Memoir Madness: Made in Detroit

For a long time, I wasn't up to reading memoirs.  They're almost like fiction for me in that there's so many of them available, I'm bound not to like the majority of them.  But when I find a good one?  Ooh, baby.

Okay, many people would argue memoirs are like fiction in a good many other ways, but I've never had the energy to join that particular fight.  You only have to try and recall any conversation you had yesterday to be able to put two and two together and figure that memoirs (many of which include events which took place years, not days, ago) are largely creations.  Doesn't mean they're not true.  They are one person's true viewpoint.  And I can happily deal with that. 

That's a topic for a different day.  What we have in captivity today is that rarest of wild animals: the memoir I loved and couldn't stop reading.  Paul Clemens's Made in Detroit: A South of 8 Mile Memoir should be required reading in any college class with the word "diversity" in the title.  Clemens grew up in Detroit and makes it a point throughout the book to stress that he and his family lived in Detroit proper, not the suburbs.  In other words, Clemens lived the life described in the book's blurb: "white in a predominately black city, Catholic in an area where churches were closing at a rapid rate, and blue-collar in a steadily declining Rust Belt." 

It's awesome.  I didn't really know much about Detroit before starting this book, although I'd started to get an inkling about the city from reading Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism.  (I'd also seen pictures showing numerous abandoned buildings in the city's downtown on another website, which was informative.)  But in addition to all that, this is also a fantastic story of growing up boy, growing up Catholic, growing up in a largely segregated city, growing up in what sounds like a beautifully no-nonense family, growing up in college, growing up through marriage and family, and living one's life fully while also trying to give it some thought.  There's only one small chapter where it drags a bit, but the whole makes up for it so beautifully I'm not going to split hairs. 

I also love that Clemens doesn't pull any punches.  He tells you how the city was for him then, and how he thinks about it now.  He doesn't waste any time, even in his very first chapter, dropping you right into the middle of the action (his mother wakes him up to follow and retrieve his father, who himself was rudely awakened by someone shooting out the windows in their truck; he chased after them in one car, and Paul chased after his father in another car) and finishing up with a perfectly detailed and surreal thought about "a city where, when your car was stolen and a black Detroit cop happened, several hours later, to arrive on the scene, the quizzical look you were given said, 'What are you doing here?'--as if, at seventeen, I were a doddering British farmer, stubbornly tending land in a country I insisted on calling Rhodesia."  (p. 7.)

Not to be too demanding, but I want all of you to read it immediately and then come back so we can talk about it; it's got a lot of things to say about race and society that I'd desperately love to talk over with someone. 

Comments

[Sarah]

I have always had an interest in Detroit probably because my family is from near there and I grew up in a similarly rusty city in Minnesota. I read this book when it first came out and found it fascinating. I heartily agree that this is a must read.

[CitizenReader]

Sarah,
I'm so glad you liked it too. Evidently it was a New York Times Notable book as well, which surprised me, because I'd never ever heard of it--I just stumbled upon it in, of all places, our pop culture collection at the library. Good stuff.

Unfortunately, there's lots of "rusty cities" all over the Midwest...I think big changes are coming and I just hope we can cope.

[The Laundress]

Ah. Well. To paraphrase Mr. Cole Porter, I happen to like Detroit.

Very much, my household's favorite vacation was there. We plan to go back soonish.

Intrigued more by your powerful thumbs up (plus that from commentator Sarah up above) than by the book's description. Hey, the belt has been rusting all over this part of the country and black and white issues are everywhere... but it sounds like this guy has something new to say. Will check it out!

ps the images of the abandoned book warehouse are heartstopping!

[CitizenReader]

Laundress!
I would be very, very interested in hearing what you think about this one, keeping in mind your southside (we know of where) youth. Let me know, okay? And oops--I wrote the entry and made it sound like the memoir has pictures of abandoned Detroit. It doesn't, and I'll have to fix that. The pictures are from a different blog about Detroit (click on the link--you'll find that page interesting too). I'll go edit the post, sorry about that.

[Kathy]

Hey, CR--

I'm sure all the people who remember paying that .75 fine five years ago, or who are positive they returned that DVD in 2001 would disagree with you about the accuracy of their memories....

I grew up in the 'burbs of Detroit, though rather earlier than Clemens did; thanks a lot for yet another book to add to the virtual TBR pile.

[CitizenReader]

Kathy,
Ha! You know the first thing I think when people pull that "I never checked that item out, even though it's from 2002...I remember EVERYTHING I did in 2002!!"? I think, "Hi, Liar!" It starts us off on the wrong foot, to say the least.

Can't wait to hear what you think of Made in Detroit. I'd particularly like to hear a native's opinion...

[Lisa]

CR,
Just finished Made in Detroit. While I found it a little harder to read than you did, I was completely impressed by the complexity his tale: literature, Catholicism, racism, the utter implosion of Detroit plus much more. Wow. His wrestling with his racism was almost too subtle and nuanced to grasp. But Wow again. If we all thought about our own stands on moral issues as deeply as he does, we might be in a better place. Loved his father. He reminds me a lot of my dad, all that no-nonsense, treat everyone equally stuff (though I can't imagine him chasing someone with a gun). And it was the both my dad and the nun's in my life who knuckled my head and told me to 'think.' A good time to read the book as I'm sure we'll be bombarded with thinly veiled racist pap in the months to come.

[Citizen Reader]

Lisa!
You READ it! Come on, wasn't there a TON to think about in that book? I'm SO glad you read it. I still think we should book group it here at CR--you and I would be ahead of the curve because we've already read it.

Yup, I think he never had the luxury of NOT thinking about race and racism--which was instructive all on its own. Even more interesting that he went back, I thought. And I loved his dad. He reminded me a lot of my parents too. I liked his Mom too. Great stuff all around; I wish he'd write something else for me to read.

[Lisa]

Yes, there is tons in this book to chew and stew on. It really is sticking with me too (and somehow getting mixed in my thoughts with The Wire?!). I too loved that he moved back, loved how he talked of missing the 'background music' of his family. (196)

Especially loved the part where his mom was glad that his dad was the one who got carjacked, since she was certain Paul would have killed the guy. Yikes. And he didn't seem to disagree.

Still thinking on it.