Detroit, past and present
This summer, I had the unique pleasure of spending many long lunch hours in Detroit's Campus Martius park. Camped in a circle off Woodward, just north of Congress and south of Gratiot, the park is filled with people. They stroll casually, chat and eat lunch at patio tables, and listen to local musicians. It’s something you’d envision elsewhere. Not Detroit.
What made these visits even more surreal to me was that at the time I was reading Jeffery Eugenides’ book Middlesex. Besides being a brilliant writer and storyteller, Eugenides packs this book with the most finite details of Detroit during the early 1900s. His descriptions are so masterful that as I sat in my patio chair off Woodward I could see this early Detroit come alive.
Eugenides’ characters visit Grand Trunk, play cards at the first clubs in Greektown (where they strictly spoke Greek), bootleg hooch across a frozen Detroit River, and work in a place called Black Bottom. This is more than a novel, it’s a history lesson. I came to know more about my native city from reading Middlesex than I did from living and going to school in the city itself.
Unlike many books that are rich in detail, this book is a page-turner that keeps you yearning for more. And, at the end, you'll feel like you're saying goodbye to old friends. If you haven’t read Middlesex, you should.
posted by tanagrame @ 5:59 AM
1 Comments:
I think that was my favorite part about that book as well. I learned alot about Detroit's history, and they really felt like eyewitness accounts, especially when he writes about the riots.
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