![]() ![]() 23).Īlong the restaurant-lined streets of Chinatown (such as the “Imperial Palace” of Purg. 20, and “Tommy’s Joint: Sandwiches, Cocktails,” on a street corner ( Purg. ![]() In Birk’s Purgatory, there is a predominance of East Asian food establishments, interrupted by the occasional presence of American bars, lounges and diners, such as “Smitty’s” lounge in the frontispiece to Purgatorio 12, the “Avarice Cafè” in Purg. The ratio shifts in Birk’s Purgatorio, however, as American fast food franchises disappear, save for a lone KFC that looms over the souls of the envious ( Purg. 12) and one Mexican food restaurant, “El Diablito” ( Inf. In Hell, American cuisine establishments vie with only two small signs for Vietnamese food and Chinese fast food, one falafel stand ( Inf. In his Inferno, American fast-food franchises (such as McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks, Subway, and 7 Eleven) and restaurants predominate over ethnic establishments (one only need look at the illustrations to Inf. We see this integration of multiculturalism on the local level in Birk’s incorporation of ethnic food establishments in his Purgatory. If Purgatory is the realm of Dante’s afterlife which most represents our life on earth then, for an American reader of the 21st century, this means an inclusion of the multiple languages, ethnicities, and faiths of an urban American existence. (All images can be located in the Chronicle Books editions.) Selected illustrations from Birk’s Comedy - Purgatorio ![]()
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