil Steinberg's taste of Chicago should be familiar to real Chicagoans. After all, reciting the menu is how they prove they're real Chicagoans. But the host so enjoys his choices, you gotta let him order. We all know that most Chicagoans just line up for the pizza.

This book is not a newcomers' guidebook like Jory Graham's "Instant Chicago," a gift from a Sun-Times reporter of another era. But it is just as much of a love letter to the city's landmarks, famous and obscure. (It's a block away, but I was never in the Division Street Russian Baths.) His Sun-Times readers will recognize favorite stories, but transplant Steinberg's own history will be less familiar. Even as he dwells on obit writing and other tradecraft, he claims Chicago bragging rights in a way that will resonate for most anyone who has worked here.

Steinberg and I share suburban writing apprenticeships, and I detect common trade-press experience in his loving descriptions of potato chip and cardboard tube factories. We mostly kept to ourselves for a decade from desks at the future site of Trump Tower, and while his columnist voice can turn prickly or strident this writer is the shy Steinberg I recall, humbled by his luck at making a career and family in such a vital place.

In true "I Will" spirit, the tablet version is a fit companion for packed L cars with no room for page-turners. Yet on the 66 Chicago bus it affords many chances to look up and marvel at the view. Ever illuminating, the e-book also doubles as a flashlight during a ComEd power failure.

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steinberg seems like the kind of guy you wouldn't mind having as a friend. In small doses. Here's a book talking about how Chicagoans think of themselves as Chicagoans, and a big part of that, in this write-up, is tied to doing favors and expected some in return. The end of the book seems to be a long apology and explanation for some things the author did that he must consider a bit ethically incorrect. The thought process that he records is interesting in how he got the state he was in at the end of the book. This felt like somewhat familiar territory - I live in Chicago-land (OK, the suburbs) and know those thoughts, and it was of some interest going through this. Steinberg sets the stage with a lot of personal stories. A lot. It's like that friend that can carry on a scintillating conversation, but prefers to talk about himself - a little goes a long way. It may be better to read Steinberg the way the Sun Times presented him as a columnist, a few paragraphs three times a week. Still, this does say a lot about Steinberg's life, and while I wasn't expecting this to be autobiographical, it held my interest. And you do get a smattering of Chicago, but as the author says, it is impossible to understand Chicago in its entirety - it's just too big.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read and, in my opinion, never dull. He covers history, the mingling of past and present, clout and corruption, what it means to be a Chicagoan, and a few of our celebrated and vilified public figures. But above all, this book captures exactly how I feel about Chicago - a city of duality - corrupt but pure; beautiful and dingy; the cold, hibernating winters and thriving summers you never want to end. A city where anything is possible.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't lived in DuPage County since the mid 70s, when I graduated from high school and headed to college in the Northeast where I stayed to make a life. I've rarely been back to see family, who also scattered but returned, at least some of them. But within the last five or so years, most recently this summer, business has brought me back several times to conferences downtown. I began to see Chicago with different eyes. And I've become a big fan. So this book reinforced feelings and memories, and gave me me insights into a city I grew up around, while introducing me to a new writer I want to know more about. This is a love letter to a city that will always be a part of who I am, even that I never lived within its borders. But the history and the politics Neil Steinberg evoked is a part of the dinner conversations and other touchstones of my childhood. For that I am glad to have encountered his Chicago.

[Alex O'Neill · Rating 3 out of 5]

i think the first thing i have to say is boy oh boy this author has some big internalized homophobia/racism among other things that i generally disagree with him about.

but - it really is a love letter to chicago, about chicago. and im here for that. the book pulled me in because i thought it was going be a really interesting intersection of chicago history with bits of this mans life. turns out its primarily a memoir with chicago history sprinkled in.

its a dense book and it didnt hold my interest all the way throughout but i'm glad to have stumbled on it at the library (it was right next to the david sedaris book i was checking out and it opened by talking about the pride parade, so sure why not give it a shot).

but really, some of it is quite beautiful and did bring me to tears with how obvious it is that steinberg loves chicago, and thus reminds me how much i love chicago.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I was expecting more from this book. I also can't say that I'm a huge fan of Steinberg's style of writing either--his descriptive style often just seemed drawn out to me and left me wishing he'd just get to the point already. The stories included in the book were interesting, but I was hoping for a greater emphasis on the city itself (particularly learning little known tidbits about the city's history) and less on the author's personal life. Having lived in both Evanston and Chicago, I was familiar with most of the locations he was describing, which made the book more enjoyable for me. Without already having that background though, I don't know that I would have enjoyed the book all that much.

