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List of fiction set in Chicago

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of fiction set in or near the city of Chicago.

Novels

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Author Title Year Comments
Achy Obejas Memory Mambo 1996
Adam Langer Crossing California 2004
Adam Langer The Washington Story 2005
Adam Selzer Just Kill Me 2016
Aden Polydoros The City Beautiful
Aleksandar Hemon Nowhere Man 2002 ISBN 0-375-72702-7
Andy Van Slyke and Rob Rains The Curse: Cubs Win! Cubs Win! Or Do They? 2010
Arthur Hailey Airport 1968
Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveler's Wife 2003 ISBN 0-15-602943-X
Bayo Ojikutu 47th Street Black 2003 ISBN 0-7394-3326-1
Blue Balliett Chasing Vermeer 2004
Blue Balliett The Wright 3 2006
Bob Hartley Following Tommy ISBN 978-0983104186
Bob Hartley North and Central ISBN 978-0986092282
Brandy Colbert The Revolution of Birdie Randolph 2019
Brandy Colbert Pointe 2014
Brian J.P. Doyle Chicago ISBN 978-1-25006-199-7
Carolyn Keene The Case of the Rising Stars 1989 87th volume in the Nancy Drew mystery series
Charles Blackstone The Week You Weren't Here 2005
Chloe Neill Chicagoland Vampires 2009 - 2017
Chris Ware Building Stories 2012
Chris Ware Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth 2000
Daniel Pinkwater The Education of Robert Nifkin 1998 Recognizably Chicago, even if never explicitly stated.
Daniel Pinkwater The Snarkout Boys and The Avocado of Death 1982 Recognizably Chicago, even if never explicitly stated.
Daniel Pinkwater The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror 1984 Recognizably Chicago, even if never explicitly stated.
Don De Grazia American Skin 1998
Doug Cummings Deader by the Lake
Doug Cummings Every Secret Crime
Ed Wagemann The Panty Thief of Bridgeport
Edna Ferber So Big 1924
Elliot Perlman The Street Sweeper 2012
Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code 2003
Erika Sánchez I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter 2017 National Book Award Finalist
Frank Norris The Pit: A Chicago Story 1903
Fredric Brown The Fabulous Clipjoint 1947
Graham Masterton Headlines[1] 1986
Halle Butler The New Me 2019 ISBN 978-1474612296
Harry Stephen Keeler The Riddle of the Traveling Skull 1934 ISBN 1-932416-26-9
James Patterson and David Ellis The Black Book (Patterson and Ellis novel) 2017 ISBN 978-1-4555-4267-3
James T. Farrell Studs Lonigan trilogy 1932 - 1935 In 1998, the Modern Library ranked the Studs Lonigan trilogy 29th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Jami Attenberg The Middlesteins[2] 2012
Jean Toomer Cane 1923
Jennette Lee Mr. Achilles 1912
Jerry Ahern The Survivalist Series 1981 - 2019 The early books of the series feature Chicago frequently as the Soviets build their HQ in Chicago, with Varakov setting up his HQ in the Museum of Natural History.
Jim Butcher The Dresden Files series 2000–present
Joe Meno Hairstyles of the Damned[3] 2004
John Green An Abundance of Katherines 2006
John Grisham The Litigators 2011 (a #1 New York Times Best Seller in 2011)
John M. Ford The Last Hot Time 2000 ISBN 0-312-87578-9
John Malcolm Mortal Ruin ISBN 0-684-18958-5
Joseph G. Peterson Beautiful Piece 2009
Joshua Ferris Then We Came to the End 2007 ISBN 978-0-316-01638-4
Kathy Reichs 206 Bones 2009
Leonard Pitts, Jr. Grant Park 2015
Marcus Sakey The Blade Itself 2007
Matthew Rettenmund Boy Culture 1995
Meyer Levin Compulsion 1924 Inspired by the real-life Leopold and Loeb trial
Miami Mitch (Glazer) The Blues Brothers 1980
Mia P. Manansala Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery series 2021–present
Mord McGhee Murder Red Ink 2014 ISBN 978-1501041174
Nella Larsen Passing 1929 ISBN 0-14-243727-1
Nella Larsen Quicksand 1928 ISBN 0-14-118127-3
Nelson Algren The Man With the Golden Arm 1949 ISBN 1-58322-008-9
Paul Krueger Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge ISBN 978-1594747595
Peter Cheyney Dark Hero 1946
Philip Roth Letting Go 1962
Richard Peck Fair Weather 2001
Richard Powers Generosity: An Enhancement 2009
Richard Wright Native Son 1940 #20 on Modern Library's 100 Best Novels
Robert Goldsborough A Death in Pilsen 2007
Robert Goldsborough A President in Peril 2009 ISBN 978-1-59080-616-6
Robert Goldsborough Shadow of the Bomb 2006
Robert Goldsborough Terror at the Fair 2011 ISBN 978-1-59080-672-2
Robert Goldsborough Three Strikes You're Dead 2005
Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson Illuminatus! 1975
Robert Wright Campbell Jimmy Flannery mystery series
Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street 1984 ISBN 0-679-43335-X
Sara Paretsky V.I. Warshawski thrillers featuring private eye V. I. Warshawski, most recently 2020: Overboard
Saul Bellow Dangling Man[4] 1944
Saul Bellow Humboldt's Gift 1975
Saul Bellow Ravelstein[5] 2000
Saul Bellow The Adventures of Augie March 1953 ISBN 0-14-018941-6
Saul Bellow The Actual 1997
Scott Spencer Endless Love 1979
Shawn Shiflett Hey, Liberal!
Sherwood Anderson Windy McPherson's Son 1916
Somerset Maugham The Razor's Edge 1944 ISBN 1-4000-3420-5
Stuart Dybek The Coast of Chicago 1990 ISBN 0-312-42425-6
Stuart Dybek Childhood and Other Neighborhoods 1980
Stuart Dybek I Sailed with Magellan 2003
Terrance L. Smith The Thief Who Came to Dinner
Theodore Dreiser Sister Carrie 1900 ISBN 0-451-52760-7, on Modern Library's 100 Best Novels
Theodore Dreiser The Titan 1914
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins Apollyon 1998
Upton Sinclair The Jungle 1906 ISBN 1-884365-30-2[6]
Veronica Roth Divergent 2011 Set in post-apocalyptic Chicago - #1 on the Children's Paperback list in 2012
Veronica Roth Insurgent 2012
Veronica Roth Allegiant 2013
Ward Just An Unfinished Season 2004
Willa Cather The Song of the Lark 1915

