White Flight - (New Chicago Classics) by Bill Hillmann (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Chicago's western suburbs. Young Joe Walsh is making a go of it at a new school, still haunted by his rough-and-tumble city upbringing. He's got some great opportunities-a summer seminar at one of the world's top physics laboratories, a hard-hitting Catholic clergyman and boxing instructor who thinks he's got talent in the ring, and a beautiful girlfriend who's giving him some much-needed love and support. But the challenges of Chicago have followed him to its outskirts; his sister's struggling to recover after being shot by one of his former friends, his mom's unvarnished ways are rubbing their wealthy neighbors the wrong way, and his brother's fresh out of prison and falling into old habits. Like many young men before him, Joe's taking out his frustrations in the boxing ring, and dreaming of a triumphant career--but will that, too, become a prison?

This follow-up to Bill Hillmann's The Old Neighborhood connects like a 1-2 punch. It's another modern classic from one of the city's best authors, a powerful story unlike anything you've read before.

Review Quotes

"A story as big-hearted and quick-witted as Chicago itself-searing, dynamic and authentic.
-- Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting

"What a tender big too-hearted tale Bill Hillmann has crafted in White Flight. I felt like I was between rounds with my gloves on while Bill Hillmann, my corner man, sang arias of pain and glory, telling me to brace for the next punch. A poet of the pugilistic arts, Hillmann writes of hood life with a street warrior's soul."

-- Joseph G. Peterson, author of The Perturbation of O

"Not too many books make you trade in your heart to learn what happens to the characters, but this one does--in big, visceral ways. Hillman grabs you up, hustles you off into his world. He takes you places you might want to go, and plenty you don't.

White Flight is an urban epic tale about family, love, loss, and reward. It's also a manual on how to beat the living shit out of someone. (As well as yourself.) From the city to the suburbs to the joint, it's a road fraught with all life has to offer, a path that lives alongside, above, and under America's streets of gold. The voice describing it is harrowing and horrific, deep and loving.

If you're up for a read about real people, and your heart is stout, this book is full of flight. Hop on. Bill Hillman's got places to go."

-- Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr., author of The El and co-editor of Never Whistle at Night

About the Author

Dr. Bill Hillmann is a full-time professor of English and Communications at East-West University in Chicago. He is the author of four books--the novel The Old Neighborhood, and The Burbs, and the memoirs Mozos and The Pueblos--and is writing the sequel to The Burbs. His writing has appeared at CNN, NPR, and VICE, and in the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Mail, the Toronto Star, and various others. He created the National College Story Slam competition, where students from across the country compete telling five-minute personal stories. Hillmann is a former Chicago Golden Gloves boxing champion and union construction laborer, and is married to Paula Andion Zabalza.