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City Boy
Newlyweds Jack and Chloe are building a life together in a modest Chicago apartment. The city is theirs to enjoy as Jack struggles to pursue a writing career and Chloe works downtown, applying herself to the world of high finance. While Jack aspires to be the perfect husband, his own self-doubts and Chloe's office flirtations cast shadows. Jealousy and misbehavior undermine their notions of themselves and of each other, and their lives take on uncomfortable parallels with the volatile, chaotic existence of their raffish, menacing neighbors. In the intense heat of one Chicago summer, Jack and Chloe's marriage roils into a queasy chemistry of vanity, lust, and greed.
Thompson writes with piercing insight and emotional truth, setting off literary fireworks.
Thompson writes with piercing insight and emotional truth, setting off literary fireworks.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
4 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
About the author
Jean Thompson
51 books287 followersJean Thompson is a New York Times bestselling author and her new novel,
The Humanity Project
will be published by Blue Rider Press on April 23, 2013.
Thompson is also the author of the novel The Year We Left Home, the acclaimed short fiction collections Do Not Deny Me, and Throw Like a Girl as well as the novel City Boy; the short story collection Who Do You Love, and she is a 1999 National Book Award finalist for fiction as well as and the novel Wide Blue Yonder, a New York Times Notable Book and Chicago Tribune Best Fiction selection for 2002.
Her short fiction has been published in many magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, and been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize. Jean's work has been praised by Elle Magazine as "bracing and wildly intelligent writing that explores the nature of love in all its hidden and manifest dimensions."
Jean's other books include the short story collections The Gasoline Wars and Little Face, and the novels My Wisdom and The Woman Driver.
Jean has been the recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, among other accolades, and taught creative writing at the University of Illinois--Champaign/ Urbana, Reed College, Northwestern University, and many other colleges and universities.
Thompson is also the author of the novel The Year We Left Home, the acclaimed short fiction collections Do Not Deny Me, and Throw Like a Girl as well as the novel City Boy; the short story collection Who Do You Love, and she is a 1999 National Book Award finalist for fiction as well as and the novel Wide Blue Yonder, a New York Times Notable Book and Chicago Tribune Best Fiction selection for 2002.
Her short fiction has been published in many magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, and been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize. Jean's work has been praised by Elle Magazine as "bracing and wildly intelligent writing that explores the nature of love in all its hidden and manifest dimensions."
Jean's other books include the short story collections The Gasoline Wars and Little Face, and the novels My Wisdom and The Woman Driver.
Jean has been the recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, among other accolades, and taught creative writing at the University of Illinois--Champaign/ Urbana, Reed College, Northwestern University, and many other colleges and universities.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 4, 2014
Like experiencing the deterioration of a friend’s marriage
Jean Thompson’s novel, City Boy, is not a big story. It’s what she does best, tell us about the everyday lives of people we know. It’s not a great love story, nor is it a tragedy except in the way that we interpret our lives and the lives of those we know.
Jack and Chloe are newlyweds living in Chicago. They are among “the entitled” – both only children from affluent families, university educated, young, good-looking, white.
They have plans, but life doesn’t care.
Early in the novel the reader begins to suspect disfunction. Chloe, is one of those people described in Chapter 5 of the Big Book, the Bible for Alcoholics Anonymous that are “constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average.”
Yes, she’s an alcoholic, but not a falling down one – yet.
Her husband, Jack, the novel’s protagonist (he’s hardly heroic) and from whose point of view the story is told, is not so much an enabler as a dreamer. He’s a study in weakness and delusion.
Jack wants to be a writer, but rather than do it after work like the rest of us, it’s decided he’ll stay home so as to give it his best shot, while his wife goes out and earns their living. Does Chloe resent this? Not on the surface but she can articulate it pretty well after a few drinks.
Jack’s response is for Chloe to stop drinking. Chloe’s response to Jack’s response is to have an affair with her boss.
While things are unraveling for the “perfect couple”, the guy upstairs, that Chloe refers to a “bottom feeder”, is constantly stoned, has interchangeable girlfriends, and life is one big party. There’s a comparison here between lifestyles and morality and you’re left to draw your own conclusions.
The author has layered the story with nuances and subtleties, most of which I likely missed and some I’m just realizing long after I’ve finished reading the book.
Dialogue and characterization are remarkable. In Thompson’s skilled hands, even the setting, Chicago, becomes a character onto itself.
This book is like experiencing the deterioration of a friend’s marriage, deeply personal, but frustrating because you can’t do anything about it. Like all Thompson’s work, City Boy is a story we all know, but only she seems able to articulate.
