SOURCE: A review of The Last Carousel, in Commonweal, Vol. XCIX, No. 18, February 8, 1974, pp. 467-69.

In the following excerpt, the critic praises the short stories in The Last Carousel and discusses the similarities between Algren's fiction and nonfiction.

Nelson Algren hasn't written any novels for going on 20 years now—which is sad in a way. But it's not like he's been exactly idle in the years between: The Last Carousel is the third collection of short pieces he has published since his last novel. Unlike the other two (Who Lost an American? and Notes from a Sea Diary), this one contains a lot of short fiction. There is a sad-funny section on whore-house life that had been cut from A Walk on the Wild Side, titled "The House of the Hundred Grassfires." And there are a good-sized handful of short stories that have appeared over the years in...