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Angels of Detroit
Once an example of American industrial might, Detroit has gone bankrupt, its streets dark, its storefronts vacant. Miles of city blocks lie empty, saplings growing through the cracked foundations of abandoned buildings.
In razor-sharp, beguiling prose, Angels of Detroit draws us into the lives of multiple characters struggling to define their futures in this desolate a scrappy group of activists trying to save the city with placards and protests; a curious child who knows the blighted city as her own personal playground; an elderly great-grandmother eking out a community garden in an oil-soaked patch of dirt; a carpenter with an explosive idea of how to give the city a new start; a confused idealist who has stumbled into debt to a human trafficker; a weary corporate executive who believes she is doing right by the city she remembers at its prime--each of their desires is distinct, and their visions for a better city are on a collision course.
In this propulsive, masterfully plotted epic, an urban wasteland whose history is plagued with riots and unrest is reimagined as an ambiguous new frontier--a site of tenacity and possible hope. Driven by struggle and suspense, and shot through with a startling empathy, Christopher Hebert's magnificent second novel unspools an American story for our time.
In razor-sharp, beguiling prose, Angels of Detroit draws us into the lives of multiple characters struggling to define their futures in this desolate a scrappy group of activists trying to save the city with placards and protests; a curious child who knows the blighted city as her own personal playground; an elderly great-grandmother eking out a community garden in an oil-soaked patch of dirt; a carpenter with an explosive idea of how to give the city a new start; a confused idealist who has stumbled into debt to a human trafficker; a weary corporate executive who believes she is doing right by the city she remembers at its prime--each of their desires is distinct, and their visions for a better city are on a collision course.
In this propulsive, masterfully plotted epic, an urban wasteland whose history is plagued with riots and unrest is reimagined as an ambiguous new frontier--a site of tenacity and possible hope. Driven by struggle and suspense, and shot through with a startling empathy, Christopher Hebert's magnificent second novel unspools an American story for our time.
- GenresFiction
423 pages, Hardcover
First published July 5, 2016
6 people are currently reading
398 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Hebert
4 books18 followersCHRISTOPHER HEBERT is the author of the novels Angels of Detroit (Bloomsbury 2016) and The Boiling Season (HarperCollins, 2012), winner of the 2013 Friends of American Writers award. He is also co-editor of Stories of Nation: Fictions, Politics, and the American Experience (forthcoming UT Press). His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in such publications as FiveChapters, Cimarron Review, Narrative, Interview, and the Millions. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and is editor-at-large for the University of Michigan Press. Currently he lives in Knoxville, TN, where he is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Tennessee.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
June 13, 2017
This is one of those books that use Detroit to get more reads. Nothing in the book, makes it Detroit. The book talks about vacant areas in Detroit that are turning into gardens and parks. The characters are unknown beings as we are never told the reasons for what they do. McGee has a group that is working to, I think, force a company to admit a wrong. She tries many ways including pickets, breaking in and contacting the news. Her friends help her, but no one seems to have any real emotion about the company. (I thought it was funny that the company makes appliances and drones, not something Detroit is known for.) It took me forever to finish. I like to finish books I start because I think there might be something worthwhile in the book, but in this case there was not. I don't know why it was even published.
December 29, 2024
This book was not good. I had high hopes for it and the beginning wasn’t bad, but it progressed very slowly. It’s one of those books where there’s multiple main characters with different back stories and they all become intertwined. However, the characters did not mesh well at all, and none of their stories really made much sense. It was not emotional (which could be fine), but I did not care about any of the people and their little lives. This book way longer to read than I anticipated, and I was disappointed in the abrupt ending.
July 11, 2018
It was interesting, but became convoluted and hard to follow at times. I think I may be to read it again to pick up all the pieces I missed the first time around.
March 11, 2019
A beautiful book, with an impressively plotted pace and cast of characters. This is the quickest I’ve read a book so far this year! Absolutely loved it.
January 15, 2018
Ever read a book so bad that it inspired you to write a better one because you know you can? Thanks, Christopher Hebert!
I tried really hard to like Angels of Detroit; I really did. It was a book I picked up at a little free library on the side of the road, so it was a gamble then anyway, knowing the limited selection those boxes have. Still, growing up so near Detroit, the plot intrigued me: a group of people from all walks of life coming together in the Motor City to save it or at least make a statement about its apparent demise. Interesting enough. Except that as I began the story, I could only hope that it wouldn't turn into one of those fetishizations of Detroit that seems to be all people know about the city—you know, the filmmakers who set zombie apocalypses there, the urban explorers who have wet dreams about its abandoned buildings. And then it turned into exactly that, with absolutely zero plot and scattered characters.
