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You're in the Wrong Place
In a thrilling interconnected narrative, You're in the Wrong Place presents characters reaching for transcendence from a place they cannot escape. Charles Baxter stated that "Joseph Harris has a particular feeling for the Detroit suburbs and the slightly stunted lives of the young people there. . . . You're in the Wrong Place isn't uniformly downbeat-there are all sorts of rays of hope that gleam toward the end."
The book, composed of twelve stories, begins in the fall of 2008 with the shuttering of Dynamic Fabricating-a fictional industrial shop located in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale. Over the next seven years, the shop's former employees-as well as their friends and families-struggle to find money, purpose, and levity in a landscape suddenly devoid of work, faith, and love. In "Would You Rather," a young couple brought together by Dynamic Fabricating shares a blissful weekend in Northern Michigan, unaware of the catastrophe that awaits them upon their return home. In "Acolytes," a devout Catholic clings to her faith as her brothers descend into cultish soccer violence. In "Memorial," an ex-Dynamic worker scrapes money together for a tribute to his best friend, lost to the war in Afghanistan. In "Was It Good for You?" a cam girl deconstructs materialism with her aging great aunt, a luxury sales associate, and an anxious, faceless client. And in the title story, simmering tensions come to a boil on a hot summer day for a hardscrabble landscaping crew, hired by the local bank to maintain the lawns of foreclosures.
In turns elegiac and harrowing, You're in the Wrong Place blends lyric intensity with philosophical eroticism to create a singular, powerful vision of contemporary American life. Readers of contemporary fiction grounded in place need to take up this collection.
The book, composed of twelve stories, begins in the fall of 2008 with the shuttering of Dynamic Fabricating-a fictional industrial shop located in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale. Over the next seven years, the shop's former employees-as well as their friends and families-struggle to find money, purpose, and levity in a landscape suddenly devoid of work, faith, and love. In "Would You Rather," a young couple brought together by Dynamic Fabricating shares a blissful weekend in Northern Michigan, unaware of the catastrophe that awaits them upon their return home. In "Acolytes," a devout Catholic clings to her faith as her brothers descend into cultish soccer violence. In "Memorial," an ex-Dynamic worker scrapes money together for a tribute to his best friend, lost to the war in Afghanistan. In "Was It Good for You?" a cam girl deconstructs materialism with her aging great aunt, a luxury sales associate, and an anxious, faceless client. And in the title story, simmering tensions come to a boil on a hot summer day for a hardscrabble landscaping crew, hired by the local bank to maintain the lawns of foreclosures.
In turns elegiac and harrowing, You're in the Wrong Place blends lyric intensity with philosophical eroticism to create a singular, powerful vision of contemporary American life. Readers of contemporary fiction grounded in place need to take up this collection.
- GenresShort Stories
176 pages, Paperback
Published September 15, 2020
2 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Harris
1 book5 followersJoseph Harris is the author of You're in the Wrong Place (Wayne State University Press, 2020), which was named a Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan, won the Midwest Book Award for Short Story/Anthology, and received the Bronze Medal for Best Regional Fiction at the Independent Publisher Book Awards. His stories have appeared in Clackamas Literary Review, Midwest Review, Moon City Review, Great Lakes Review, Storm Cellar, and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota, where he received the Gesell Award for Excellence in Fiction and the Winifred Fellowship, and an MA from Wayne State University, where he received two Tompkins Awards for Fiction, The Loughead-Eldredge Endowed Scholarship in Creative Writing, and the Thomas R. Jasina Endowed Scholarship in English. He lives in Oak Park, MI.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 20, 2020
Hats off to Wayne State Press and Joseph Harris for this stunning, spot on portrait of Detroit and it’s people in the last 15 or so years. And what really makes a city after manufacturing and industry are gone? When the money leaves? It’s the people. Harris writes the very soul of people in a way so few writers can.
