Streets and Alleys: Stories with a Chicago Accent

Syd Liberman grew up in Albany Park, a Jewish neighborhood on Chicago's northwest side. In Streets and Alleys, his gift for gab is evident in a cycle of stories about four generations of his Jewish-American family, Chicagoans all, which together tell a larger story-a family story, a Jewish story, a city story. In the game called Streets and Alleys, children form lines that serve as streets; on cue they rotate ninety degrees to form alleys, altering the landscape. The changing landscape of his life-a shift from son and grandson to father, teacher, and storyteller-is humorously and lovingly illuminated in his first volume of stories.