Despite my initial optimism about the intrigue that the book genuinely contains, I grew more and more critical of Angels of Detroit as I read it. The first, oh, half or so of the book was interesting, and I was curious about what was going to happen next, how all these characters lives were entwined, how their fates would connect in the end. By the two-thirds point of this book, however, it was clear to me that this was never going to happen, and that all of Hebert's exposition, character development (yeah, right) and description of predictable post-apocalyptic Detroit landscapes were going nowhere and it was all a big letdown.
Indeed, after 422 pages, nothing happened. Oh, sure, some of the characters interacted, but most of them didn't; some of the plot events were entertaining, but most were nonexistent. Hebert seemed to struggle with character development in this book, because he kept introducing character after character for no reason and then leaving them hanging, never to be heard from again. Darius? Myles? April? All disappeared, with no closure on where or why. Even McGee and Dobbs, arguably the main characters in this book, had little context for their lives, personalities and motivations, despite their actions powering most of the book. Ruth Freeman and Constance, two of the more interesting characters, didn't even have much closer on their lives; they, too, came and went from the story. I'm not even sure who the protagonist was, though, since Hebert jumped around with characters with so much inconsistency.
So, really, the book was pointless—literally. As I got closer to the end of the book, I found myself marveling that, one, I had made it through this much awful storytelling to begin with, and, two, that anyone could write positive plot blurbs to be plastered on the dust cover—or that it could find a publisher at all! I'm bewildered that Hebert even thought this could constitute a story, because there is no evidence of anything resembling a story arc with all the usual literary techniques that make a book a cohesive, pleasant, interesting read.
I tried really hard to like Angels of Detroit; I really did. It was a book I picked up at a little free library on the side of the road, so it was a gamble then anyway, knowing the limited selection those boxes have. Still, growing up so near Detroit, the plot intrigued me: a group of people from all walks of life coming together in the Motor City to save it or at least make a statement about its apparent demise. Interesting enough. Except that as I began the story, I could only hope that it wouldn't turn into one of those fetishizations of Detroit that seems to be all people know about the city—you know, the filmmakers who set zombie apocalypses there, the urban explorers who have wet dreams about its abandoned buildings. And then it turned into exactly that, with absolutely zero plot and scattered characters.
Despite my initial optimism about the intrigue that the book genuinely contains, I grew more and more critical of Angels of Detroit as I read it. The first, oh, half or so of the book was interesting, and I was curious about what was going to happen next, how all these characters lives were entwined, how their fates would connect in the end. By the two-thirds point of this book, however, it was clear to me that this was never going to happen, and that all of Hebert's exposition, character development (yeah, right) and description of predictable post-apocalyptic Detroit landscapes were going nowhere and it was all a big letdown.
Indeed, after 422 pages, nothing happened. Oh, sure, some of the characters interacted, but most of them didn't; some of the plot events were entertaining, but most were nonexistent. Hebert seemed to struggle with character development in this book, because he kept introducing character after character for no reason and then leaving them hanging, never to be heard from again. Darius? Myles? April? All disappeared, with no closure on where or why. Even McGee and Dobbs, arguably the main characters in this book, had little context for their lives, personalities and motivations, despite their actions powering most of the book. Ruth Freeman and Constance, two of the more interesting characters, didn't even have much closer on their lives; they, too, came and went from the story. I'm not even sure who the protagonist was, though, since Hebert jumped around with characters with so much inconsistency.
So, really, the book was pointless—literally. As I got closer to the end of the book, I found myself marveling that, one, I had made it through this much awful storytelling to begin with, and, two, that anyone could write positive plot blurbs to be plastered on the dust cover—or that it could find a publisher at all! I'm bewildered that Hebert even thought this could constitute a story, because there is no evidence of anything resembling a story arc with all the usual literary techniques that make a book a cohesive, pleasant, interesting read.
