Detroit City Is the Place To Be

[Gannon]

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

[Honky Tonk]

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

Why not pass it along to a friend? [[hint, hint....)

[Király]

Mr. Binelli did, indeed, hit a home run with this book.

I had it out of the library and was too busy to finish it before I had to return it. Now 19 people have a hold on it. So I went to the bookstore to buy it. They were sold out. I prepaid and they told me they could get it in in a week. They then called me and said that their distributor had it on backorder and it would take three weeks to get it in.

And this is in Vancouver, half a continent and a country away from Detroit.

This book made Publisher's Weekly's Top 10 Best Books of 2012, which is probably why there is so much interest in it here in such an unlikely place.

[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