Author: Charlie LeDuff
Publication date: 2013
Detroit reached a peak population of nearly 1.9 million people in the 1950s and was 83 percent white. Now Detroit has fewer than 700,000 people, is 83 percent black and is the only American city that has surpassed a million people only to contract below that threshold.
The prospect of reading a book that takes place in my hometown was one I was excited about. As a native Detroiter, there are many stories fictional and nonfictional to consider. And yet I still ended up reading Charlie LeDuff's book.
LeDuff is also a native Detroiter. He returned to Motown after a Pulitzer-prize winning stint at The New York Times to work at The Detroit News around the same time I left home for the first time and headed to West Michigan. I was intrigued to read a local's take on the plight of my city.
At the end of the day, the Detroiter may be the most important American there is because no one knows better than he that we're all standing at the edge of the shaft.I wasn't living in Detroit when LeDuff moved from newspapers to television coverage so I haven't been subject to his personality or celebrity before reading his book. Sure, I've read his work in the News maybe even in the Times but this book is part memoir part reporter's notebook. And while I often enjoyed his observations and some of his storytelling I could really have done without his bigoted and racist references. Noting a likely mugger had gold fillings "like the Mexicans get" and referring to his brother's coworker as a retard and others as "hillfolk" or "hillbillies." Just not my cup of tea.
I was acting like an asshole because deep inside that chasm I could hear my own echo: You are an asshole.Perhaps what was missing from LeDuff's book for me was insight on what is needed to restore Detroit. Perhaps I'm just not ready to consign my city to death. And, perhaps LeDuff really just is an asshole.
Two stars
Next challenge: A book with a love triangle
No comments:
Post a Comment