[Vanessa Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

"You Were Never in Chicago," starts with a barrage of history, but Steinberg's writing evens out and you begin to really feel like you're in Chicago, whether you are or not. To enjoy it however, you need to actually want to be in Chicago, to some it has an alluring call, which Steinberg gives voice. I guess I didn't enjoy it because its an ode to a city that I enjoy for the history, but not much beyond the '20s. It is however, a great book about Chicago, I'm just in love with another city.

[Wenzel Roessler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really has three sections to it. First Steinberg gives us a history of Chicago and how it was built, and this is extremely interesting. Second he talks about famous and not so famous people and places around Chicago and this too is well worth the read. The third part is about his personal and family life and it may be interesting in another context but it takes away from the main part of the book that is really about Chicago, hence the title.

[Maggie Crane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love it, but it was entertaining. As a life-long Chicagoan, I did love the history-of-Chicago factoids.

[Alison Hardtmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost two years ago, I moved to the middle of Illinois, making Chicago my nearest big city (unless you want to count Indianapolis and, friends, I do not). I've managed three trips there, of various lengths, and I've enjoyed it immensely, from the way different neighborhoods feel, to the easy public transportation to the way there's this giant city populated by midwesterners. So I grabbed this memoir and story of one man's life in Chicago, Neil Steinberg, a longtime reporter and columnist with the Chicago Sun Times, as a way of learning more about this city.

This book does a good job of covering a vast swath of topics, from Chicago's founding, to how the political machine works, to ordinary stories of how people ended up here. Steinberg has spent his professional life covering human interest stories for his column and breaking news as a reporter. He's witnessed the way the city has changed over the years, with small manufacturers closing down to the slow contraction of the news industry.

Whether this book appeals to you depends on how much you prefer storytelling and learning about one guy's experience to a more methodical approach. I enjoyed his stories, although the strongest part of the book were the opening chapters explaining Chicago's history. Steinberg is adept at explaining why Chicago boomed how and when it did. He also had some insights into current issues, despite this book having been first published a decade ago.

[Tim Lapetino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neil Steinberg’s “You Were Never In Chicago,” is bright, thoughtful and honest, a memoir and history of the city he clearly loves, as I do.

My introduction to Steinberg and his great work as a Sun-Times columnist came in the form of a phone call, when he interviewed me for a story on how the Trump brand was faring after his election. Our talk about the intersection of branding and design was brief, but it turned me on to his work.

He struck me then as his book does now—clever but not pretentious, thoughtful but not overblown, meandering but always with a destination in mind.

Steinberg knits together his story as a Chicago outsider with the city’s history—both the headlines and the back rooms, the unnoticed corners and the Grant Park throngs. It’s filled with wit and repose and moved me to tears a couple of times. I can honestly say this is one of the best and most authentic books about I’ve read—it just feels like the city I was born in. It is the first book I’d give to newcomers and the same one I’d recommend to those who, like me, have spent decades here.

It gets my highest recommendation.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this book. If you are a fan of Chicago and its inner workings, you'll probably like this book too. Now at times you have to get by Steinberg's self-aggrandizing prose and his humble-brags, but if you can do that you'll find many nuggets of interesting history about Chicago and its quirks. This is a nice tale.

I think this book would make for delightful reading for anyone who was born and raised in Chicago, or who is a transplant here, or who has lived around Chicago for a number of years. I don't think others would have much interest in it. It is Chicago-centric through and through. Since I was born and raised in the city, I can recognize so much of the author's narrative, I can see him here and feel his reactions in the situations he describes. Recommended for fans of Chicago.

