A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren
**A Walk on the Wild Side** by Nelson Algren is a novel set in the postwar United States, primarily focused on the experiences of a young man named Dove as he navigates life in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and later in New Orleans. The story unfolds against a backdrop of societal challenges, including poverty and the complexities of human relationships. Dove, who has no formal education due to his father's refusal to send him to a Catholic school, learns about life through various encounters with marginalized individuals, including hoboes and workers in the underbelly of society.
The narrative explores themes of love, self-discovery, and the harsh realities of existential struggles. Dove's journey is marked by significant relationships, particularly with Terasina, a woman who helps him develop his reading skills, and Hallie, a former schoolteacher who becomes involved in the world of prostitution. As Dove grapples with his identity and experiences a series of adventures, including working in a brothel and a condom factory, he confronts the challenges of his environment. The novel is characterized by its vivid depiction of characters living on the fringes of society, providing a critical lens on the human condition and the pursuit of meaning amid adversity.
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A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren
First published: 1956
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Picaresque
Time of plot: 1930’s
Locale: Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana
Principal characters
Dove Linkhorn , a hobo, con artist, and sexual athleteTerasina Vidavarri , owner of the café in Arroyo, Texas, and Dove’s loverKitty Twist , Dove’s hobo companion and later a prostitute in the whorehouse in New Orleans where he worksOliver Finnerty , a New Orleans whorehouse operatorAchilles Schmidt , a legless strongmanHallie Breedlove , a classy prostitute who is in love with him
The Story:
Fitz Linkhorn barely manages to make a living pumping out cesspools, but his consuming vocation is preaching from the courthouse steps in Arroyo, a small town in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. He denounces all sins except drinking, because he is drunk as often as possible. Fitz has two sons: Byron, who is weak and sickly, and Dove. Dove has had no education because his father does not want to send him to a school with a Catholic principal. Instead, Dove is supposed to see movies with Byron to learn about life, but he never gets to go because his brother does not have the price of a ticket. Dove gets his education from the hoboes who hang around the Santa Fe tracks, telling one another what towns, lawmen, jails, and railroad bulls to avoid.
Dove begins hanging around the La Fe en Dios chili parlor in the ruins of the Hotel Crockett on the other side of town. The hotel is the place where Fitz had met the mother of his sons. The hotel is closed, but the seldom-visited café is not; it is run by Terasina Vidavarri, a wary woman who had been raped by a soldier. She continues Dove’s education by teaching him how to read from two books: a children’s storybook and a book about how to write business letters. Dove and Terasina eventually become lovers, and at one point Dove takes Terasina by force.
Byron steals from the café, and Terasina mistakenly blames Dove for the crime. She is so angered that she throws him out, and Dove leaves Arroyo on a freight train. He takes up with a girl named Kitty Twist, a runaway from a children’s home, and saves her life when she is about to fall under the wheels of a train. When the two attempt a burglary in Houston, Kitty is caught. Dove gets away on a freight train to New Orleans, and one of the first things he sees after he arrives there is a man cutting the heads off turtles that are to be made into turtle soup. The man throws the turtle bodies into a pile, and, even with the heads cut off, the bodies try to climb to the top of the pile. One is able to reach the top of the pile before it slides back to the bottom.
In the port city, with its many different influences and cultures, Dove experiences his most interesting adventures. He works as a painter on a steamship (but does not paint anything), fools a prostitute who tries to rob him, sells coffeepots and “beauty certificates” (which supposedly entitle the bearer to a treatment at a beauty shop) while seducing the women to whom he is selling, and, in his most memorable escapade, works in a condom factory. The condoms, which are called O-Daddies and bear interesting names and colors, are made in a house by a mom-and-pop firm run by Velma and Rhino Gross.
Dove’s lengthiest stay is with the people who inhabit the twin worlds of Oliver Finnerty’s brothel and Doc Dockery’s speakeasy. In the brothel he finds—in addition to his old friend Kitty Twist, who has become a prostitute—Hallie Breedlove, a onetime schoolteacher who is the star of Finnerty’s string of girls. Hallie is in love with Achilles Schmidt, a former circus strongman whose legs have been cut off by a train. Schmidt’s upper body is still powerful, and every day he surges into Dockery’s bar with the air of one who could beat up anyone there—and he could. Dove’s main job at Finnerty’s is to couple with the girls in the place, who pretend to be virgins being deflowered, while customers watch through peepholes.
Hallie, who still retains vestiges of her former life as a teacher, is interested in Dove’s mind and helps him to continue to learn to read. Dove’s closeness to Hallie angers Schmidt, however, and Schmidt assaults Dove in Dockery’s bar. He beats Dove so badly that Dove is blinded, and then a gang of people descend on Schmidt and kill him. Dove manages to make his way back to Texas and Terasina’s café.
Bibliography
Algren, Nelson. Conversations with Nelson Algren. Interviews by H. E. F. Donohue. New York: Hill & Wang, 1964. In a series of interviews, Algren discusses his life and his writings, including A Walk on the Wild Side.
Bluestone, George. “Nelson Algren.” Western Review 22 (Autumn, 1957): 27-44. Bluestone was the first to identify Algren as not only a naturalistic writer but also one with broader themes than tragic realism. Includes some discussion of A Walk on the Wild Side.
Cox, Martha Heasley, and Wayne Chatterton. Nelson Algren. Boston: Twayne, 1975. Provides discussion of all of Algren’s work up to 1975, with a chapter on A Walk on the Wild Side. Includes biographical information and bibliographies.
Giles, James R. Confronting the Horror: The Novels of Nelson Algren. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1989. Discusses A Walk on the Wild Side as an example of absurdist comedy and notes the influence on Algren of the works of Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
Horvath, Brooke. Understanding Nelson Algren. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2005. Examination of Algren’s work features a brief overview of his life and detailed analysis of A Walk on the Wild Side and other writings. Describes Algren’s literary style and the social and political concerns expressed in his work.
Lipton, Lawrence. “A Voyeur’s View of the Wild Side: Nelson Algren and His Reviewers.” In The Man with the Golden Arm, by Nelson Algren. 50th anniversary critical ed. Edited by William J. Savage, Jr., and Daniel Simon. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999. Lipton’s article, originally published in 1957 in the Chicago Review, evaluates the early critical commentary on A Walk on the Wild Side and offers further critical observations.
Ward, Robert, ed. Nelson Algren: A Collection of Critical Essays. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2007. Collection presents analyses of some of Algren’s novels as well as studies of Algren as an American outsider, the paperback revolution’s effect on Algren’s reputation, and Algren’s relationship to post-World War II Chicago.