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A review by solaireastora
Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff
5.0
Extremely interesting and depressing book. Reading about the extreme dysfunction and collapse of Detroit feels like something that should be inconceivable in a first world nation.
The author does much investigative reporting - spending time with the Detroit fire department, police department, political establishment, and regular citizens.
Having grown up in Detroit and returning to live there again while writing the book, there are many of the author's own family details that lend personal and emotional layers to the story.
"The people of Wayne County now couldn't afford to bury their loved ones. More than 250 sat unclaimed...
'You might say this is a fairly decent barometer of where we are as a society,' the good doctor said with a shrug." pg 179
"That didn't mean Johnnie was trash who should have been left at the bottom of an elevator shaft, said Homer as he fought back tears...
'I don't know why he said that,' Homer croaked. 'He was a person. He was a person. He was a person.'
Of course he was. Of course Nicky was. And Ashley. And all the other no-name "losers" out there. They were all loved by somebody." pg 141,142
The author does much investigative reporting - spending time with the Detroit fire department, police department, political establishment, and regular citizens.
Having grown up in Detroit and returning to live there again while writing the book, there are many of the author's own family details that lend personal and emotional layers to the story.
"The people of Wayne County now couldn't afford to bury their loved ones. More than 250 sat unclaimed...
'You might say this is a fairly decent barometer of where we are as a society,' the good doctor said with a shrug." pg 179
"That didn't mean Johnnie was trash who should have been left at the bottom of an elevator shaft, said Homer as he fought back tears...
'I don't know why he said that,' Homer croaked. 'He was a person. He was a person. He was a person.'
Of course he was. Of course Nicky was. And Ashley. And all the other no-name "losers" out there. They were all loved by somebody." pg 141,142