The Neon Wilderness By Nelson Algren

Soooooo....My friend M____ introduced me to this awesome book of short stories by Nelson Algren. This is how it happened: I went to the coffee shop one day, and my friend M___ was there. I began to share with him an idea I had for a new poem that I had been working on in my  mind. I told him it had something to do with neon lights. His response to that was "Oh, I know a book that might help. It's called The Neon Wilderness by Nelson Algren." I said  "COOL! I'll definitely check it out!" So, I go home and look it up. What did I find? Well, that it had nothing to do with the poem I had started writing in my mind, but it still sounded very interesting. So, what did I do? I left it alone. DUMB MOVE!
Then, about a week ago I decided to start reading it, and my reaction was this: WOW! Nelson Algren sucked me in to his world. It's a very dark world, which I LOVE.
Why? Nelson Algren's short stories are filled with complete truth; he tells it just like it is. He doesn't glamorize any aspects of drug addiction, alcoholism, crime, and life. PERIOD! Of course, lets not forget the humor found in these short stories. It's great! Trust me on this when I say that you will not regret picking up a copy! And if you're too lazy to go to a bookstore/library and get one, here is a link to most of the short stories:
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Neon_Wilderness.html?id=ZxWdNlbHJigC

It' definitely worth checking it out!

Here are two versions of the cover that I found: