"The hardboiled audacity and wit that became Hecht's signature as Hollywood's most celebrated screenwriter are conspicuous in these vignettes. Most of them are comic and sardonic, some strike muted tragic or somber atmospheric notes.... The best are timeless character sketches that have taken on an added interest as shards of social history." - L. S. Klepp, Voice Literary Supplement "Hecht ... Read moreis attempting to do for Chicago something of what Dickens did for London; he stands appalled before the spectacle of the streets with their tumultuous, mysterious throngs." - New York Times" Show Less