I was wondering if anyone is aware of any really good, serious contemporary fiction set in Detroit? It would seem like this social upheaval would surely give rise to some great novels. Thanks.
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I was wondering if anyone is aware of any really good, serious contemporary fiction set in Detroit? It would seem like this social upheaval would surely give rise to some great novels. Thanks.
Middlesex was pretty excellent.
So what is this "street fiction" and where can one pick some up?
This is an interesting topic. If you expanded your scope to "any novel based in Detroit", we could list a lot of detective novels.
Check out the work by Michael Zadoorian.
All of the William X. Keinsle [[Spelling of the last name might be wrong) murder mysteries place in Detroit. William X. Keinsle was an ex Catholic priest. ALL of his books surround Detroit [[a LOT) and have a Catholic spin on them. One of them [[The Rosary Murders) was made into a movie with Donald Sutherland as the main character, and was filmed in Detroit. Check them out.
There was also another book by Elmore Leonard called Freaky Deaky. Not such a great book, but the setting too was Detroit.
Hope this helps you.
There's lots in the hard boiled/detective/murder mystery genre. Any of Loren D. Estleman books come to mind. Or pulp/street novels, as others have mentioned.
Other than that there seems to be very little. One newer title is Say Nice Things About Detroit, which I read a few months ago. It was OK.
If you want to talk about "street fiction" Donald Goines, a Detroit native, wrote numerous books set in Detroit that are considered classic examples of the genre. Dopefiend was the one that I read.
"Dead of Night" by Barbara Nadel. You can get it on Amazon. She is from England...great murder mystery writer. Met her while she was here doing research for the book.
read a book called "wheels" once...
it had an automotive story, based in detroit....
Daddy Cool was a good book. Loren Estleman writes a pretty good line too, in those Amos Walker books.
Check out the Charlie Sloan mysteries by William Coughlin. I thoroughly enjoyed them all.
http://www.goodreads.com/author/list...iam_J_Coughlin
By Arthur Hailey!
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/124924.Wheels
Similarly....The Betsy by Harold Robbins
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56776.The_Betsy
The Art Student's War - Brad Leithauser
Annie's Ghost - Steve Luxenberg
Both set in and around Detroit - 40's era -
"The Betsy" by Harold Robbins....Novel about the Auto Industry...
I just read "The Purples." It was pretty darn good. Sort of a Billy Bathgate story, based on the Purple Gang.
I've read 270 by Vincent Ware. It starts in Africa and ends in 1967 Detroit.