The main concept is unique and interesting- each story focuses on one person and family, each connected in some way to Dynamic Fabricating, a fictitious factory on the East side of Ferndale, a working class suburb just outside of Detroit. The book begins with the last days of the factory before it is shutdown like so many others. Then it drives deep into the financial collapse of 2008 that hit Michigan harder than anywhere else. And towards the end we get a glimpse at the rebirth of Detroit but not without some rightful skepticism and acknowledgement of how deeply the fabric of the city has changed.
Perhaps a bit overly ambitious, while only 176 pages the collection begins to feel much longer than it is. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, only that I think it could’ve been better served by removing a few stories and maybe bulking a few others up. Where it really gets to be a bit much is the amount of ground that the author attempts to cover- love, sex, and intimacy (some of my favorite lines related to these subjects), various economic theories, musings on being working class, religion, drinking culture, etc, etc. I think a bit less of this, or a narrower focus would’ve been best given the limited number of pages.
All that said, reading these stories felt like home. I loved all the details of street names, places, what the changing seasons feel like, the skyline and sunsets of Detroit. It made me ache in that wistful way because I live in Chicago now and while Chicagoans also love their city fiercely, that’s easy to understand, but asking a Detroiter, especially one who came of age like I did at the height of the financial crisis, just why they love Detroit and the answer is a complicated one. Perhaps that’s even why these stories began to feel like a bit too much, because Harris is just as familiar with the complex jumble of feelings for this city that added together become love.
I would love to read future work from Joseph Harris. He nails the working class midwestern voice, and all the complexities of a city caught in the middle of rapid decline and rebirth. Harris really digs into the depth of his characters and in doing so managed to make each of them feel incredibly real. This is quite possibly the most distinctly Detroit book I’ve ever read. So with that in mind, it belongs proudly on the shelves of every Michigan bookstore. I especially recommend this one to fellow Detroiters, wherever they may be. Whether you’ve stayed or left, or left than returned, these stories will speak to your soul. I think others in the Rust Belt will find a lot to relate to as well, after all, Detroit, in some ways more than any other, is America’s city- for better and for worst. No other city has more accurately reflected the rise and fall of the American dream and what happens first in Detroit tends to be what happens later to other cities. If you haven’t been paying attention yet, this book is a great way to start. But no one will “get” these stories like those who have lived them.
The main concept is unique and interesting- each story focuses on one person and family, each connected in some way to Dynamic Fabricating, a fictitious factory on the East side of Ferndale, a working class suburb just outside of Detroit. The book begins with the last days of the factory before it is shutdown like so many others. Then it drives deep into the financial collapse of 2008 that hit Michigan harder than anywhere else. And towards the end we get a glimpse at the rebirth of Detroit but not without some rightful skepticism and acknowledgement of how deeply the fabric of the city has changed.
Perhaps a bit overly ambitious, while only 176 pages the collection begins to feel much longer than it is. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, only that I think it could’ve been better served by removing a few stories and maybe bulking a few others up. Where it really gets to be a bit much is the amount of ground that the author attempts to cover- love, sex, and intimacy (some of my favorite lines related to these subjects), various economic theories, musings on being working class, religion, drinking culture, etc, etc. I think a bit less of this, or a narrower focus would’ve been best given the limited number of pages.
All that said, reading these stories felt like home. I loved all the details of street names, places, what the changing seasons feel like, the skyline and sunsets of Detroit. It made me ache in that wistful way because I live in Chicago now and while Chicagoans also love their city fiercely, that’s easy to understand, but asking a Detroiter, especially one who came of age like I did at the height of the financial crisis, just why they love Detroit and the answer is a complicated one. Perhaps that’s even why these stories began to feel like a bit too much, because Harris is just as familiar with the complex jumble of feelings for this city that added together become love.
