Hometown Noir

I’ve just finished a riveting new noir novel, The Devil’s Own Rag Doll. Scheduled to come out in October, it’s set in WWII-era Detroit and they don’t come any grittier or more atmospheric. The author is Mitchell Bartoy, whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a few times back in Detroit. As an area native, I can’t get enough of the weaving-in of local history (including that of my hometown, Grosse Pointe), and it made me wonder about the special relationship (more affectionate or more demanding/critical?) we have to fiction set in our hometowns, birthplaces, current cities of residence. What a rich and seamy trove a Detroit noir collection will be—or is there one already out there on the horizon?

(Also upcoming on the Detroit scene is a new memoir, Made in Detroit: A South of 8 Mile Memoir by Paul Clemens and blurbbed by Jeffrey Eugenides.  I haven’t read it yet, but it’s bound to provoke much talk, especially in Detroit, for what sounds like a complicated exploration of race in the city.

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