Driving through Chicago, comparing what Bellow wrote with what we saw, I could only think of how filthy Chicago isn't anymore. More specifically, I kept trying to imagine the smell then versus the absence of smell now. With coal heating gone, so many factories and their smokestacks closed, the dirt and stink of Augie's time has been removed.
Today's Chicago had no discernable odor, just the steady hum of highways that Augie wouldn't have recognized. Who would have thought of noise pollution in 1930?
These photos don't fully capture the smell, but I do think they show how much Chicago has changed. And is changing — almost every photo outside the Loop was framed by new condo developments and newly constructed housing. The city Augie knew is changing again. Despite his old age, I don't think he'd mind.
You can find the entire photo essay here on GapersBlock: then & now the adventures of Augie March.