Detroit

An American Autopsy

By: Charlie LeDuff

Narrated by: Eric Martin

Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

In the heart of America, a metropolis is quietly destroying itself. Detroit, once the richest city in the nation, is now its poorest. Once the vanguard of America’s machine age - mass production, automobiles, and blue-collar jobs - Detroit is now America’s capital for unemployment, illiteracy, foreclosure, and dropouts.

With the steel-eyed reportage that has become his trademark and the righteous indignation that only a native son can possess, journalist Charlie LeDuff sets out to uncover what has brought low this once-vibrant city, his city. In doing so, he uncovers the deeply human drama of a city filled with some of the strongest and strangest people our country has to offer.

©2013 Charlie LeDuff (P)2013 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Full of both literary grace and hard-won world-weariness...Iggy Pop meets Jim Carroll and Charles Bukowski." ( Kirkus)

Gritty and authentic, just like Detroit

Any additional comments?

LeDuff's narrative of the Motor City squalor is gritty and authentic. The city IS a mess and he pulls no punches. He weaves the city's story with his family's history and demons artfully, albeit with blue collar language and coarseness that makes the book unsuitable for younger readers.

Pray for Detroit

Detroit has been there my whole life, dying a little more every year. First there was the fear, then the fires, the scrappers, and now the deer. Charlie LeDuff explores his home town as a reporter, a war-time correspondent to the American tragedy. The stories he offers on the firefighters, the police, and the politicians is the best I've read explaining aspects of what I've heard through my own family. The stories Charlie offers on his own connection to Detroit, going in some way back to its founding in 1701, are a summary of how Detroit can weigh on you, change you in ways others don't appreciate, are wrenching.

With one exception (Mac-i-naw, not Mac-i-nac) the narrator absolutely nailed this performance as a film noir detective narrating a hard Detroit storyscape.

RIP Detroit Firefighter Walter Harris.

Spectacular

Charlie LeDuff is an incredible talent....arguably the best “pure writer” I’ve ever read. Bravo Charlie! Bravo!

The reader mispronounced quite a few words.

I thought these things had directors and editors. It's a book aimed at those familiar with Detroit, so the mispronounced words stand out a lot.

Awesome

Good story and told very well. I listened and read a total of four times.

Compelling true crime story and very dark comedy

What made the experience of listening to Detroit the most enjoyable?

The narrator captured the voice of Charlie LeDuff. Sad a world weary in a shocking world of corruption and incompetence.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Monica Conyers seemed like a bad character on a late night comedy show. I had to go to YouTube to confirm that outrageous stories in the book.

Have you listened to any of Eric Martin’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Without giving the plot away, I will say that if this were a novel, I would have thrown it away because it is impossible to believe that any story could be this sad. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it get much, much worse.

Any additional comments?

Charlie McDuff tells parallel stories of life in Detroit, the history of the city and his own family and friends. I listened through in a few days.

dramatic narration but good portrayal of Detroit

melodramatic, fake deep, and frequently sexist

almost vignettes about the city rather than any cohesive analysis or broader narrative- he's into showing you how gritty everything (including himself) is, and the detective noir voice gets annoying. His writing is sometimes trite to the point of near satire, but that's what you get from journalists. (like a dark Mitch albom). His personal revelations and life are a big "so what?".

he's right about the systemic corruption and the city though. I appreciate his resentment towards the white, suburban, arts and culture urban farming types, who get real old on the morning radio here.

Journalist's Anecdotes About a Fromer Great City

The book is about one journalist's experiences dealing with the buracracy of a failing city. He sees firsthand the entrenched corruption that made Detroit fail. It's not a question of race, but most of the bad actors are African-Americans who consistently take advantage of the most poor and vulnerable of thier own race. They do this by outright stealing of money or shifting funds to favored beneficieries who then kick the money back to them. Most know they are doing it, and further, know the consequences, but they live in a world removed from public service while pledging to do good.
We learn of firemen who have to manufacture their own alarms so they can respond to fires. Of firefighting equipment that doesn't work leading to fatalities. Of policemen who have to take buses to respond to emergency calls; that is if they even bother to show up. And ambulances that may, or may not, respond to emergency calls becasue they are so over burdened.
The author clearly gives his perspective but in doing so he also creates important insights. There is a lesson too: this can happen to other cities. Today we talk about our crumbling infrastructure but how can it not happen when most of governments' money goes to pay for current consumption, i.e. entitlements and not on capital improvements. Today we live in a "me first" environment and point fingers when something cathastrophic occurs becasue we don't want to give up on our own selfish priorities. That what "Detroit" is all about.

Great story telling

I grew up in Dearborn. Living in a city that boarders Detroit, but never going into Detroit unless there was good reason, I never knew the city. I left after high school graduation and never really looked back. This is a great book. I wasn't sure what it would be. Yes, it is about Detroit, but it is about the poor and unnoticed and unacknowledged everywhere. It is about corruption and how it hurts everyone. And it is told in an enthralling voice. This is the the dirty real life of the big city.

It's worse than I realized

What did you like best about this story?

The raw details

Any additional comments?

You really have to have a connection to Detroit to understand and enjoy this book. Knowing a little of Detroit history helps too. Kudos to whoever recorded this book....you got most of the Detroit and Michigan, streets/towns/landmarks pronounced correctly.....this has been a problem in the past. Sad to think that I can never go home again, not even to visit.
A former eastsider.