[Diogenes Grief · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book by a newspaperman in Chicago, my old hometown, and despite the telltale narcissism of any memoir, he manages to sprinkle poignant humor and dour insight into his work and witnessings as a white guy:

"Not that swinging by a place is the same as living there. Not close. I've been inside every Chicago Housing Authority project in Chicago--the high-rise Robert Taylor Homes and Cabrini-Green apartments, the low-rise Altgeld Gardens and Lathrop Homes, plus senior CHA projects nobody has ever heard of. Most of the high-rises are gone now [2013]--to my vast surprise. I would have bet anything that they'd be around for the rest of my life; I think most Chicagoans would have, and it was a shock when they were pulled down, one after another.

"The projects were not frightening places, to me, so much as they were gritty and depressing and infinitely sad places--people with nothing trapped in airless rooms watching old televisions. Elderly residents who no longer noticed their kitchen was crawling with cockroaches, or noticed but no longer had the strength to care. 'Their lives are wasted--both by themselves and by society,' M. W. Newman wrote of the residents of the Robert Taylor Homes in 1965, before the place got really bad. 'They're second-class citizens living in a second-class world,and they know it, and hate it.'

"One evening, on the night shift, I was writing about gangs using vacant CHA apartments as bases--they would break through the cinder block walls between units, so they could operate out of one apartment, and if the cops came busting in one front door, they could escape through another, into a different hallway.

"As I was heading out on the story, an editor asked me if I wanted to wear a bulletproof vest. The paper has bulletproof vests, just in case society crumbles and we have to cover it. I stood there and imagined showing up at the Robert Taylor Homes in my bulky blue bulletproof vest, maybe with a helmet and clear Plexiglas face shield too, getting as close as I dared to an exhausted black lady wearing a small hat with a flower sticking out if it and a dark coat, dragging herself home from the bus stop after a long day, lugging two heavy shopping bags of groceries. 'Madam,' I'd shout through a bullhorn, assuming a protective crouch, my voice crackling and fuzzy,'tell . . . me . . . about . . . your . . . life.'

"I looked at the editor. 'Thanks, Larry,' I said. 'But I'd rather die. If people can live there their whole lives, I can visit for an hour.'" (pp. 123-4)

***
"That one-thing-leads-to-the-next path of life takes people on stunning, almost ludicrously serpentine journeys. We are dice in Fate's cup." (p. 144)

***
Then, at the end, after reflecting on all the billions of souls drowned in the sands of Time, forever forgotten to history, and all the bronze statues to Who-Gives-A-Fucks collecting dust in municipal basements:

"I peer through the glass again. The past isn't here; it's not a place. The past doesn't really exist. Only in our heads, in our hearts, and in books and movies. The past is a thought, a blurred photograph, a scratchy song, a memory no more substantial than the charge on a battery. The past is a big empty room where something once happened. A gutted building where something you loved used to be. You can't go back--you can remember it, read about it, cherish it. But the past isn't actually there, not anymore, and any attempt to find it, to hold it in your hands, to return to it in the living world must inevitably be thwarted." (p. 244)

Damn straight. I wonder if when we truly love someone, completely give our whole spiritual hearts over to a special someone, and they crush it, rip it open and fillet it with a fish knife, that there's no getting the whole thing back to start again. That inevitably a part of you is lost to that other, a deep and profound part. Sure, we can love again, if ever someone finds connection to us, but can we ever love THAT deeply again? It's a rhetorical question because I doubt anyone ever sees this, but I wonder if spiritual death's first step is that lost piece of soul . . .

[Dave Donahoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part history, part memoir, part social examination of the city and its people. A great look into what makes Chicago Chicago. Even if you have grown up and lived here you entire life you will find yourself learning new things, nodding your head "yes, that's how it is," mourning places you will never get to see, and jotting down notes of places within the city that you want to visit before they are gone. This is a love letter to one of the great cities of the world. Thank you, Mr Steinberg. In my opinion, you are a true Chicagoan.

[Alexis Bauer Kolak · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're not from Chicago or it's suburbs, keep scrolling. This isn't for you.

