A Walk on the Wild Side

A Walk on the Wild Side is a 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, most often quoted as the source for Algren's "three rules of life": "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own." Algren noted, "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives." Fitz Linkhorn barely managed to make a living pumping out cesspools, but his consuming vocation was preaching from the courthouse steps in Arroyo, a small town in the Rio Grande... Valley of Texas. He denounced all sins except drinking, because he was drunk as often as possible. Fitz had two sons, Byron, who was weak and sickly, and Dove. Dove had no education because his father had not wanted to send him to a school with a Catholic principal. Instead, he was supposed to see movies with Byron to learn about life, but Dove never got to go; his brother did not have the price of a ticket. Dove got his education from the hoboes who hung around the Santa Fe tracks, telling one another what towns, lawmen, jails, and railroad bulls to avoid.
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