Post # 90   November 27, 2023

Quote for the Day: "To the south is the Detroit River and the beautiful green isle of Belle Isle where on any summer evening it is said you can find three thousand empty soft-drink bottles, and almost as many less attractive objects." Harold Livingstone. The Detroiters. 1958.

Reviews

Detroit Unrequited by J. A Cancelmo

This deeply insightful novel has two tightly intertwined stories. Tony came to Detroit in the late 1970s to attend college. It was a memorable four years of exploring Detroit, making great friends,  and a tragedy that scared him for life. Roman, his best friend was murdered on Belle Isle as Tony watched. His feelings of remorse, anger, and guilt  became baggage he's carried for decades. Tony left Detroit, earned a Harvard MBA, and over the years amassed a small fortune. He never considered returning to Detroit but a prospective business deal in the Big D opens the old wounds and he returns in 2013 with hopes of finding some closure and peace. How? He wants the police to reopen Roman's unsolved murder and he intends to poke around himself in hopes of finding a new lead.

The second story is the Detroit Tony experienced in the 1970s and what it had become by 2013, the year the city declared bankruptcy. This story is woven in, around, and through Tony's search for a resolution of Roman's murder. The city has undergone physical, political, and psychological change yet old problems including race, abandonment of the poor, and crime persists. Tony finds the city's residents suffering from "PTSD-etroit." It's a city left a wreck by corporate greed that fled Detroit then a half century later returned to gobble up dirt-cheap properties in downtown. Even his old friends brag about the new downtown core but say little about the deurbanization of a once great city now marked by abandoned and rotting neighborhoods. Chapters often switch back and forth from 2013 to the 70s and sharply contrast the differences nearly four decades have made. The author lived in Detroit in the 70s and has the music, the slang, and attitude down pat.

Tony finds enjoyment and some peace in meeting his old friends and tries to work out long held  personal demons but police inquires unnerve him, and he can't bring himself to go to Belle Isle. When the truth concerning Roman's death is finally revealed and the killer identified it comes as a shock and a new layer of tragedy on top of the old. This fine novel is original, wise, features a well-drawn cast of characters with humor often bandaging the sadness in this memorable portrait of life in the Motor City and a character coming to grips with his past. 

Detroit Unrequited by J. A. Cancelmo. Heliotrope Books, 2023, 271p., $18.50.

That's My Moon Over Court Street: Dispatches from a life in Flint by Jan Worth-Nelson

The essays in this book are simply a joy to read. And please don't let the subtitle lead you astray. Yes, many of the essays are pointedly about living in Flint, but at heart they are deeply personal observations on the joys, conundrums, and the everyday happenings of life. They will evoke a response whether you live in Flint, Muskegon, Reykjavik, or Singapore. Who doesn't smile and connect with the author's taking a bite of cake and experiencing: "pure indulgence, hugging the taste buds and sliding down the throat directly to all parts of you that are worried and afraid."

I was struck by the author's bravery in the way she often bares her soul and writes so openly about her life and how even the seemingly insignificant can profoundly move her. The essays leave readers contemplating their own lives and everyday things that are significant to them. Worth-Nelson writes of comfort food, attics, birds, backyards, taxes, a love for basements, families, faith, junk drawers, nature, unique people she's crossed paths with, and holey socks to name only a few. The author finds humor in unexpected places, and consistently surprises the reader by looking at the familiar or common place in a unique or different light. Many of her essays about Flint are surprisingly optimistic and at times she seems to even surprise herself. However, when the author writes about the Flint Water Crisis, GM's abandonment of the city, or the torching of abandoned houses smoke rises from the page.

The hundred or so essays, usually around 800 words each, were written from 2007 to 2022 and first appeared in the East Village Magazine. Those unfamiliar with the magazine should know it's become an institution in Flint. It covers local news locales need to know from school board meetings, Monty Pythonesque city council meetings and important issues concerning Flint. Jan Worth-Nelsen arrived in Flint in the 1981 as a social worker. She has taught creative writing at U of M-Flint, is a novelist, poet, and served as editor of the East Village Magazine from 2015 to 2022.

If there is a theme to this wide ranging and memorable collection of essays it's in a quote from Goethe the author slipped into one of her essays. He wrote: "Nothing is worth more than this day." Do yourself a favor and read this book.

That's My Moon Over Court Street: Dispatches from a life in Flint by Jan Worth-Nelson. Semicolon Press, 2023, 441p., $18.

Sly Fox Hollow by Brett Allen

This is a novel with a multi-personality disorder, or as one character observes, "This keeps getting weirder and weirder." On the other hand the one constant is humor.  The novel starts off as a warm, humorous description of life in small town Michigan. It then turns into a biting, hilarious satirical portrayal of American politics on the local level, which has recently and intentionally waded into an open cesspool. And finally the novel is taken over by Michigan's favorite bogeyman, The Dogman. The latter third of the novel is part Stephen King and part a Marx Brothers movie.  This novel found your reviewer  hopelessly and irresponsibly out of date when it came to cryptozoology. I read this book proudly believing that The Dogman was Michigan's own Sasquatchian monster. But when Googling Dogman a map recording world sightings of the creature literally blotted out the globe. Well, the D-man may be common place but Allen's very entertaining novel is anything but. 

The hero of this clever, satirical, and ultimate send up of horror stories is Bomber. He was the town's favorite son with a great future as a star high school quarterback until he blew his fame and future with one horrible misplaced pass. Known ever since as the Bomber he works as a cashier in the town's grocery store. His off hours are spent trying to prove the supposed sightings of a Dogman in Fox Hollow goes back more than a hundred years. But his life is about to change when the mayor of Fox Hollow mysteriously dies.

The mayor was Bomber's great Uncle and his sole living relative. The town charter states the closest living relative of a deceased mayor will serve as temporary mayor for two weeks when a new mayor shall be elected. The political fighting between the two announced candidates gets more vicious than a Dogman attack. Which begins to occur as frequently as the old bromide about an apple a day. Soon the town is awash in battling political followers, pseudo Dogman experts and enthusiasts, a super secret EPA agency, and strange goings on at the mansion owned by the town's single biggest business, apple orchards. In addition to a unique plot that had me grinning 'til my cheeks hurt the novel is populated by a laughable collection of wonderfully eccentric characters. The book is more fun than a barrel full of Dogmen.

Sly Fox Hollow by Brett Allen. Hogwash Publishing, 2023, 364p., $17.95.

Marketing the Michigan Way: A Comprehensive Guide to Leveraging Local Points of Interest to Cultivate Lifelong Customers for Michigan Small Businesses 2nd ed. by Andy LaPointe

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If you're the owner of a small business in Michigan this book was specifically written for you. It details a marketing strategy that connects your business to local points of interest. The author writes" the key to success in Michigan is becoming part of the experience in your local area." 

The book presents readers step-by-step instructions on how to achieve this marketing plan which includes identifying the most unique and interesting local attractions and how to incorporate them into your marketing. The author shows how this and other strategies were used to market Traverse Bay Farms which I admit is impressive. The author's three pronged strategy is to tie a business to the emotions of your area's treasures, utilize the local calendar of events, and make it the first choice of locals and tourists.  

I had doubts as to how this could work for certain types of businesses such as a jewelry store, credit union, and a pet groomer. But he won me over with what I thought was the least likely business to benefit from this book - pet groomers. He suggests organizing pet-related events from pet Halloween costume contests to presenting a dog obedience seminar. The author suggests teaming with pet-friendly businesses. Groomers can list or send pet owners to pet-friendly eateries and hotels and they in return send pet owners to the groomer. The author suggest hosting a pet adoption day or weekend supporting local animal shelters. And that is only a small sampling of the ideas for promoting a pet grooming business. The book includes 30 specific types of businesses and presents concrete and common sense suggestions on how they can be marketed the "Michigan Way."

This textbook/workbook is filled with a wealth of information on marketing and is worth a close look by anyone wanting to improve the visibility and marketing of their business to both locales and tourists. 

Marketing the Michigan Way: A Comprehensive Guide to Leveraging Local Points of Interest to Cultivate Lifelong Loyal Customers for Michigan Small Businesses 2nd ed. by Andy LaPointe. Privately Published, 2023, 99p., $14.95.