Short stories

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  • Chicago Invaded by Hordes of Prehistoric Monsters Dealing Death and Destruction, an anonymous 9000 word short story published by the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers as an April Fools prank in 1906.
  • "Deadly City," March, 1953 issue of If magazine under the pseudonym Ivar Jorgensen (later made into the motion picture Target Earth; the story is about an alien invasion and evacuation of Chicago)
  • "About Boston" by Ward Just. pp. 12–39 in Legal Fictions edited by Jay Wishingrad, 1992, reprinted from 21 Selected Stories by Just (1990). The story contrasts Boston and Chicago.

Plays and musicals

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Films

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Although not set in the city's limits, the John Hughes directed films Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink (1986) (#1 film in U.S.), and Weird Science take place in the fictional town of Shermer, Illinois, which is based on Northbrook, Illinois. A scene of Weird Science was filmed at Northbrook Court mall.

In The Matrix (1999, directed by the Wachowskis from Chicago), the subway sets were based on the CTA. One of the trains is clearly a Brown Line train, which in reality, barring construction, never goes underground.

Chicago destroyed on film

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Music videos

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Television shows

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Reality TV

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Video games

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This is a list of video games in which a major part of the action takes place in the city. This list does not count sports games or flight simulators, save for Pilotwings 64 and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

List of games which feature a fictional city closely based on Chicago

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  • In Batman: Arkham, as a fictionalized Gotham City in which is almost identical to Chicago: for example some of the buildings like Tribune Tower can be seen within the Arkham franchise. The city also serves as Gotham within the Injustice series as well.
  • In Mafia, 1930s Chicago serves as inspiration for the setting of Lost Heaven. In Mafia: Definitive Edition, it is confirmed that Lost Heaven is in Illinois.[15]
  • In Mortal Kombat, Chicago plays a dynamic level known as "street" in which the level appears most of the MK series.
  • In Ratchet & Clank, in this fictional utopian city of Aleero City, some of the buildings have a huge representation of Chicago's magnificent skyscrapers bundled up together.
  • In Halo, Chicago in Halo 2 is the multiplayer map known as Foundation.

Comics, manga, and cartoons

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Miniseries, specials or individual episodes

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Official Site: Bibliography". Graham Masterton. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  2. ^ Levitt, Aimee (13 June 2013). "Jami Attenberg Shows You Can Go Home Again". The Chicago Reader. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Fiction". Joemeno.com. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  4. ^ Coetzee, J.M. (May 27, 2004). "Bellow's Gift", New York Review of Books. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
  5. ^ Hitchens, Christopher (27 April 2000). "Christopher Hitchens reviews 'Ravelstein' by Saul Bellow · LRB 27 April 2000". London Review of Books. 22 (9). Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  6. ^ "BRIA 24 1 b Upton Sinclairs The Jungle: Muckraking the Meat-Packing Industry - Constitutional Rights Foundation". Crf-usa.org. 1906-06-30. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  7. ^ "Dark Knight's kind of town: Gotham City". Today. Associated Press. July 20, 2008. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2014.
  8. ^ Begley, Chris (March 25, 2011). "Chicago Gotham". Gotham Police SUV spotted in Chicago for ‘The Dark Knight Rises. Retrieved February 15, 2023.
  9. ^ Roeper, Richard (March 1, 2018). "Little Seems Real — Not Chicago, Not Bloodshed — in Bruce Willis' 'Death Wish'". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
  10. ^ "Dhoom:3 (2013)". IMDb.com. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  11. ^ "Home That Was Scene Of 'The Fugitive' Murder Is For Sale « CBS Chicago". Chicago.cbslocal.com. 2014-04-18. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  12. ^ Ebert, Roger (December 29, 1976). "The Monkey Hustle". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
  13. ^ Egan, Toussaint (September 5, 2022). "Batman: The Animated Series". Polygon. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  14. ^ "Why you can't visit Soldier Field in Watch Dogs". Joystiq.com. 2014-05-28. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  15. ^ Glagowski, Peter (2020-09-04). "Explore The City Of Lost Heaven In Mafia: Definitive Edition's Latest Trailer". TheGamer. Retrieved 2024-01-18.
  16. ^ "The Golden Age Is Over in C.O.W.L. | News". Image Comics. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  17. ^ "Ghost #11 :: Profile :: Dark Horse Comics". Darkhorse.com. 2015-01-07. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  18. ^ "Godzilla Takes Down the US, City by City, in 'Godzilla vs. America' Comic". TheWrap. 2024-10-18. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
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