This encompasses a lot about how I feel about Chicago. It's a sense that it's important to share stories about the city even if they happened before you were born, and pointing out the same landmarks every time, and knowing the 'right' name for places. The only downside is there is some wording that I think is meant to be blunt, but are now terms you would never use, even to illustrate a point. A fitting way to end my reading year.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing at its finest; beautiful and poetic, filled with personal stories that seem small, but are so much bigger. This is what a memoir should be. Steingberg does relay his own story, his personal relationship with Chicago, but he does so with terrific overarching themes. He seamlessly weaves his personal anecdotes and feelings with historical facts and tales of Chicago. He somehow makes his personal story every Chicagoan's story. Simply wonderful.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this combination of memoir/history by longtime Sun-Times writer Neil Steinberg. I'm not sure the book would resonate for someone who hadn't lived in the city for years, as Steinberg is clearly invested more in the minutia of what makes Chicago tick than the obvious (and famed) parts of the city. Nonetheless, I admired how he wove history (including his own reporting) in with reflections on his life. Both were fascinating to learn about.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a Chicago expatriate like myself I really enjoyed the opportunity to visit Chicago even though I left in 1992. But like many I will alwayssee myself as a chicago native. Lots of the short pieces were quite enjoyable.

[Gregg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steinberg is living proof that you can endure and still flourish, simultaneously. This book goes seamlessly back and forth between his evolution and development as a city newspaper reporter, and the evolution and development of Chicago itself, in all its storied beauty. A great read.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a memoir that is sold as being primarily about Chicago. The Chicago parts are pretty good but the story of the author's life is just incredibly boring to me. I just did not want to read it anymore.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't speak to what a non-Chicago dweller of several years would make of this book. However, I certainly enjoyed the stories and history offered in Steinberg's usual fine writing style.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining stories of Chicago history, gossip, etc.

[brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are two things a man should never pay for. And parking is one of them.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good writing, good sense of place and different times. I wanted to give it 3 stars because I found myself quite disliking the author, but the writing does warrant 4.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chicago has a way of dazzling me every time I return, calling me home when I stray to other parts or other cities around this great country. Gosh, I'm just a suburban white boy who adopted Chicago as my cultural urban epicenter because it was the closest thing geographically for me to get kicked in the head at a Pearl Jam concert, be stared at while sipping alcoholic beverages in a reggae bar, eat goose liver pate on wild game sausage, and watch in stunned silence as your favorite pro sports team lets its lone chance at a World Series title slip away through the fingers of a bespectacled fan down the left field line. I'm sure Neil Steinberg, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and author of this autobiographically driven book, would concur at some point, Chicago is for him, vastly different than it is for everyone else. And to further confuse the point, in many ways it is so eloquently similar for so many. What is similar is the appreciation of the skyline, the universal knowledge that Chicago has the largest Polish population this side of Warsaw, the ubiquitous and loyal love for its sports teams, the disdain for the traffic, the major food groups (hot dogs, pizza, Italian beef, etc.), we get the point. But dig deeper, and as Steinberg would argue, you were never in Chicago. In his 25+ years as a journalist originally hailing from Ohio, it was his niche to write columns on the collarbones of Chicago, that is to say, what lay brushed aside of the city of Big Shoulders. The spirit of his column writing bled through in this book, and I found it pleasantly surprising to uncover little delights about a city I grew up next to and spent 42 years travelling in and out of. Ever heard of the Russian Baths? Strombecker Toys? Judge Marovitz? Leanna Dorsett? Custom Medical Stock? And Michael Mages hardware store. Some stories end tragically, some just cease to continue. Critics of the book might bemoan the fact that Steinberg invariably includes too much narrative about his own family, particularly his brother's ups and downs in the working world, but I find it subtly appropriate. In the end Sam Steinberg is portrayed as successful in most of his endeavors. After all, we are talking about Chicago here where nepotism is king. Lastly, every once in awhile, I find a line in a book that resonates wholly and in some cases, reflects personal values. The following was written in this book and closely mirrors those sentiments:

"Many Chicagoans can seamlessly shift from dabbing away a tear at the irrational bigotry their beloved grandparents faced when they arrived from the old country to sneering at these completely unacceptable illegal immigrants using up our scarce resources when they should be packed into boxcars and sent back where they belong, without ever feeling the slightest shiver of irony. Different situations entirely."

We could probably safely apply that notion and wonderful sarcasm to many places across our fine nation.