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March 27, 2021I've started this book three times now, and I get about 1/4 of the way through and I just can't stick with it, it seems like so much work to read. I get interested in a character and then that character is dropped and another is picked up, totally unrelated. There are several sets of characters, and so many names, I feel like I have to write them down and somehow make a diagram of how they're related...or are they related? This time I think I got further, almost 1/3 and still it was an effort...so I'm putting it down now because there are other, more interesting and fun or more educational books than this one. I want to like it...maybe someday I will, but life is just too challenging at this point for me to have to work so hard on a book that isn't taking me anywhere. Sorry. :(
July 11, 2016
Detroit is America's poster child of a collapsed rust belt city. Empty houses and factories stare with empty windows, pillaged of anything salable. Crumbling roads lead to grasslands.
Detroit has a vibrant Midtown with a first class orchestra, amazing art museum, historical and science museums, trendy brew-houses and restaurants, and swanky stores that draw suburbanites.
Detroit is rising, reinventing itself. Detroit should be plowed under and forgotten.
The visions of the city and its future clash in Angels of Detroit, Christopher Hebert's sprawling novel charactered by old timers and a child, disillusioned activists from the 'burbs, and people who just stumble into alliances they come to rue.
The novel is not a paen to the past, although some characters remind us of Detroit's glory days. It is not an imagining of a rosy future. Instead Detroit is a battleground of idealism and profiteering.
A group of Millennial drop-out activists plot to bring down a huge Detroit based company whose drone is implicated in the destruction of a school. A man in debt is sent to set up housing for a human trafficking ring. A carpenter moves into his deceased grandmother's house and helps a 70 year old woman create a garden in the urban prairie while imagining the deconstruction of the past.
There are a lot of characters, a lot of back stories slowly revealed, but they are all brought together in the end. As flawed as each character is, we come to understand their journey.
Detroit has a vibrant Midtown with a first class orchestra, amazing art museum, historical and science museums, trendy brew-houses and restaurants, and swanky stores that draw suburbanites.
Detroit is rising, reinventing itself. Detroit should be plowed under and forgotten.
The visions of the city and its future clash in Angels of Detroit, Christopher Hebert's sprawling novel charactered by old timers and a child, disillusioned activists from the 'burbs, and people who just stumble into alliances they come to rue.
The novel is not a paen to the past, although some characters remind us of Detroit's glory days. It is not an imagining of a rosy future. Instead Detroit is a battleground of idealism and profiteering.
A group of Millennial drop-out activists plot to bring down a huge Detroit based company whose drone is implicated in the destruction of a school. A man in debt is sent to set up housing for a human trafficking ring. A carpenter moves into his deceased grandmother's house and helps a 70 year old woman create a garden in the urban prairie while imagining the deconstruction of the past.
There are a lot of characters, a lot of back stories slowly revealed, but they are all brought together in the end. As flawed as each character is, we come to understand their journey.
April 30, 2021
I tried really hard to finish Angels of Detroit because the author, Christopher Hebert really has a way with words at times. The trouble may have been too many words, or too many characters. I wasn't sure for a while what the book was about and without finishing it, I'm still not certain if I understand fully where it was going. I want to know the ending, but I just can't keep going any longer. Here are a few examples of what I did like:
"Along with the maps, he'd gathered a few facts, a couple of which had stuck: a city of one hundred forty square miles, a third of it abandoned, the emptiness combined larger than the entire city of San Francisco. Boston. Manhattan."
"Mr. Childs had been a spot welder, and Michael Boni remembered him spending his Saturdays tuning up an old Triumph in the driveway, rattling the glass in his grandmother's china cabinet. She'd had a special hatred for Mr. Childs. What little Spanish Michael Boni knew, he'd learned while she stood with her arms, crossed scowling over the hedge. The motorcycle didn't need half the work Mr. Childs put into it but even as a boy Michael Boni could appreciate the lengths certain people went to to just piss his grandmother off."
I think this has the possibility of being a good book. I may never find out.
"Along with the maps, he'd gathered a few facts, a couple of which had stuck: a city of one hundred forty square miles, a third of it abandoned, the emptiness combined larger than the entire city of San Francisco. Boston. Manhattan."
"Mr. Childs had been a spot welder, and Michael Boni remembered him spending his Saturdays tuning up an old Triumph in the driveway, rattling the glass in his grandmother's china cabinet. She'd had a special hatred for Mr. Childs. What little Spanish Michael Boni knew, he'd learned while she stood with her arms, crossed scowling over the hedge. The motorcycle didn't need half the work Mr. Childs put into it but even as a boy Michael Boni could appreciate the lengths certain people went to to just piss his grandmother off."
I think this has the possibility of being a good book. I may never find out.
October 14, 2017
I was born in Detroit, and lived almost the whole of my life in the suburbs. I was hoping to like this book. Actually read it through to fulfill my 2017 Goodwill Reading Challenge: A book set in your hometown/region. So very sorry I chose this book! Even at it's worst, Detroit deserves much better than this. The book was written by someone who obviously doesn't love Detroit. The only part of the book I enjoyed was finding landmarks that I know and love. I didn't like the characters much, except for maybe Clementine and Constance. The rest were pathetic excuses for human beings. I never understood the title...where are the Angels? Nothing came together for me, not the why, not the who, not even in the end with the so there. In my opinion, a complete waste of time. Ugh - I really have to give it a star??? Maybe a half star...one of the worst I've ever read, nope, sorry, no way, not for me!!!
August 13, 2016
While there were interesting characters in this novel the glaring insufficiency was tying all the subplots together. As for the city of Detroit, the lack of references and knowledge of the political landscape further detracted from the book. It was as if Detroit was nothing but a flat character in a book that could've been written with any major city as a backdrop. Furthermore, the lack of motivation for all the characters remains a mystery.
August 19, 2016
This book was received through Goodreads.
To me, it was like an art film and I don't understand or enjoy those either. There were wonderful words and finely crafted sentences wrapped around emptiness.
To me, it was like an art film and I don't understand or enjoy those either. There were wonderful words and finely crafted sentences wrapped around emptiness.
May 10, 2020
This book was not at all what I expected it to be (to my disappointment). Where it DOES succeed is in shining a light on the complexities and contradictions that define modern day Detroit. While there is a definite Renaissance occurring in the areas of dowtown anchored by the sports venues, there is an opposing decline and decay continuing in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Hebert does not shy away from his position that unfettered Capitalism has proven to be a failure in the Motor City. Nor does he sugar coat the day to day challenges faced by many of it's residents.
Hebert’s characters represent Detroit’s many generations, races, and socioeconomic divisions....as diverse as the physical landscapes that make up the city. The novel’s expansive cast includes millennial artists and activists, the last of the city’s corporate millionaires, children living in near-empty neighborhoods, and urban farmers. As their lives intersect....a bizarre tale unfolds. And herein lies the failure of the novel for me. The intermingled stories appeared to be leading up to some grand conclusion or climactic ending. But rather by page 419 the story's energy just fizzled out to an unsatisfying conclusion. It almost feels as though this is a "test draft" of a novel rather than a finished project.
"Angels of Detroit" is an interesting read for anyone who is rooting for the recovery of Detroit, Michigan....just don't expect a lot from the plotline.
Hebert does not shy away from his position that unfettered Capitalism has proven to be a failure in the Motor City. Nor does he sugar coat the day to day challenges faced by many of it's residents.
Hebert’s characters represent Detroit’s many generations, races, and socioeconomic divisions....as diverse as the physical landscapes that make up the city. The novel’s expansive cast includes millennial artists and activists, the last of the city’s corporate millionaires, children living in near-empty neighborhoods, and urban farmers. As their lives intersect....a bizarre tale unfolds. And herein lies the failure of the novel for me. The intermingled stories appeared to be leading up to some grand conclusion or climactic ending. But rather by page 419 the story's energy just fizzled out to an unsatisfying conclusion. It almost feels as though this is a "test draft" of a novel rather than a finished project.
"Angels of Detroit" is an interesting read for anyone who is rooting for the recovery of Detroit, Michigan....just don't expect a lot from the plotline.
July 28, 2023
What a strange group of characters. I kept hoping I would get more Detroit vibes from it, but no such luck. Was Ruth Freeman supposed to be Mary Barra? I assume McGhee was so strange because her mother was having an affair with the mechanic . . . no one every abused McGhee, right? Odd book. Glad I read it, but I wouldn't recommend it.
September 1, 2018
I won a copy of this book during a Goodreads giveaway. I am under no obligation to leave a review or rating and do so voluntarily. So that others may also enjoy this book, I am paying it forward by donating it to my local library.
May 30, 2017
Did not like this book
June 21, 2018
I really don't get the title of this book. The plot was boring.
May 14, 2019
I enjoyed the book but was frustrated that I never really sensed that I knew what was going on. Wrapping up at least a couple of the loose ends would have been nice.
February 23, 2017
Well written, but confusing, never quite knew what was going on, up until the end (even then I didn't know!) Liked the atmosphere of sort of post apocalyptic Detroit.
October 28, 2016
No re-cap here; most other reviewers will tell you the story of this bunch of people who react to the slow death of a big city in ways that range from pathetic to inscrutable and back again to pathetic. I will say that by chapter three I was so confused by the boatload of character names that had been thrown at me that I actually went back to the beginning and drew a character map that eventually filled a full sheet of paper as I read. This made all the difference.
Unfortunately, the reason it was so hard to remember who was who was that the characters are all pretty shallow (with the exception of my favorite: Ruth Freeman) and their motives remain, until the last page, murky and emotionally inaccessible.
Yet I enjoyed the book after the first third or so. I have never been to Detroit, so I cannot speak to the characterization in the book of that city, but I have lived in a large American Midwestern Metropolis, so I did recognize the often desolate, wasted landscapes described.
I'm sticking to my 4 stars, but waffled between 3 and 4 long enough that it is probably a 3.5 star book for me.
Unfortunately, the reason it was so hard to remember who was who was that the characters are all pretty shallow (with the exception of my favorite: Ruth Freeman) and their motives remain, until the last page, murky and emotionally inaccessible.
Yet I enjoyed the book after the first third or so. I have never been to Detroit, so I cannot speak to the characterization in the book of that city, but I have lived in a large American Midwestern Metropolis, so I did recognize the often desolate, wasted landscapes described.
I'm sticking to my 4 stars, but waffled between 3 and 4 long enough that it is probably a 3.5 star book for me.
December 4, 2022
This book gets one star for being about Detroit, which makes it a one star review on the book itself. Had it been a series of short stories, I think it could have been much better. As written, though, there are too many extraneous characters, too many plots, and too little connection between any of them. There was really nothing in this book that interested me at all, except the descriptions of Detroit, which as a resident of Michigan I'm all too familiar with already. Waste of time.
Update: I accidentally re-read this book 5 years later (2022) and other than a couple of times that a scene seemed vaguely familiar, I have no memory of having read it before. Which makes it unsurprising that I would review the book exactly the same way as I did 5 years ago.
Update: I accidentally re-read this book 5 years later (2022) and other than a couple of times that a scene seemed vaguely familiar, I have no memory of having read it before. Which makes it unsurprising that I would review the book exactly the same way as I did 5 years ago.
July 5, 2016
Hebert's characters are convinced that the Apocalypse is nigh. As one of them reflects, "Chaos is not an aberration, not a consequence of failure ... Chaos is the sea upon which the raft of civilization floats." The downfall of Detroit stands in for the imminent collapse of human society. The novel asks, what would you do in order to "wipe the slate clean" and start over?
July 18, 2016
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
In the urban wasteland that is Detroit (parts of it, anyway), the engaging characters in Christopher Hebert's second novel search for meaningful lives. I enjoyed this book on many levels, amazed at the tenacious will of the human spirit. Recommended.
In the urban wasteland that is Detroit (parts of it, anyway), the engaging characters in Christopher Hebert's second novel search for meaningful lives. I enjoyed this book on many levels, amazed at the tenacious will of the human spirit. Recommended.
August 14, 2017
Over 50% done and not really sure what it's about. He should have made it into short stories. Author is probably 52% out of it??? Will try to finish maybe he will give into some insight into what he wants to say???
Finished the book. Don't bother to read - what the author wants to say isn't done properly... Changed my rating from 3 star to 1.
Finished the book. Don't bother to read - what the author wants to say isn't done properly... Changed my rating from 3 star to 1.
September 12, 2016
I won this in a Goodreads giveaway. My opinion is just that...mine...and completely unbiased.
I initially got into this story, found the characters to be engaging and the intertwining of their lives intriguing, but it fell flat for me towards the end.
I initially got into this story, found the characters to be engaging and the intertwining of their lives intriguing, but it fell flat for me towards the end.
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October 5, 2016Gritty but delicate, the language of ANGELS OF DETROIT kept me up at night, whether I was actually reading it or not.
December 5, 2016
I do gravitate to books about Detroit as I grew up near by. While Hebert captures the roughness of modern day Detroit, it does not go deep. Interesting concepts that are not fully pulled together.
January 11, 2017
I wanted to like this but I didn't. The story lacks direction. I did enjoy some of the characters though.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews