Magical Realism

The idea of an entire town whose women are unwittingly affected by some force is not so unique, but Meg Wolitzer's treatment of the subject in The Uncoupling makes this story stand out. When the new drama teacher chooses Lysistrata for the school play, the students and community don't foresee the consequences. The changes are gradual and happen independently, so you can imagine the surprise when the truth comes out so dramatically. With its well-developed characters and varying points of view, The Uncoupling is worth the read.

Important Work

Down Among the Dead Men tells one woman's experience as a mortuary technician from day one. It's gritty in some chapters (hard to get around that) but the author writes very respectfully of her coworkers and the people who require her services. She balances her work life and her personal relationships and writes very engagingly, making this an interesting read from start to finish.

What Once Was

There was a recent news story that mentioned the Book-Cadillac Hotel of Detroit. The name intrigued me, so I checked out David Kohrman's Detroit's Statler and Book-Cadillac Hotels to find out its story. The book begins with the Hotel Statler, built on Washington Boulevard in 1915. It has plenty of photos documenting the conception and rise of the building, as well as vintage interior shots. The Book-Cadillac, built in 1924, was the tallest hotel in the world. It is named after the three Book brothers and, like the Statler, had a private bath in each guest room--ultimate in luxury for the time! While the Statler sits vacant, neglected, and decaying today, the Book Cadillac has been restored and is one of Detroit's finest hotels.

Decaying Beauty

I'm fascinated by the recent surge of interest in documenting the demise of Detroit. It's not new but it seems to be gaining attention now. It saddens and sickens me to see the crumbling of so many beautiful works of architecture and disheartens me to know how many people wish they could help and don't have the means to do so. I was especially struck by a few of the images in Andrew Moore's Detroit Disassembled: there's a tree growing out of decayed Detroit Public School books on pages 36-37, and there's a deceased cat curled on a chair next to books in the defunct Mark Twain branch of the Detroit Public Library. Memorable? Yes. Shameful? Yes.