Interesting, but pretty disjointed ( )

Made in Detroit, the memoir by Paul Clemens, is a tale of growing up in the 1970s in one of the Motor City’s last white neighborhoods. It’s fascinating to see the whole “minority status” issue turned on its head, and he comes out of it with decidedly mixed emotions. It's a struggle, a worthy one, and following his evolving attitudes and understanding of both whites and blacks around him is a thought-provoking journey for readers, as well.
Clemens’s family is Catholic and he gets a Catholic education as parishes and schools close one by one. Meanwhile, the family’s economic stability is increasingly shaky due to the rapidly declining auto industry. Yet, the Church and his father’s love of cars were two constants in his life. He says his family members weren’t readers. “There was enough serious content, enough transcendence, in cars and Catholicism; it wasn’t necessary for them to concern themselves with ideas buried away in books.”
Clemens’s book takes place some decades after poet Marge Piercy was born, and she has a book of poems with the same title. Yet the burning skies she refers to in her title poem (steel mills then), sirens, and desolate streets were only more so in Clemens's youth. Despite all the city’s frustrations and conundrums that Clemens describes so well, despite a college education that could have taken him anywhere, he returned to the city. “At times, I feel like a failure in several directions simultaneously,” he writes. “That, with my education and reading, I should be more broad-minded than I am; and that, with the education I received from my father and Sal, I should be angrier about what the broad-minded morons have wrought. . . . Detroit, which drives people to extremes, has left me standing in the middle.” ( )

Paul Clemens' memoir of growing up as a white Catholic iin Detroit's age of decay is funny and moving. While most people they knew moved beyond the city's borders, Clemens' family stayed behind. I'm usually not big on memoirs, but his portraits of his father (a tough but gentle car mechanic), Catholic school life, and the complexity of race relations are all outstanding. ( )

Clemens' reflections on growing up as one of the few white families in Detroit in the 1970s and 1980s is a necessary look at race and culture. He lives in a close-knit Italian, working-class neighborhood and attends a Catholic boys high school. Despite this bubble, Clemens and his family are impacted and influenced by the changing demographics of Detroit. As crime rises and standards lower, Clemens is refreshingly honest in his frustrations. His saves most of his anger for the politicians, including Coleman Young. Extremely well written and candid. ( )

Wow - this one is an interesting insight into the thoughts and actions of white America as urban America became more and more the domain of African American and Hispanic Americans. Helps you to see the racism that exists in yourself. ( )