A review by danielwest
Night Moves by Jessica Hopper

4.0

If Jessica Hopper had been coming up in the 2010's and biking through Wicker, Ukrainian Village, and West Town, perhaps she would have accompanied her bike rides with a pair of bluetooth headphones and a punk mixtape, as long as it didn't blot out the sounds of the city. But since the working-class poetry of Night Moves takes place in the early 00's, it seems that Hopper has substituted a cinematic soundtrack for a reader. The openness with which Hopper writes makes it clear that we're an essential piece of the story. Reading this book before and after my own nights out in these same neighborhoods transforms my own night moves--and the changes that these neighborhoods have gone through in a decade and a half--into the soundtrack for Hopper's writing, influencing my experience of Night Moves and resulting in a nostalgia for what Chicago has lost, a respect for what Chicago holds firm, and a sensitivity for what Chicago will become.