SOURCE: "Nelson Algren," in Western Review, Vol. 22, No. 1, Autumn, 1957, pp. 27-44.

In the following excerpt taken from an essay in which Bluestone primarily discusses Algren's novels, the critic provides a mixed assessment of The Neon Wilderness, focusing on the story "Design for Departure."

It is true that the stories [in The Neon Wilderness], like meditative finger exercises, explore situations and characters that have already become familiar. The drug addicts, petty thieves, prison inmates, small-time fighters, corrupt police, dypsos, winos, hobos and prostitutes—all are here. The boy in "The Brother's House" who discovers that he cannot return home looks back to Cass McKay; the drugged prostitute in "Is Your Name Joe?" to Steffi R. The fight between Legless Railroad Shorty and the bartender Fancy in "The Face on the Barroom Floor" will appear in A Walk on the Wild Side; "The Captain Has Bad Dreams" in The Man...