Charlie LeDuffRecensioni

As I was reading this book a news flash appeared that confirmed former Detroit Mayor Kwami Kilpatrick was convicted of corruption and will likely spend many more years in jail. Kilpatrick is one of several corrupt Detroit officials who appear in LeDuff's literary assassination of the city and its government. In his account public officials steal, lie, and cover-up. They don't fix things. They divert public funds. Businessmen are either corrupt or incompetent or simply uncaring. Policemen and firemen are heroes. Their bosses are careerist and often as corrupt as the politicians. LeDuff goes some distance to concluding that one of Detroit's main problems is that they no longer have the tax base to support public services. But he would add that even if they did have the tax base, somebody would steal it. Is his book really about Detroit? Is it about capitalism? Democracy? Democrats? Or just man's inhumanity to man. I have to think about it a little more deeply before I decide myself. The writing and the reportage is very moving. The death of children caught in the crossfire, finding a homeless man frozen in ice, a fireman caught in a burning building, street banter amongst the dispossessed. All are rendered very real and very frightening.

A decidedly male portrait of a complex city. Detroit noir. The author did a great job of connecting the chapters and vignettes. He writes out of utter respect for the tragic foibles of man. And woman. It’s a city that breaks your heart, because it is committed to. Still, there is a dignity in a poverty of means and spirit that sends the eyes heavenly. There are no lost cities. Particular people with utterly no concept of leadership and community, and sadly monied interests, lose them.

A brief story by a ballsy reporter [see also his interview on Fresh Air] that nails Detroit. I found it refreshing to read a story about a city and its corruption. The corruption in society is usually ignored, certainly in my state, the whole of which runs like a small town - but it is accentuated in Detroit, because everything else that one might consider worthwhile has shriveled up.

Charlie LeDuff, a street-savy journalist, writes about the demise of his home town of Detroit. It's probable that most Americans are aware of the problems of Detroit - collapse of the automotive industry and manufacturing, resulting in the loss of jobs, huge local unemployment, and a decreasing tax base. And these problems led to the decline in public services, failing schools, rising crime rates, increasing drug use, the abandonment of homes, arson, and unfortunately, continuing corruption of public officials. LeDuff brings the story to life by talking to and about real people, not simply by a litany of dry statistics. By describing these problems through the eyes and voices of real people of Detroit, the problems are made all the clearer and that much sadder.

Lots of detailed stories about corruption and decay in Detroit. Not particularly pleasant to read, and while I’ve already written off Detroit, the scary thing is there are plenty of other places in the US which will end up in the same place for the same reasons.

I am glad I read LeDuff's "Detroit" before I read "US Guys." For if I read this first I may have never read the other.

Based on the description I had expected some hardcore manliness, some real MRM stuff. But there was none of that.

There was little actually tying the book together at all. Each chapter was a story of its own of LeDuff traveling to a different part of the country to take part in some form of everyday life there.

The first couple chapters dealing with Oklahoma really shouldn't have been first. Hanging out with meth addicts in a flea bag motel is not a way to get me to want to keep turning the page.

That being said the chapter on Burning Man in Black Rock City, NV was absolutely amazing, I also really like the chapter on the Pentecostal movement in Cleveland, TN, and playing in the AF2 in Amarillo, TX

The author the decay of Detroit. An interesting and disturbing account of a dysfunctional city.½

The Insanity of Daily Life in America

Reporters are privileged. They get to talk to people in the street and at their homes. No one else can do that. They get to query politicians and corporate executives. They get to talk to the actors in standoffs, protests and riots. They visit people 20 years after their 15 minutes of fame in some crime or incident. They find out things that others can’t even imagine. And they have a platform to tell the world about it all.

Unfortunately, television news reporters like Charlie LeDuff then distill it down to a formulaic minute and a half, glossing over the truth and featuring any sort of violence as the main point (“If it bleeds, it ledes”). So the real truth doesn’t necessarily make it to air. A longer format show allowed him to fill in those details. Shitshow! follows him all over the country over the three years of the show. It made him into a war correspondent.

LeDuff describes himself as a “street reporter … The story was and always will be the American people scratching it out from Ferguson to Flint.” He proposed a series to Fox, his employer, that would be broadcast by its 18 owned major-market stations (as opposed to a cable network), and would focus on what was happening across the country at street level. He called it The Americans.

He found all kinds of commonalities on the street, including racism, frustration, boredom and above all poverty. The middle class had been melting away, as decent paying jobs became minimum wage (or less). The races clashed, but it was poverty that put them in that position. Even in North Dakota, where stories of fracking fortunes drew thousands north, he found pathetic poverty. Yes, some were making $100,000. But they were working the equivalent of three jobs to do it. And their expenses were enormous as everyone wanted a cut. And then there was government.

The government had betrayed everyone too many times to ever be trusted again. It cut their pay, crippled them with taxes, rolled back their pensions, took away social programs, robbed their tax dollars, kneecapped their unions and even poisoned their water. And if that weren’t enough, governments, in the form of police, were shooting at them.

As a journalist, LeDuff dug deep and was persistent, as well as creative. He got his stories, often at great risk to his own life and of his cameramen. He got into Cliven Bundy’s camp, and made it into Reynosa, Mexico, to talk to would-be emigrants. He was in Ferguson for the riots. And all the time, he was battling his employer Fox, which was redirecting his efforts, denying his expenses and calling him off when political pressure was applied. It was almost a race against not being able to complete the task. He quit the night Trump was elected, and has been writing this book ever since.

LeDuff is perceptive. On union-busting states, he points out there are only four non-union Volkswagen plants in the world: in Russia, China and Tennessee. Hypocrisy is a way of life in the USA. The everyday corruption is depressing. And Americans’ views are at best suspect: “The American is generally poorly instructed in his own history, not because it is especially difficult to learn, but rather because it is difficult to hear.” It all forms part of the shitshow he sees everywhere.

For a working definition of a shitshow, there is the story of a Detroit police sergeant, shot trying to stop a mad killer. In 20 years, he had never fired a shot on duty, and was both highly respected and effective. The police “brotherhood” and politicians took over his funeral and made the usual big deal of it, but his widow still had to pay for it. They promoted him posthumously to captain, but did not give the family a captain’s pension or benefits. They magnanimously extended his healthcare for the whole family, including his five year old son, but only for five years. Then they were on their own. That’s a shitshow.

Interestingly, while LeDuff looks like a Sean Penn, and writes like a Damon Runyon, he is actually largely black. He has a hard time filtering all the prejudice he sees, and is plainly disgusted with politicians as an entire class. The book is as breezy as his speech – street level, straight talking, and salty. It’s a reading pleasure that makes the content easier to take.

There is a running joke, at the expense of both Fox and officious security. Everywhere LeDuff went, he inevitably couldn’t complete his reporting without resorting to a fake Press ID he had assembled himself, printed and laminated to look official. It says “News Media Press Official Identification”. He had to kludge something together, because his Fox News employer wouldn’t issue them to the news team. It has his name, photo, and a barcode from a candy bar. It got him past absolutely everyone and in to see absolutely everyone. Again and again. For years. Another shitshow.

LeDuff is a fine storyteller, a hardworking journalist and an honest witness (with all the weaknesses of honest witnesses). I wouldn’t want him running the country (he actually recommended himself to Donald Trump as VP), but he’s a great one to have on your side.

David Wineberg

Heartbreaking. Mindblowing. Discouraging. Yet, there's always a glimmer of hope.

I could make some craft-level criticisms, but LeDuff set out to write a book of reportage, not literature, so I'll save it. It's an excellent book of reportage, putting human faces on tragic news. As a Michigander, I had an inherent interest in Detroit, but I agree with the author's assessment that Detroit's story is America's story, and while Detroit's misery might reach epic lows that outsiders might find laughable, it's a cautionary tale that we'd all be wise to read and heed.

While 'Mr. Charlie' (read it to get the reference) sometimes seems to be putting himself forward as a White (or is he?) Knight, following LeDuff around Detroit was a fascinating, if somewhat depressing, read in these early Trumpian days.

"An American Autopsy" is a fitting subtitle for this book. But perhaps "Excavation" would be more apt for this examination of the devolution of a city. For LeDuff digs up the roots of Detroit's inception, its history of industry, its politics, & even his own genealogy in this look at the Motor City.

LeDuff isn't afraid to name names, or piss off people in power; but he also knows when to draw his weapon or get out of Dodge. He's a player in these events he's chronicled, as much as anyone else. What LeDuff does is give the reader a tour of his hometown... after a long night of bar-hopping. You start out with the hard-working blue collar folks, who probably shouldn't be wasting money drinking on a Tuesday night, but they work hard for their few dollars, dammit, & they'll spend them how they please. As the night wears on, those respectable folks go home, & you're left with the sleaze who are constantly scamming someone, yourself included. Finally, all that are left are the thugs. LeDuff knows them, too, & makes the introductions. He drives you around after last call, pointing out the battlegrounds you've heard about all night. But dawn in a declining industrial city looks post-apocalyptic: despite the emotion choking up your tour guide, not even the sun can warm these places for you, not after what you've heard.

LeDuff's native son status surely gave him info and access an outsider wouldn't have, & it may be what draws you to read this. Who better to tell us what's happening in Detroit? But there are reasons doctors aren't allowed to operate on their relatives; surely similar rules apply to medical examiners & autopsies. Perhaps there are reasons LeDuff shouldn't be the one writing this book - perhaps his closeness to it all is what keeps the reader a bit distant. He's not hiding Detroit's secrets. He's spilling them all. But it comes off as a dare to love Detroit. This is a feeling familiar in a prodigal son's story of return, certainly. But it may not be what the reader needs or wants.

Still, there is much to recommend this. There is a lot of symbolic prose drawn out of the grit LeDuff is examining. And his own discoveries about his family's past say so much about the concept of race in America, since it began. And of course, what's happening in Detroit should be national news every night, as far as I'm concerned. It's a cautionary tale for the US, a bellwether just as surely as the first Roman outpost sacked by the Visigoths was a portent of things to come for Rome. We ignore this at our own peril.

In Detroit: An American Autopsy, Charlie LeDuff -- a Detroit native who left for 20 or so years to travel, get a journalism degree, and work at respected newspapers on both coasts, before returning to Detroit and a job The Detroit News -- gives us a history of Detroit from its founding through its decline, including up close and personal stories of the fall of Kwami Kilpatrick, the auto company bailouts, and the crazy things that happen in a rapidly shrinking city. The book is also a memoir of sorts of his own family's history: a family who was in Detroit almost from the beginning. LeDuff is a super straight talker and doesn't pull punches. He also really knows how to tell a story in a way that grabs and keeps a reader's interest. The book starts with Charlie, in his capacity as a reporter, checking out a lead about a dead body frozen into a pool of water at the bottom of an elevator shaft in one of Detroit's abandoned buildings. Sure enough, he found the corpse frozen into a block of ice, with only feet and sneakers sticking out. Miraculously, the shoes had not been stolen. He reports that it took more than a day for the police to respond to his call about the unidentified body. And that's just the beginning...LeDuff goes on to report on the sad state of public services in the city, including fire departments with old and broken equipment, crazy and/or corrupt politicians, and how whole sections of the city lose electricity for periods of time without notice.

I live in Michigan, and have lived in and near Detroit when in my 20s, and this book really got under my skin. It's really tragic that such a great city with so much history could fall so far because of corruption and mismanagement, and also changing times. LaDuff gives us history, plus a snapshot of some of the inner workings of the dysfunctional city in most recent times. There is some really unpleasant and graphic material, including R Rated text messages that were evidence in the Kilpatrick trial, so the book is not for the squeamish. Also, LeDuff isn't politically correct, and there's a gruff bravado that comes through in his writing that at first irritated me, but I eventually adjusted and didn't notice it because my interest in the content won out.

I can’t remember when I first became interested in Detroit, but it was probably something to do with listening to my father talk about the origins of the Ford Motor Company and Henry Ford. Deerborn, Michigan became a somewhat familiar place and then the GFC hit. Suddenly, a different Detroit was in the news, a city in a financial spiral. Some time later I saw a TV programme about UrbEx (urban exploration) and was intrigued about how many grand buildings in what was once The City in America could be in disrepair. Given that my part of Australia was riding a huge mining boom at the time, it all seemed so foreign. Now that we’re on the downturn, I can only hope that things never get as bad as what has happened in Detroit. The city has fallen victim to a number of awful things and in Detroit: An American Autopsy Charlie LeDuff tells the stories in detail.

What I found astonishing was that Detroit has been shrinking for decades as foreign built car sales increased and people moved out of the city. The big car companies were literally running on the smell of an oily rag. Funds for public services, like fire departments, police and ambulances shrunk beyond the bare bones. Firemen were forced to repair their own fire houses and bring their own toilet paper. An emergency situation may wait 20 minutes or more for services to arrive. Meanwhile, people in power were lining their pockets and those of their friends. So many things went wrong and Detroit went from being Motor City to a place many would be scared to be.

Charlie LeDuff is from Detroit and most of his family still live there, each with a tale to tell about life in Detroit. His brother cleans and packs screws, but used to be involved in selling subprime mortgages. Everyone is doing it tough. I think Charlie’s local knowledge made this book more of a personal read. It had something extra than the news stories, the ability to put a human face on the suffering. The grandmother who can’t afford to bury her granddaughter, killed by mistake. The fireman killed while fighting a deliberately lit fire to claim insurance money. The man frozen in an abandoned lift shaft. Charlie puts a face to the issue and the power of the book is much greater as a result.

He starts by talking about Detroit and the corruption, before spending time with the fire department. Later the story talks more about his family and their history, which for me was probably the weakest point. After so many incredible stories about modern Detroit, shrinking the focus to one family from a once great city took away some of the power. Charlie is a brilliant writer, possibly one of the best at non-fiction that I’ve read and he’s got the power to pull in the reader. At times, I found myself pausing and looking up some of the places he spoke about just so I could get more of a visual idea of the abandoned houses, malls and factories.

After finishing, I looked on the internet to see if I could find out more about how the city was going. It appears some things are happening, like restoration of the Packard Plant. But whether that’s just good spin or the truth, I hope things improve for the people of Detroit. The book portrays residents as having a deep love for their city, through the good and the bad.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com

Detroit, LeDuff tells us over and over again, is a hellhole. He writes of his childhood on Joy Road in Livonia, a near suburb of Detroit. And the road name is basically the only joy in the book. LeDuff's Detroit is sordid, saturated with murder, corruption, cronyism, drugs, and despair. Those hipsters, urban farmers and young entrepreneurs you've heard are flocking to Detroit? LeDuff apparently hasn't met them.

This reads like a 1940s crime noir novel, with LeDuff playing the role of hard-edged gumshoe, which in his case is reporter for the Detroit News, the job he holds for most of the story. LeDuff is the lead character in a gritty tale of frozen corpses, murdered strippers, crooked politicians, incompetent business executives, heroic firefighters, shattered families, and LeDuff's ever-present cigarette. There's even a scene with a cop in a hat and trench coat.

In the prologue, LeDuff calls this a "book of reportage," but this is not a typical work of journalism. This is a memoir of the reporting he did in his two years with the News. He goes behind the scenes to show his work in getting the stories, with a lot of personal information thrown in. LeDuff doesn't bother with any kind of meta-analysis to explain Detroit's decline, aside from some references to the legacies of racism. There are no footnotes, and some conversations are clearly reconstructed from memory, unless it is LeDuff's habit to take notes while drinking.

Reading this book felt a little like rubbernecking at a major accident. It offended my ideals of journalism, strained my credulity at times, and, in one chapter, made me grateful to not be married to LeDuff. Yet, I couldn't stop reading. I finished this in less than 24 hours, closing it only to eat or sleep. I can't wait to discuss it at book group.

Part autobiography, part history, part social commentary, part razor sharp reportage, part cautionary tale, all brilliant. Angry, tragic, and heartbreaking but full of humor. Superbly written and unyieldingly gripping.

This book captures a very thin layer of the Detroit I study, lived in, love, loved. Very little of its rich complexities, almost nothing of the larger forces that shape it, and reading it you'd never know things like Belle Isle, Faygo, Boblo, much less the Boggs Center and the Shrine of the Black Madonna ever existed. If you're looking for an exposé, look no further.

If you're looking for a book about Detroit, look elsewhere.

Sobering, depressing, but fascinating description of Detroit in its current state.

This was a book club read and a huge disappointment. What has happened, and still is happening in Detroit is absolutely a story that ought to be told. Charlie Le Duff is absolutely not the man to do that. He writes in a very flip, I'm such a great journalist manner, it's all Guy Noir. "Whirr Whirr Whirr" ??? Just overall a huge disappointment.

LeDuff is a journalist who returns to his hometown and goes where many fear to tread. Many compelling stories as he puts a face on the immense suffering of the many victims in the declining Rust Belt City. Excellent profiles of the many corrupt elected officials who have compromised the police and fire department members who battle against hopeless odds in a city that has descended into chaos.
An interesting added dimension is LeDuff battling with his own personal demons and tragedy within his family. Themselves victim of the inexorable decay.

brutal reality.½

narrated by Eric Martin

The basics: Detroit: An American Autopsy is part journalism, part current events, and part memoir. Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Charlie LeDuff makes the somewhat surprising choice to return to Detroit, where he grew up, with his wife and daughter. In this book, LeDuff explores what's become of the town his family has lived in for generations with a cynical, native eye.

My thoughts: LeDuff writes with a raw urgency I found infectious. The subtitle of this book gives a clue as to where Detroit stands, and as concerned as LeDuff is with the how, there's plenty of exploration as to how much really is wrong with Detroit. Part of telling that story is telling its prosperous history. Before Detroit became a sad story and a punchline, it was one of the most successful American cities. In the span of a generation, it changed drastically.

LeDuff explores these issues and themes both personally, in terms of his experience and his family's history, and professionally, as a journalist covering the city itself. The combination works beautifully, at least in part due to LeDuff's no-holds-barred attitude. He's simultaneously critical and reverent of the city. He's honest about his own mistakes and shortcomings. The result is a difficult to place in a single genre book, but it's one whose reading experience I enjoyed immensely.

Audio thoughts: Eric Martin was superb. He narrated with a strong emotional inflection, and I had to keep reminding myself he wasn't just telling me his own story (with passion, likely over beer and bourbon.) Martin perfectly navigated the combination of personal memoir, social commentary, and journalism in this book. I'll definitely be seeking out more of his narrations.

The verdict: Detroit: An American Autopsy is a fascinating blend of journalism, family history, memoir, and current events. LeDuff's writing is infused with a richness of detail, emotion and honesty. Eric Martin's narration enhances the book, but I'd recommend it in print or audio, depending on your preference.

Rating: 4 out of 5 (audio 4.5 out of 5)

Detroit News journalist Charlie LeDuff brings an unflinching perspective to the woes of the once great industrial city of Detroit Michigan. His is a Detroit of political corruption, economic despair, woefully overworked and under supported police and fire departments, violence and grief. All of which is undeniably true. However, as a surgeon will see the scalpel as the likely solution, one suspects this city desk writer only sees the gritty underworld as the face of the city. Missing here, for the most part, are the stories of hope, determination, kindness and resurrection. As the title suggests, LeDuff came not to praise the beknighted city, but to bury her. I believe just about every major urban area has similar stories. As goes Detroit, so will go many other similarly situated communities.

I was born in Detroit but like many families of the early 50s, mine moved to the suburbs. Even though we were in the suburbs, our lives were still shadowed by what went on in the city. Like Charlie, after college, I moved as far away from Detroit as I could get, but unlike Charlie, I never went back. I keep up with the news and knew that the city was in trouble but Charlie's book put names and faces to the troubles. I found his chapters on the fire departments to be especially touching - to know that they are risking their lives on a daily basis without proper equipment is just so wrong. At first I wondered if this book would touch people who didn't know Detroit as much as it did me. But after reading it, I think that it should be read by everyone. I think what has and is happening to Detroit is going to be replicated all over this country and people need to be prepared. Thank you for a fantastic book about a once fantastic and beautiful city.

Great writing that kept me up until I finished. Neither thriller nor detective, but in some ways both. Detroit is the home of America’s dream – moveable living room comfort that gives you the freedom to go anywhere and the well paying job to support it. This author does not mince words. He means death. The Detroit he describes and analyzes has died. Every politician and community leader should study this body to learn. Sprawl, racism, corruption, and shifting economics know few boundaries. There are no solutions without honest confrontation of the problems.

LeDuff’s family odessey weaves through the story. This is no ordinary observer. Death is too familiar.

He understands its pain, its victims, and the strength it takes to continue. Reading the stories and dialogs I kept thinking, this is real, not fiction. Gratiot

LeDuff does his own forensic analysis of financial misuse and the attendant supporting corruption. Some of it greases the political machines of various administrations. Other parts fatten the wallets of suppliers of city services. Street level recipients and politicians are too easy to finger as causes.

The author does implicate the mismanagement of the auto industry in Detroit’s death, but without the same intensity or detailed insight.