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The Concrete
Set on the gritty southeast side of Grand Rapids, Michigan, an impoverished area known for drugs and violence, The Concrete centers around the home of Jackson and Mae Carter, foster parents of two boys―Isaac, who is white, and Miles, who is black―who share dark and intersecting histories that neither one is aware of. As the boys try to escape the grim reality of the violent streets―i.e. “the concrete”―in different ways―Isaac through basketball, Miles though music―the novel shifts back and forth in time, in the process revealing the story of an entangled community plagued by trauma and death, trying to confront the ghosts of its past, and seize a better life. A multi-point-of-view work of realistic and often graphic literary fiction, The Concrete is a striking debut that grapples with the effects of childhood trauma on teens, lost dreams, human sexuality, and the difficulties of marriage.
- GenresFiction
312 pages, Paperback
Published May 29, 2018
13 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Abbott
2 books32 followersDaniel Abbott is an author, speaker, and educator from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the co-author of Wounds, a collaborative memoir written with Razel Jones, about the triumphs and the pains experienced on their collective journey toward cross-cultural navigation. His short fiction has appeared in Lit Hub, the Noctua Review, the Ginosko Literary Journal, and the Owen Wister Review.
Abbott holds a BA in Writing from Grand Valley State University and an MFA in Fiction from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
He is currently working on a project titled Dancing Skeletons, an epic community saga set in his hometown of Grand Rapids.
Daniel lives and writes in the Greater Nashville, Tennessee area.
Abbott holds a BA in Writing from Grand Valley State University and an MFA in Fiction from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
He is currently working on a project titled Dancing Skeletons, an epic community saga set in his hometown of Grand Rapids.
Daniel lives and writes in the Greater Nashville, Tennessee area.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 18, 2018
Daniel Abbott’s debut novel, The Concrete, takes place on the streets of the southeast side of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Abbott, an expert in character development and dialogue, rips at your heart when the characters you have fallen in love with grow into monsters. The Concrete is uncomfortably honest, hitting on topics of race, class, drugs, sex, poverty, youth, and innocence, giving new meaning to the expression “fiction is the lie that tells the truth.” This is one of my favorite books (so far) of 2018.
September 12, 2018
The number of themes and subject matter in The Concrete match the urban sprawl brought to life through vivid descriptions of run-down neighborhoods, alleyways, and basketball courts of a modified version of Grand Rapids. These places are filled with a cast brought to life with competent dialogue and crackling prose that at times can sear itself into your mind.
These themes are elegantly tied to the complex narrative structure of The Concrete, perhaps its strongest quality. At the center of it all is a lonely boy named Isaac. His is a tragic story, but in the neighborhoods he’s grown up in everyone’s life is a tragedy in one way or another. Throughout the book you get glimpses into a litany of characters’ lives, motivations, ambitions, downfalls, and, in a couple cases, redemption. Several of these characters drastically affect others as they weave an insidious web of cause and effect and become entangled in never-ending cycles of sex, drugs, and violence.
The book is heavy, dark, and at times oppressive but never preachy. Abbott doesn’t break out the soap box to beat you over the head about a particular issue. He simply breathes life into a plausible world and does so with whiplash writing that will have you reading just on more chapter.
Critically, there’s almost nothing one could find a flaw with. There’s one brief part of the novel that dragged on a bit, but never crumbles under the weighty narrative construct. As a debut, The Concrete leaves me with a sense of anticipation for what comes next from this new author.
These themes are elegantly tied to the complex narrative structure of The Concrete, perhaps its strongest quality. At the center of it all is a lonely boy named Isaac. His is a tragic story, but in the neighborhoods he’s grown up in everyone’s life is a tragedy in one way or another. Throughout the book you get glimpses into a litany of characters’ lives, motivations, ambitions, downfalls, and, in a couple cases, redemption. Several of these characters drastically affect others as they weave an insidious web of cause and effect and become entangled in never-ending cycles of sex, drugs, and violence.