I would love to read future work from Joseph Harris. He nails the working class midwestern voice, and all the complexities of a city caught in the middle of rapid decline and rebirth. Harris really digs into the depth of his characters and in doing so managed to make each of them feel incredibly real. This is quite possibly the most distinctly Detroit book I’ve ever read. So with that in mind, it belongs proudly on the shelves of every Michigan bookstore. I especially recommend this one to fellow Detroiters, wherever they may be. Whether you’ve stayed or left, or left than returned, these stories will speak to your soul. I think others in the Rust Belt will find a lot to relate to as well, after all, Detroit, in some ways more than any other, is America’s city- for better and for worst. No other city has more accurately reflected the rise and fall of the American dream and what happens first in Detroit tends to be what happens later to other cities. If you haven’t been paying attention yet, this book is a great way to start. But no one will “get” these stories like those who have lived them.
February 2, 2021
I was excited to read another story by a Michigan writer set in Michigan. I initially enjoyed this book but the more I read, the less I liked. It was just so repetitive. This book makes people from Michigan seem one dimensional. It reminds me of a writing style forced on you in a creative writing class (i.e. use descriptive words to conjure all of the senses, seasons, memories, etc.). I understand that the stories were published in different periodicals and maybe reading them separately and seeing how they tie together might be interesting. However, all together in this one book was just too much of the same thing. It was not as if they were tied together in an interesting way. Each person either worked at or was related to someone who worked at the factory that shutdown and they are all now destitute or addicted to drugs or alcohol. Nothing more than that. It was pretty flat. It would have been more interesting to read stories of different people and how some are able to turn things around and rise above. The only people in the story doing well were the ones related to those who sold the factory. It was just a crushing story.
August 9, 2021
Incredible. I lived in metro Detroit for a while, and not all that far from the epicenter of the connecting thread of this collection of short stories. I am in awe of this collection. Harris drops the slow moving trainwreck of the economic downturn in manufacturing and the obliteration of the middle class experience of America, Michigan and in particular Detroit's blue collar burbs on your lap and reminds you of the human experience of the exodus of jobs, opportunity and community. Moreover, his writing is succinct, visible, real and paced well to absorb and get involved in the stories. Should be required reading. This was an intense read, a great read, incredibly human and very well written.
April 21, 2023
This book consists of twelve interconnected short stories that don't so much weave together as sit adjacent to one another. All of the protagonists, primarily young people, attempt to create meaning in a city bereft of work, capital, love, and religion. The stories are gritty and bleak, but not without some glimmers of hope, which I guess feels like Detroit. A few parts felt a bit heavy-handed, but overall it did an excellent job of capturing what it felt like to be a young, white adult in Great Recession era metro Detroit. The last story was one of my favorites, and I felt like the ending was fairly positive.
The fact that it's primarily set in Ferndale was a fun bonus.
The fact that it's primarily set in Ferndale was a fun bonus.
November 12, 2020
This is an extraordinary collection of stories centered around the intersecting lives of workers at the fictional (and shuttered) Dynamic Fabricating metal shop in the very real Ferndale, MI. It is a pitch perfect invocation of the Detroit suburbs, and while each story can be appreciated on its own, the collective impact is to build a rich community of the holy and the broken in the post-industrial Rust Belt. Gloriously done.
February 15, 2021
Humans of New York, meet humans of post-industrial Detroit. I loved this collection of stories. After living and working in Detroit and metro Detroit for many years, I smiled at all the references to familiar places. Detroit has grit like no other and it’s truly captured perfectly here. Despite being fiction, I could imagine each of these scenarios playing perfectly in my head. Fantastic, captivating writing. I can’t wait to read other Michigan based stories by this author.
June 27, 2021
3.5 stars. I didn’t grow up in Detroit but the setting felt familiar, probably because my husband and most of my friends did. It’s maudlin but that’s Detroit in a recession I suppose, so it’s pretty close to reality. Sometimes the writing felt forced but there were good moments. I thought the last story flowed the best.
December 17, 2022
Short stories are difficult to write successfully, so I’m always impressed when someone does them well. Mr. Harris does not disappoint. Poignant, heart-breaking and just down depressing at times, Detroit grit shines through.
April 22, 2021
It was alright.
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March 29, 2023Harris skillfully captures a particular time and feeling in the Detroit area in these connected short stories that resonate. Well done.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews