Detroit City Is the Place To Be

[marshamusic]

We finally bought this book, and I tore through it in a day. The writer has a wonderful easy style, winding and weaving a great narrative...with potent footnotes, and a thorough index at the end. It is setup not unlike a textbook, true scholarship.

I vaguely remember this fellow around town.

It was simply weird reading, in a book, stories we live and share here every day.

I think it was well-written, but tainted by those he chose to align himself with...Detroit is not one big fight to most people I know and hang around. At least one hustling fighter in the book was treated with perhaps a bit too much coverage, and certainly his prejudices affected Binelli's perceptions. I wonder if Mark was around when this guy got his ass handed to him for letting the air out of an old lady's car tires when she parked in "his spot" for selling t-shirts in the Market?! Sure, he's a fighter...dude can be his own damned promoter! To the hammer, the whole world appears a nail.

Then again, the author didn't even land back here until 2009, just after all the really wild stuff stopped. Now, we've got so many new faces in some parts of town, even less than one year later [[after the publication) portions of Detroit have morphed into very different, nearly unrecognizable places. And the decline in the rest of it has predictably continued unabated.

But I've made the same drive into the city three times since reading his take of his time here, and the simple fact that I'm seeing a few things I didn't previously proves that Mr. Binelli did, indeed, hit a home run with this book. At least with THIS lifelong Detroiter.

Buy "Detroit City Is the Place to Be" by Mark Binelli, if you haven't already. If so, buy another for a friend.

Cheers!
John

Did you see me in the book Gannon? I drove him around and told him many stories about "real life" in Detroit.

[Gannon]

Did you see me in the book Gannon? I drove him around and told him many stories about "real life" in Detroit.

Impossible to miss, darlin'! Actually, I cheated a bit.

When I first cracked the book, I went to the table of contents...and then immediately to his index...the moment I noticed it existed.

I scanned the listing backwards to see who he might've written about that I knew. Turns out to be quite a bit, I wasn't surprised. Saw your dad's name, so I knew you were in it.

By the time I'd read up to your part, though, I already grew tired of reading all the verbs in past tense. My story would be written in the present tense, even when describing everyone who came before but has gone on...because their memories, and perhaps spirits, are still with us.

But especially for those who are continuing in their work...their struggle to maintain...their lives...in this strange and twisted existence we all suffer and enjoy. Maybe that's how I'll differentiate...using only progressive/continuous forms for those who are exactly that.

Don't mean to get so tense over verbs...but it really bugged me after a while. I had to remind myself that the dude moved out, even AFTER catching what I've always called the Spirit of Detroit. He started rooting for the citizens of the city...that was my favorite part of his story, actually!

Did you really mean to leave him with the feeling that you'd split town if you left to visit your sister or son?! I DID love the way you splashed onto the scene for him, though, that was absolutely fucking perfect. And all too true.

Cheers

[marshamusic]

Ah, Gannon you're funny!

Yeah, it was a great moment, at a meeting on ruin porn [[except they didn't call it ruin porn) at a shed at the Eastern Market).

Funny you should pick out that conversation. When the NY Times called to fact-check for their story on the book, that was the only quote that I thought didn't exactly reflect my feelings, but since it was already in the book, and I did actually say it, I let it go.

But basically, I hate to fly and when I leave - especially from a cool city, visiting folks who I really miss - I'm not quick to want to return. But no turning the lights out here for me :-)

btw, I've been amazed at how much traction his segment about meeting me has had; Atlantic Cities, the Nation, etc sited it. The Times review, called me the "soul of the book", which might be a dubious distinction [[and I wince at the use of some of my quotes) but even so.....

Did you see this?
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/nei...-project/4884/

By the looks of it, seems like you should be writing about Detroit, yourself.