The book is heavy, dark, and at times oppressive but never preachy. Abbott doesn’t break out the soap box to beat you over the head about a particular issue. He simply breathes life into a plausible world and does so with whiplash writing that will have you reading just on more chapter.
Critically, there’s almost nothing one could find a flaw with. There’s one brief part of the novel that dragged on a bit, but never crumbles under the weighty narrative construct. As a debut, The Concrete leaves me with a sense of anticipation for what comes next from this new author.
November 17, 2018
This man can write. He made me care deeply about people I have almost nothing in common with and who live in a world that is unfamiliar to me. This feels like one of those books that is going to stay with me forever. I hope it gets some traction and I hope Mr. Abbott keeps writing. I am very much looking forward to his next novel.
March 14, 2018
Daniel Abbott mines the underbelly of an inner city Michigan neighborhood, sifting through the love and casualties of its inhabitants to find the light and hope that persists in the darkness. The Concrete is a striking and extraordinary debut.
June 24, 2018
A novel that deserves wider attention. As mean and ruthless as Jim Thompson, with characters who mark us with their pain, their tenacity, and sometimes, their redemption.
June 25, 2018
The Concrete is a powerful, haunting novel. It's a book about some BIG issues (race, poverty, addiction, family, regret, redemption) but it examines those issues through the intensely personal--by examining the lives of his characters (all of whom feel absolutely ALIVE) in intimate detail.
Abbott expertly juxtaposes his beautiful prose with some of the uglier aspects of life in an impoverished black-majority neighborhood in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The writing's what carry's his readers through this gritty, streetwise, and ultimately hopeful journey.
But as much as I love the story and the writing it's those characters I'm going to keep going back to. This novel's filled with real, complex, memorable, and sometimes tragically flawed people who I feel like I now know intimately.
Abbott expertly juxtaposes his beautiful prose with some of the uglier aspects of life in an impoverished black-majority neighborhood in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The writing's what carry's his readers through this gritty, streetwise, and ultimately hopeful journey.
But as much as I love the story and the writing it's those characters I'm going to keep going back to. This novel's filled with real, complex, memorable, and sometimes tragically flawed people who I feel like I now know intimately.
June 5, 2018
OH. MY. GOD. The story, the turmoil, the HEARTBREAK! If any book ever qualifies as a "Must Read" The Concrete is it! Daniel Abbott knocked this out of the park on his debut novel, and I for one can't wait to see what his followup(s) bring. My heart was broken, healed, and broken again throughout in this epic tale of growing up in a small inner city that is rife with crime, violence, and other deviant behaviors. By the last page, my eyes were filled with tears. Seriously, if you read nothing else this summer, The Concrete will give you plenty to think about in your own life and struggles. Kudos Mr. Abbott, well done sir!
July 4, 2018
I’m going to admit right up front that I’m probably not the best reader for this book: my rural Southern queer perspective is a long shot from the Detroit concrete that sets the stage for this ambitious multigenerational saga. I first encountered Daniel’s work when we were MFA students together at Vermont College of Fine Arts, and it was here I first met Isaac and Miles, Jackson, Joy Green, Cesar Bolten. But it wasn’t until I read the book as a whole that I really entered The Concrete, because it was the physical setting of the book that centers all these characters, their frenetic lives and dissolute, senseless deaths.
The Concrete is crowded. With people, who talk constantly to one another in dialog that’s a flamboyant patter, as much a part of the setting as the ragged basketball nets, the shag carpet riddled with cigarette scars. With plot: scams, cons, love affairs gone sour, drug addictions a constant siren’s song. With sex. A lot of sex. When I say it was a page-turner, I’m not lying to you: I read this thing in one long gulp.