They say you learn more about an author from their fiction than you do from their memoir. If that’s the case than I’m sorry Jean, but thanks.
Jean Thompson’s novel, City Boy, is not a big story. It’s what she does best, tell us about the everyday lives of people we know. It’s not a great love story, nor is it a tragedy except in the way that we interpret our lives and the lives of those we know.
Jack and Chloe are newlyweds living in Chicago. They are among “the entitled” – both only children from affluent families, university educated, young, good-looking, white.
They have plans, but life doesn’t care.
Early in the novel the reader begins to suspect disfunction. Chloe, is one of those people described in Chapter 5 of the Big Book, the Bible for Alcoholics Anonymous that are “constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average.”
Yes, she’s an alcoholic, but not a falling down one – yet.
Her husband, Jack, the novel’s protagonist (he’s hardly heroic) and from whose point of view the story is told, is not so much an enabler as a dreamer. He’s a study in weakness and delusion.
Jack wants to be a writer, but rather than do it after work like the rest of us, it’s decided he’ll stay home so as to give it his best shot, while his wife goes out and earns their living. Does Chloe resent this? Not on the surface but she can articulate it pretty well after a few drinks.
Jack’s response is for Chloe to stop drinking. Chloe’s response to Jack’s response is to have an affair with her boss.
While things are unraveling for the “perfect couple”, the guy upstairs, that Chloe refers to a “bottom feeder”, is constantly stoned, has interchangeable girlfriends, and life is one big party. There’s a comparison here between lifestyles and morality and you’re left to draw your own conclusions.
The author has layered the story with nuances and subtleties, most of which I likely missed and some I’m just realizing long after I’ve finished reading the book.
Dialogue and characterization are remarkable. In Thompson’s skilled hands, even the setting, Chicago, becomes a character onto itself.
This book is like experiencing the deterioration of a friend’s marriage, deeply personal, but frustrating because you can’t do anything about it. Like all Thompson’s work, City Boy is a story we all know, but only she seems able to articulate.
They say you learn more about an author from their fiction than you do from their memoir. If that’s the case than I’m sorry Jean, but thanks.
November 6, 2011
Last week I read "The Year We Left Home" and enjoyed it so much I'm now in search of all of her work. "City Boy" was equally captivating. Jean Thompson writes with great depth and understanding of modern love and family, and makes storytelling seem effortless. I can't wait to read more of her work.
Her style and skill reminds me a bit of Francine Prose, another of my favorite novelists.
Her style and skill reminds me a bit of Francine Prose, another of my favorite novelists.
July 23, 2009
I don't know if anyone else would consider this a beach read, but I read it on the beach and it was perfect for that.
August 7, 2021
CITY BOY just didn't click for this reader. I am a huge fan of Jean Thompson, but for some reason, this book just wasn't my cup of tea. Every other book I have read by her has been WONDERFUL.
We meet Jack and Chloe, newly wedded and living in Chicago. They have neighbors from hell living above them -- things that go bump in the night, no regard for others in the building, loud music -- you know the type. While not caring about these neighbors, they really become entangled in the lives of Jack and Chloe. Events happen, things go from bad to worse. Are Jack and Chloe doomed? Can their marriage survive everything the couple does to hurt their union?
The writing is good, but the characters and their situations just didn't get it for me. I feel almost guilty about this as I love Thompson but I guess you can't love them all!
Check out her other books...and this one too....she is a magnificent writer!
We meet Jack and Chloe, newly wedded and living in Chicago. They have neighbors from hell living above them -- things that go bump in the night, no regard for others in the building, loud music -- you know the type. While not caring about these neighbors, they really become entangled in the lives of Jack and Chloe. Events happen, things go from bad to worse. Are Jack and Chloe doomed? Can their marriage survive everything the couple does to hurt their union?
The writing is good, but the characters and their situations just didn't get it for me. I feel almost guilty about this as I love Thompson but I guess you can't love them all!
Check out her other books...and this one too....she is a magnificent writer!
September 1, 2014
I loved Thompson's "The Year We Left Home", and I liked "The Humanity Project". But it seems the further I go into her backlist, the less enthusiastic I am
The novel started out well--young couple move to new city apartment, meet curious cast of other tenants--but it went downhill about halfway through. Stylistically, the additions of Chloe's journals came too late to feel cohesive. The secondary characters drifted in and out, but reappeared at convenient times with major roles in the story.
But my biggest issue was with the main character, Jack. He was inconsistent in a way that felt rushed, not like the real, conflicted emotions of a character. He loved Chloe, he belittled Chloe, he hated her all on the same page. There was no nuance to his character; he went from one extreme to the next, haphazardly. And there was a lot of thinly-veiled misogyny in his character--acceptable if this is meant to develop this particular character, but I've noticed it as a recurring theme in Thompson's work. It sticks out to me as authorial comment, rather than character flaw.
And Chloe. We're meant to see her as Jack does--an alcoholic if she has more than obe drink, indecisive though she's not, a 'bad' person, as he suggests and she reiterates. But she's not. She's a pretty regular, complex, character. I felt like I was being told how to feel about her, when the narrative disn't actually offer me that insight.
So, a wildly uneven book. Some gorgeous moments and language, but the plot and characters fell flat.
The novel started out well--young couple move to new city apartment, meet curious cast of other tenants--but it went downhill about halfway through. Stylistically, the additions of Chloe's journals came too late to feel cohesive. The secondary characters drifted in and out, but reappeared at convenient times with major roles in the story.
But my biggest issue was with the main character, Jack. He was inconsistent in a way that felt rushed, not like the real, conflicted emotions of a character. He loved Chloe, he belittled Chloe, he hated her all on the same page. There was no nuance to his character; he went from one extreme to the next, haphazardly. And there was a lot of thinly-veiled misogyny in his character--acceptable if this is meant to develop this particular character, but I've noticed it as a recurring theme in Thompson's work. It sticks out to me as authorial comment, rather than character flaw.
And Chloe. We're meant to see her as Jack does--an alcoholic if she has more than obe drink, indecisive though she's not, a 'bad' person, as he suggests and she reiterates. But she's not. She's a pretty regular, complex, character. I felt like I was being told how to feel about her, when the narrative disn't actually offer me that insight.
So, a wildly uneven book. Some gorgeous moments and language, but the plot and characters fell flat.
November 19, 2010
This book invokes the question, at least in this reader’s mind, as to why some men love women who are mean to them. The answer for Jack is that Chloe is beautiful and disturbed; he can never believe his luck in acquiring her as his wife. As for Chloe, she viewed Jack as a promising young writer, but the reality became that she became a trainee in an upscale banking firm, while Jack subbed at a junior high school in the inner city and worked desultorily at a novel he’d lost faith in. Chloe embarked on an affair with her married boss. Jack, intuiting that something was “going on” had casual sex with an upstairs neighbor’s girlfriend, another disturbed individual (insight into Jack—he needs to be a rescuer). Initially, Jack blames Chloe’s problems on drinking, on himself for not being a provider, on her supposed low self-esteem. Chloe plays off this illusion, by first transferring blame to Jack (he’s paranoid, controlling) and when her betrayals are discovered, dissolves into tears and hysteria. Jack confronts Chloe after she reveals she is pregnant, as he can’t be sure it will be his child. And on and on. Neither Jack nor Chloe are sympathetic characters; both are spoiled, self-indulgent, self-regarding (particularly Chloe though Jack’s insights don’t absolve him). Thompson is a good writer and keeps the readers attention despite all this. I prefer her short stories, but can’t say that City Boy is a bad novel, just a dismaying one.
June 10, 2011
I liked this book, not as good as her others I have recently read. As always, she develops some really interesting characters. It is like a train wreck, though, to read about the damage people inflict on each other in a relationship.
December 29, 2012
Wry. Very wry. Very, very, wry. Beautiful, classic ironic prose style.The author keeps her story very well on track. The sad reality of too many young hopefuls after university who are not mature enough. Laugh or cry as you prefer. Close to the quality of "Revolutionary Road".
August 3, 2009
Loved her short-story collection, Who Do You Love. This didn't quite measure up to that.
March 11, 2011
Outstanding.
Want to read
June 22, 20101st edition, signed by author
July 4, 2013
Very entertaining! Really enjoyed this book - please read my full review for it at http://www.dreamworldbooks.com/2010/0....
February 4, 2011
This got a little out of control (plot/character-wise), but it was an engaging read anyway.
November 12, 2014
<3 her
July 14, 2012
My first Jean Thompson experience. This woman can write some dialogue. I think arguments are difficult to write, and she writes very good arguments. I'll be reading more of her ....
May 13, 2013
Couldn't get past the first chapter and gave up. That rarely happens so it should tell you something!
July 14, 2013
Too lurid for me. No redeemable characters.
July 5, 2013
Couple move to an apartment building. husband is a writer and becomes involve with the pot smokers upstairs. wife cheats
February 11, 2014
I'm really growing to like this author. This one has two main characters who are very hard to like, but for me, easy to relate to. Not for everyone, but I very much enjoyed it.
January 8, 2011
always fun to read a book set in Chicago...
Read
July 27, 2011Well done depiction of a young couple starting out, but I couldn't love these characters.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews