Customer Reviews:
 Detroit Decadence January 19, 2004
Although I have never been to Detroit, I was able to appreciate and enjoy this book because I could readily identify with the decadence Daniels depicts so well with his characteristic honesty and realism. As Daniels' characters come-of-age in their midwestern wasteland, they are challenged by the problems and dilemmas many of us faced during the seventies and eighties, but one reality that permeates virtually all of these tales is how, during these decades, we often desperately sought love and understanding from our families and from society. Daniels'characters try to deal with their own problems and dilemmas by escaping to other locales, by isolating themselves, or by remaining at home and making the best of it. Three tales that feature characters representative of the escape category are "Cross Country," "Renegade" and "Islands." In the first tale, EJ and fellow autoworker Jimmy climb into the latter's Gremlin and set off across the country in search of adventure and new jobs. In the second, Kenny, a Vietnam vet, joins a gang of mostly fellow assembly line buddies because he missed the "sense of togetherness" of the sixties, although at one point he flashes back to when he and Cheryl, his high school sweetheart, once in vain headed north out of Detroit to begin what they thought would be new lives. In "Islands," Gerry and his young wife attempt to carve a normal family life out of their Detroit neighborhood, which includes a halfway house/drug outlet across the highway from their residence. Other characters respond to the city's decadence with physical or psychological isolation. The narrator of "Good Neighbor" and her husband Terry have progressively isolated themselves from their rather peculiar neighbors. She explains, moreover, that they do not even sit out front anymore because,"Looking across the street at each other dying off, it's too depressing." When they receive a surprise visit from former neighbor Bert, the narrator vividly recalls how Bert had once stopped over to see her and inappropriately embraced her. The narrator of "Sugar Water," a late 20's autoworker, is about to break out of his social isolation through his relationship with Sue, but at the latter's graduation party, he explains how he had violated this relationship when he and Sue's longtime friend Karen had sneaked off to the park to have sex, commenting that, "Maybe I'm destined to drive by the houses of women all the nights of my life, wondering what's inside." Characters in the third category, however, are able to improve their lives by making the best of what they have, sometimes discovering love and understanding in their own back yards. A must-read here is "Middle of the Mitten," a lighthearted Chekhovian tale about a college senior named Avery, who is haunted by his best friend's suicide, involved with two very different coeds, and troubled because he must pass crusty old Professor Cornwall's astronomy class in order to graduate. Avery is able to combat his own suicidal tendencies through his gymnastic sexual relationship with nymphomaniacal Snake Lady Karen and through his chief love interest, Dawn, who is not interested in "sweaty" sex. Dawn is earning a "C" in Cornwall's class and Avery is failing; moreover, Cornwall had once observed how Avery's dog had relieved himself on the professor's front lawn, so that one day in class Cornwall halted his lecture to inquire of Avery, "Aren't you the one with the poopy dog?" After the class roars with laughter, Dawn passes the embarrassed senior a note, reassuring him that, "I still love you, even if you have a poopy dog." Yes, love and understanding can be found by some of Daniels' otherwise desperate characters--those whose day-to-day struggles play out within otherwise sordid and often depressing environments, and if you give these insightful tales about America's incredible decadence a chance, you may find yourself, like me, identifying with, if not laughing at, many of his finely realized characters and their often bizarre circumstances.
Detroit Decadence January 19, 2004
Although I have never been to Detroit, I was able to appreciate and enjoy this book because I could readily identify with the decadence Daniels depicts so well with his characteristic honesty and realism. As Daniels' characters come-of-age in their midwestern wasteland, they are challenged by the problems and dilemmas many of us faced during the seventies and eighties, but one reality that permeates virtually all of these tales is how, during these decades, we often desperately sought love and understanding from our families and from society. Daniels'
characters try to deal with their own problems and dilemmas by escaping to other locales, by isolating themselves, or by remaining at home and making the best of it. Two tales that feature characters representative of the escape category are "Cross Country," "Renegade" and "Islands." In the first tale, EJ and fellow autoworker Jimmy climb into the latter's Gremlin and set off across the country in search of adventure and new jobs. In the second, Kenny, a Vietnam vet,joins a gang of mostly fellow assembly line buddies because he missed
the "sense of togetherness" of the sixties, although at one point he flashes back to when he and Cheryl, his high school sweetheart, once in vain headed north out of Detroit to begin
what they thought would be new lives. In "Islands," Gerry and his young wife attempt to carve a normal family life out of
their Detroit neighborhood, which includes a halfway house/drug outlet across the highway from their residence. Other characters respond to the city's decadence with physical or psychological isolation. The narrator of "Good Neighbor" and her husband Terry have progressively isolated themselves from their rather peculiar neighbors. She explains, moreover, that they do not even sit out front anymore because,"Looking across the street at each other dying off, it's too depressing." When they receive a surprise visit from former neighbor Bert, the narrator vividly recalls how Bert had once stopped over to see her and inappropriately embraced her. The narrator of "Sugar Water," a late 20's autoworker, is about to break out of his social isolation through his relationship with Sue, but at the latter's graduation party, he explains how he had violated this relationship when he and Sue's longtime friend Karen had sneaked off to the park to have sex, commenting that, "Maybe I'm destined to drive by the houses of women all the nights of my life, wondering what's inside." Characters in the third category, however, are able to improve their lives by making the best of what they have, sometimes discovering love and understanding in their own back yards. A must-read here is "Middle of the Mitten," a lighthearted Chekhovian tale about a college senior named Avery, who is haunted by his best friend's suicide, involved with two very different coeds, and troubled because he must pass crusty old Professor Cornwall's astronomy class in order to graduate. Avery is able to combat his own suicidal tendencies through his gymnastic sexual relationship with nymphomaniacal Snake Lady Karen and through his chief love interest, Dawn, who is not interested in "sweaty" sex. Dawn is earning a "C" in Cornwall's class and Avery is failing; moreover, Cornwall had once observed how Avery's dog had relieved himself on the professor's front lawn, so that one day in class Cornwall halted his lecture to inquire of
Avery, "Aren't you the one with the poopy dog?" After the class roars with laughter, Dawn passes the embarrassed senior a note, reassuring him that, "I still love you, even if you have a poopy dog." Yes, love and understanding can be found by some of Daniels' otherwise desperate characters--those whose day-to-day struggles play out within otherwise sordid and often depressing environments, and if you give these insightful tales about America's incredible decadence a chance, you may find yourself,
like me, identifying with, if not laughing at, many of his finely realized characters and their often bizarre circumstances.
Tough Stories May 6, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Just as Jim Daniels has grown as a poet, he has grown as a fiction writer. The working class stories of No Pets have become the more diverse stories of Detroit Tales. Daniels characters in Detroit Tales are in complex and tough situations. These are not stories for those looking for sugary, uplifting fiction, though some of the stories do provide a flicker of redemption. Many of the stories center around characters who have lost someone, often to suicide. It befits a book set in and around Detroit, a city that often leaves its residents feeling as though they've lost something, something that died in the suicide that follows building an entire city around one industry. Daniels' characters, young or old, are always struggling with something that nearly anyone can connect with. His characters are up against bullies, bad neighborhoods, bad work situations, faltering marriages, and stifling lives. Although, some of his characters are more on the fringe. There's the Vietnam Veteran biker of "Renegade," the sexually confused twenty-something of "Middle of the Mitten" and the nearly adulterous minister of "The Jimmy Stewart Story". What I really like about Daniels stories is the fact that they don't seem like so many other stories I've been reading. I think MFA programs have done a disservice to fiction in this country. Stories are becoming faddish. Right now the fad seems to be to have characters so far on the fringe that nobody can connect with them. I don't see that in Daniels. Then again, he didn't come through an MFA program. He writes stories out of an innate instinct to write stories -- like writers did before there were MFA programs and writing workshops. As a result, his stories are a pleasure because they are so often surprising -- especially in their lack of overly crafted endings. Sometimes Daniels endings are so subtle that they seem more like life than anything else. Sometimes there are no great epiphanies or changes in character, just characters who are slightly altered, scarred or scared after what they've been through. It seems that Daniels understands life better than he understands the formula of short fiction which, in the end, makes his fiction so much better than most of the Mc-stories coming out of MFA programs.
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