Post # 100  December

Quote of the day: "Michiganians seem to have an almost mystical feeling about water and the north woods -- that dark, mysterious, wonderful land that lies north of Clare." Martha Bigelow. Michigan: A State in the Vanguard," in Heartland by James Madison.1988.

Author's Note

In the past year readership has approach nearly a 1,000 page-views on a couple of months and regularly drew seven to eight hundred readers a month. The number of page-views a month was very gratifying. I had never looked at a breakdown of the readership available via the platform on which the blog is run. But the readership numbers sparked my curiosity and led to a stunning discovering. Michigan readership was steady at three to four hundred a month but three hundred plus readers could regularly be divided between Hong Kong and Singapore. Some months Hong Kong readers alone out numbered Michigan readers. I was also surprised to find that in the past year the blog was read in more than thirty countries. I am at a loss to explain or understand the foreign interest. In the last couple of months while foreign page-views continued to rise, Michigan readership began to fall. This past month the blog drew 280 readers from the Netherlands while Michigan drew 189. If this trend continues Michigan in Books will fold. I can't ask authors and publishers for review copies when the review will reach less than 200 Michigan readers.  And I would welcome any opinions on why this blog attracts so many foreign readers.  

I have enough review copies on hand for at least two more postings. The decision to continue Michigan in Books will depend on the number of Michigan readers in what maybe the last couple of posts.

 Reviews

The Ghosts of Detroit by Donald Levin

One of my favorite genres is historical fiction. I'm drawn to it because I am fascinated by everyday life in the past, whether recent or ancient. I find that really good historical fiction can often do a better job of immersing the reader in the life, times, and everyday society of the past than non fiction and tell a great story at the same time. Two of the best examples of this are Ken  Follet's book "The Pillars of the Earth" and succeeding books in that series. The second example is Donald Levin's novels that vividly depict everyday life, culture, and the major issues faced by Detroiters at major turning points in the city's recent history. Levin's novels not only capture the city's culture and society with fascinating clarity and detail he is also a natural born storyteller.

His latest novel is set in 1950s Detroit and is experienced by four major characters. Jake Lieberman is a Jewish WWII veteran who lives with the horror he saw in the Nazi death camps while he experiences the prejudice at home of being a Jew. And it appears he will never outlive the taint imposed on him by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Anna Miller works three jobs to stay financially afloat while trying to make something of her photographic talent and overcome being a victim of abuse. Malone Coleman, another would be artist, was fired as a custodian because he once belonged to the National Negro Labor Council and is determined to discover who and why that person went out of their way to denounce him. Bridget McManus is a war widow and female Detroit police officer. Detroit female cops at that time were not allowed to make arrests or investigate crimes unless accompanied by a male officer. Yet, she is determined to hunt down a serial child killer.

It is through these characters that readers are immersed in the major issues facing Detroiters in the '50s. The country's Automobile Capitol is starting to leak jobs as the automobile industry begins to move plants out of Michigan. As ghettoes are replaced by expressways and African Americans try to move into white neighborhoods they are met with hatred and violence. McCarthyism flourishes in Detroit and in league with bigotry ruins lives and emboldens persecution. The author does a great job of totally involving the reader in the daily hurdles the characters must clear to grasp a share of the land of the free and the home of the brave.  The novel builds to a moving, surprising, yet a completely believable conclusion that effects all four characters. I have totally lost myself in every book in this series.  Previous volumes are "The Arsenal of Deceit" and "Savage City." Do yourself a favor and crack the cover of one of the above.

The Ghosts of Detroit by Donald Levin. Poison Toe Press, 2024, 322p., $22.95.

Letters Home: A Memoir of Michigan's "Up North" Country by Tom Leonard

In 1965 two teenage best friends came up with the crazy idea of riding their bicycles from Wacosta, Michigan, a small-town northwest of Lansing, 800 miles north to Marquette in the U.P. I don't know which I find more surprising, that the boys made the trip on their bicycles, or their parents allowed them to go. This was before cell phones, todays many long-range bicycle trails, and little interest or popularity in cross-country bicycling. Most state highway shoulders were gravel or so broken and patched they were unrideable. So the boys rode on the edge of the pavement as cars and trucks whizzed by little more than a foot or two away. They often edged further out on the pavement and had cars honk at them to move over. Did fifteen-year-olds or their parents understand the danger. I don't know but suspect that the boys, like all teenagers, felt they were immortal.

Enough with my initial reaction to this absorbing tale of an incredible accomplishment by two young men and their adventure of a lifetime. The author of the book was allowed to go with the understanding that he would write and mail his parents a letter everyday without fail. Even after 60 years much of the trip must still bring back vivid memories but the author also had the daily letters he sent home to refer to. The author admits the day they left home both boys felt they were "delusional" to think they could make it to Marquette and the whole idea was "absurd." Yet they pedaled on because they "would rather have died rather than admit defeat so soon."

The author captures the adventure of the open road and details the surprises, challenges, and people they meet each day. They spend a night in jail when they couldn't find a room which proved to be a whole lot more comfortable than the $2 a night motel room they spent a night in that was a "rat-invested hole." They got preached to by an old lady who sold them each a glass of cherry juice for 5-cents and days later are treated to a tidal wave of creative and constant profanity from a bicycle shop owner as he repaired one of their bikes. The observations and deeply felt reactions of the two teens as they experience the wonder of Michigan, and the character of its people is evident on nearly every page. Readers can't help but find themselves riding along with the boys on their great adventure.

Letters Home: A Memoir of Michigan's "Up North" Country by Tom Leonard. Privately Published, 2024, 112p., $14.95.

Memories of a Mackinac Island Native: Life on the Island from the 1940s to the 2020s by Tom Chambers

In the very first sentence the author writes he "will not attempt to cover a detailed Mackinac Island history." By the end of the book, I wish he had covered more history and less personal memories than included listing every bicycle he ever owned, the musical albums he collected, listing the names of fellow students in the various schools he attended, or recalling every member of the rock and roll band he played in. On the other hand his descriptions of how the island's Main Street changed over the years is fascinating. Where once a dentist's office and three drug stores could be found on Main Street at the turn of the 20th Century they gave way to high quality gift shops and galleries. By mid century ticky-tacky souvenir and fudge shops lined Main Street. His detailed recording and history of the development of the ferry service to the island and the names and descriptions of the many ferries that plied the waters of straits I found very interesting.

I would like to know how typical his life is compared to other natives of the island. From a young age he seems to have led the life of a vagabond. He attended schools in St. Ignace, the northern lower peninsula, Florida, and various grades in the Mackinac Island school system. He transferred back to the Mackinac Island high school late in his senior year because he wanted to graduate on the island. For many years, as an adult, he worked on the island during the summer and spent the winters working in Florida. The author has lived on the island year-round since 1982. His first job as a teenager on the island was running the ancient projector in a movie theater. In the following years he found work as a cook, bartender, maker of judge, and a painter that also closed cottages for the winter and opened them in the spring. He also worked as a street sweeper because it was the best government paid job on the island at $5.50 an hour. I would have liked to know if  that was the job title for the workers who I saw on every visit to the island sweeping up horse apples.

In the acknowledgements preceding the 1st chapter the author states that he struggled "with how  much should be history, and how much autobiography." He then goes on to write "if a chapter isn't your cup of tea ...... simply skip it." Readers will skip very few chapters.

Memoirs of A Mackinac Native: Life in the Island from 1940s to 2020s by Tom Chambers. Modern History Press, 2024, 136p., $17.95.