Made in Detroit [Paperback]

Paul Clemens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2006

A New York Times Notable BookA powerfully candid memoir about growing up white in Detroit and the conflicted point of view it produced.

Raised in Detroit during the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, Paul Clemens saw his family growing steadily isolated from its surroundings: 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. As the city continued to collapse—from depopulation, indifference, and the racial antagonism between blacks and whites—Clemens turned to writing and literature as his lifeline, his way of dealing with his contempt for suburban escapees and his frustration with the city proper. Sparing no one—particularly not himself—this is an astonishing examination of race and class relations from a fresh perspective, one forged in a city both desperate and hopeful.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Clemens's life has been shaped by three powerful factors: his autoworker father's rock-solid decency and fair-mindedness; a good Catholic education through high school (and natural bookishness); and the experience of growing up as a white kid in a black city. This last aspect forms the basis of Clemens's probing, insightful memoir. In 1973, Clemens's birth year, Coleman Young became Detroit's first black mayor and reigned for 20 years thereafter. During that time, the city lost half its population and nearly all its white citizens, and became the murder, arson and unwed mother capital of the non-warring world, with enough crime, corruption and lack of common sense at government levels to classify as a Third World city. Is such a statement racist? Clemens wrestles with that question, using his own life experience, especially in high school sports, and his obsessive reading of James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Malcolm X, Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor and even Coleman Young. He concludes that he is not a racist—he's in fact become a middle-class liberal. Though Clemens retains doubts, he seems as fair in his self-analysis as his much-loved father, and despite some scares, he has not yet abandoned Detroit.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The New Yorker

Detroit's population has halved since the nineteen-fifties, the result both of decline in the auto industry and, starting in the late sixties, of white flight in the wake of race riots. Born in Detroit in the seventies, Clemens grew up in a white enclave, and his memoir lovingly depicts his soft-spoken, gearhead father, who could shift from first to fifth without ever engaging the clutch, and his stalwart mother, who cleaned houses to pay for a private education that would keep her son out of inner-city schools. Embedded in his well-wrought, if conventional, coming-of-age story is an honest and bracing account not only of mutual mistrust across the color divide but also of the peculiar Rust Belt pride that kept whites and blacks locked together, even as the city collapsed around them.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (October 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400075963
• ISBN-13: 978-1400075966
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #394,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Read, September 27, 2005

By 

Francie (Detroit) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Made in Detroit: A South of 8 Mile Memoir (Hardcover)

I read this book in a marathon sitting. I had a hard time believing that this is a first time author- the prose is gorgeous and suprisingly emotional.

If you have read the reviews in the Times, or the Wall Street Journal, or even the reviews here, you already know the general storyline. Above all, this book is going to be remembered for its honesty- it is tremendously politically incorrect given the earnestness of the times, and utterly refreshing.

I wonder at the reviewer before me- did we read the same book? Calling his father a "redneck" is highly suprising. The character is one of the most noble and endearing that I have come across in a long time. If he were a redneck, then I doubt he would have taken such care in instilling a sound moral character in his son. And criticizing the book because the author can't reconcile his feelings of race is just missing the point of the story- The inner struggle is what the book is about, and I doubt, faced with his expriences, that very few of us would be able to reconcile in the "happy ending" it seems she was looking for. And dissing the author for living in the suburbs? For the record, I live in the city. And when I have children, I will be leaving. Just like the author- it is not the P.C. thing to do, but as a parent (which, the author also is) it is the responsible thing to do. The schools are a disaster. Unless you live here, you should not judge.

44 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Motown blues, blacks and whites, September 29, 2005

By 

Detroit Blogger (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Made in Detroit: A South of 8 Mile Memoir (Hardcover)

It's a white thing you wouldn't understand is the theme of this story. A coming of age for author and Detroit and neither one is pretty. Of local interest to Metro Detroiters since the white angst he describes isn't present in other cities. More tract than memoir but still a good read.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's not a bad read, January 14, 2006

By 

The Paz "pazmanian" (New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Made in Detroit: A South of 8 Mile Memoir (Hardcover)

I grew up in the same area, went to Catholic schools in the city, but I am just a few years old then the author. The author brings up many valid points in the book that some dismiss as racist. It's easy to call Clemens racist, but for those people that do, I guess it's easier then accepting some of the facts that are laid out in this book.

I still go downtown and don't let the hype of the crime keep me out, but facts are facts. The City has been dying for years, and with the re-election of Kilpatrick as Mayor, I don't see much desire on the part of the voters to do much to turn things around.

You can think Clemens as racist, but that's just simple way of denying some of the truth pointed out in the book. I don't agree with all of his premises, but he does make good points and there is a problem in this area which can't be denied. So don't just take the easy way out and call him a racist.