A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City by Dr

Description: A $500 House in Detroit by Drew Philp "A young writers sincere search (with his dog) for an authentic life--buying a ruined house in Detroit for $500, fixing it up nail by nail, and, in the process, participating in the grassroots rebirth of the city itself."--Provided by publisher. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description A young college grad buys a house in Detroit for $500 and attempts to restore it--and his new neighborhood--to its original glory in this "deeply felt, sharply observed personal quest to create meaning and community out of the fallen...A standout" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Drew Philp, an idealistic college student from a working-class Michigan family, decides to live where he can make a difference. He sets his sights on Detroit, the failed metropolis of abandoned buildings, widespread poverty, and rampant crime. Arriving with no job, no friends, and no money, Philp buys a ramshackle house for five hundred dollars in the east side neighborhood known as Poletown. The roomy Queen Anne he now owns is little more than a clapboard shell on a crumbling brick foundation, missing windows, heat, water, electricity, and a functional roof. A $500 House in Detroit is Philps raw and earnest account of rebuilding everything but the frame of his house, nail by nail and room by room. "Philp is a great storyteller...[and his] engrossing" (Booklist) tale is also of a young man finding his footing in the city, the country, and his own generation. We witness his concept of Detroit shift, expand, and evolve as his plan to save the city gives way to a life forged from political meaning, personal connection, and collective purpose. As he assimilates into the community of Detroiters around him, Philp guides readers through the citys vibrant history and engages in urgent conversations about gentrification, racial tensions, and class warfare. Part social history, part brash generational statement, part comeback story, A $500 House in Detroit "shines [in its depiction of] the radical neighborliness of ordinary people in desperate circumstances" (Publishers Weekly). This is an unforgettable, intimate account of the tentative revival of an American city and a glimpse at a new way forward for generations to come. Author Biography Drew Philps work has been published both nationally and internationally and has appeared in publications, including BuzzFeed, The Detroit Free Press, Metrotimes, Corp! Magazine, the Bakersfield Californian, and the Michigan Daily. He lives in Detroit with his dog, Gratiot. A $500 House in Detroit is his first book. Review "In this impassioned memoir, a young man finds a community flourishing in a city so depopulated that houses are worth less than a used Chevy....Philp ably captures the frontier feel of Detroit as he laboriously rehabs his ruined house from foundation to roof. His homebuilding narrative is engrossing....The book shines [in its depiction of] the radical neighborliness of ordinary people in desperate circumstances." -Publishers Weekly Review Quote "Philp, the 23-year-old, recent college graduate, begins with a carcass, and over time constructs a house that becomes the prism through which he determines not only his place in the world, but also what he wants out of life. A reader cant help but finish the book and begin asking themselves the same questions." -- Los Angeles Review of Books Excerpt from Book A $500 House in Detroit CHAPTER 1 Raw Material Poletown, an urban prairie I moved to Detroit with no friends, no job, and no money. I just came, blind. Nearly anyone I told I was moving to the city thought it was a terrible idea, that I was throwing my life away. I was close to graduating from the University of Michigan, one of the best universities in the world, and I was a bit of an anomaly there, too. Aside from an uncle, Im the oldest male member of my family with all of my fingers intact, and the first in at least three generations never to have worked in front of a lathe. Growing up, I thought blue collar still meant middle class. No longer. At the university I met only one other student whose father worked with his hands. On a sweltering day my pops and his truck helped move my few possessions into the Cass Corridor, which had been recently renamed "Midtown" by developers in an attempt to obscure the past. It was the red-light district, containing a few bars, artists, and at one time the most murders in murder city. Detroits major university was just up the street, skid row down the block. An ex-girlfriend who had spent time in rehab for a small heroin addiction helped me find the place. She was the only person I knew who lived in Detroit, and she left for Portland the day I moved in. Both my father and I nervously carried what little I had into my efficiency apartment: a single pot, a bed to lay on the floor, a futon frame Id fished from the trash and fixed with a bit of chain-link fence. My father didnt always have the money to buy me new things, so he taught me how to fix old ones. School nights growing up were spent hunched under the sink with the plumbing, summers reroofing the garage, always right next to my father and his gentle guidance. The futon frame was a first attempt to fix something by myself. Sitting on the thing was terribly uncomfortable. So was the move-in. If I was out of place at school, I was way out of place here. I was in one of two apartments occupied by white people in the building, which was filled with folks whom society has deemed undesirable: drug dealers, gutter punks covered in stick-and-poke tattoos, petty thieves, a thin and ancient prostitute who covered the plastic hole in her neck with her finger when she smoked. She once told me, "Youll pawn your clothes for your nose, cuz horse is the boss of your house," referring to heroin. My dad locked the truck between each trip up the three flights of dirty vinyl stairs. I could sense he was uneasy--I was, too--but he never said anything aside from smiling and helping me lift my cheap necessities. Year to year, Detroit was still the most violent city in the United States, with the highest murder rate in the nation, higher than most countries in South America. My walk-up (nobody could remember the last time the elevator worked) was less than $300 a month and didnt come with a kitchen sink. The landlord waived the security deposit if I agreed to clean the place myself. I wasnt quite through with school, but the wealth of Ann Arbor had become stifling. Compared with many Detroiters I was wildly privileged, but at the university I was feeling increasingly distant. I had great friends who were generous, and I felt lucky to get the education I did, but I wanted to use that for something meaningful at home. At the time more than half of UMich students were leaving the state upon graduation, and I didnt want to be one of them. I thought I might be able to use my schooling to help somehow. I na Details ISBN1476797994 Author Drew Philp Short Title $500 HOUSE IN DETROIT Pages 304 Publisher Scribner Book Company Language English ISBN-10 1476797994 ISBN-13 9781476797991 Format Paperback DEWEY B Year 2018 Publication Date 2018-04-10 Subtitle Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City Imprint Scribner Book Company Audience General UK Release Date 2018-04-10 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:125023770;

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