In Their Ruin

Most of 'In Their Ruin' takes place in the colorful, parochial Chicago suburb of Cicero, beginning in the late 1940's when the remnants of the gang once led by Al Capone still existed and ethnic prejudices colored people's opinions. Chester, the Stone family's troubled father, is a bookie as well as a mathematical savant, and his brother is a hitman. Gladys, the mother, is from South Dakota and her family is equally influential in the development of the three children-brothers-teaching them folk tales and family legends and how to hunt and fish during long summer vacations. As time passes, street gangs exert their power over the brothers' activities, and Gladys worries about her sons' safety as well as her husband's deteriorating mental health and the family's growing financial instability. It all becomes too much for her and ultimately the brothers are left to raise themselves in both conventional and unconventional ways. Their diverging paths and lingering psychic wounds lead to mutual estrangement, setting each brother on an individual journey to redemption. Women help or hinder them along the way, but Gladys remains the most significant woman in their lives. The book chronicles how members of this striving family , once held together by mutual love and regard, repeatedly court calamity, though humor, adventure, and mishap, as well as stubborn hope and periodic goodwill, relieve the darker aspects of the story. The story is character driven and told in a singular, lyrical style. This novel does a brilliant job of presenting Chicago's working class as it was 75 years ago and as it has changed.