A shocking picture of contemporary America and a plastic self-portrait of writer Jan Novák
For three years, Jan Novák spent his money in Chicago. They were heavy: five hundred dollars in quarters weighed thirteen pounds. The largest sum he delivered as an armed courier and driver for United Armored Services was twenty-four million dollars, but he usually had about three million in his armored car. After ten years of freelancing, he chose this job to write about, and he grasped the unique material he experienced there with a narrative conviction all his own. His tales of the Chicago security agency offer vivid depictions of unusual surroundings and vivid portraits of the author's colleagues who put their lives on the line for $10 an hour to walk around Chicago with a gun. Gradually, they form a shocking picture of contemporary America and a plastic self-portrait of the writer himself.