It’s also funny, in ways that are surprising and sweet. “Wake your ass up,” says Isaac to his half-brother Miles, “It’s Christmas.” These are characters that care about one another, and it was easy for me to care about them too. They’re richly drawn, filled with contradictions and confusion and passions that threaten to tear them apart in a world that could care less whether they live or die. In many ways, it reminded me of the prose of Victor LaValle, with that same interrogation of what it is to be a man, and a black man, in a racially charged environment in which the plot isn’t actually about race. I look forward to seeing what’s next from this author.
The Concrete is crowded. With people, who talk constantly to one another in dialog that’s a flamboyant patter, as much a part of the setting as the ragged basketball nets, the shag carpet riddled with cigarette scars. With plot: scams, cons, love affairs gone sour, drug addictions a constant siren’s song. With sex. A lot of sex. When I say it was a page-turner, I’m not lying to you: I read this thing in one long gulp.
It’s also funny, in ways that are surprising and sweet. “Wake your ass up,” says Isaac to his half-brother Miles, “It’s Christmas.” These are characters that care about one another, and it was easy for me to care about them too. They’re richly drawn, filled with contradictions and confusion and passions that threaten to tear them apart in a world that could care less whether they live or die. In many ways, it reminded me of the prose of Victor LaValle, with that same interrogation of what it is to be a man, and a black man, in a racially charged environment in which the plot isn’t actually about race. I look forward to seeing what’s next from this author.
January 29, 2020
This one's my baby, so I won't bother you with my biased opinion :)
I'll just say that it is a multi-pov work of realistic literary fiction that deals with trauma, loss, and addiction. Quotes/short passages from the book are searchable on Goodreads and more information is available on my website.
I'll just say that it is a multi-pov work of realistic literary fiction that deals with trauma, loss, and addiction. Quotes/short passages from the book are searchable on Goodreads and more information is available on my website.
August 24, 2018
This book had me on an emotional roller coaster ride. The characters having to survive, what seems to be, insurmountable circumstances in the "villanous" southeast Grand Rapids. I find myself in the book, trying to figure out how or if I could survive their reality. Daniel Abbott wrote a great GREAT fiction piece. Hoping he comes out with another book soon!!!!
April 24, 2019
This is really a wonderful book. The characters may seem a bit tough and unredeemable when you first meet them, but through Abbott's beautiful prose and lyrical writing, you find them to be redeemable and unique. The story also keeps readers in suspense and that tug of the just is wonderfully constructed.
June 20, 2018
The Concrete is a haunting, heartbreaking novel filled with characters and places that have stayed with me long after I finished the book. What a beautiful story of love and forgiveness and redemption.
May 10, 2019
The concrete gives an authentic take of Grand Rapids. The dynamic characters pull the reader in. Their stories written with an attention to detail and tenderness.
November 1, 2019
A quick read about realistic yet unfortunate lives. I applaud the author for not cutting corners and allowing the readers to see what some American lives are all about, although much of this was difficult to digest. I noticed several grammatical errors that should have been caught before publishing but this is definitely a book that I plan to recommend to others.
December 22, 2021
Greatest contemporary novel I've ever read. Heartbreaking as hell. Read this now.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 13, 2020
I love to check out the daily ebook specials on Amazon and iTunes and discovered this on Amazon. I suspect this is not the sort of book that most readers would gravitate to, but I’m so glad I took a chance, after reading the reviews heaping praise on this book. This is a beautifully written novel about the lives lived in the sort of neighborhoods that probably most of the readers of this book drive through as quickly as possible or avoid entirely. You don’t feel like a spectator, as the evocative writing immerses the reader in the characters’ lives. I feel it’s best to let a book like this wash over you without too much advance knowledge about the story, but that said, the reader should be prepared for a book whose subject matter is gritty and often very raw, and the writing is graphic, although never gratuitous. I think one of the great strengths of the book is that you want to keep reading and will not be overwhelmed by the material. Excellent character development and an engrossing and unexpected story line. This is a book that will stay with you – and not just because it takes you out of your comfort zone
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews