ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW

(Poison Toe Press: Ferndale, MI, 2024)
A

n outstanding professor I studied with 
thought that the teaching of history 
could be reduced to one salient lesson. 
When asked about a particular moment in time, 
as much as recalling the facts of important events 
and issues, could one of his students envision the 
way people lived at that time? What did they wear 
or eat? Where did they live, and how 
did they make a living? What were 
the sights and sounds of the era? The 
landscape?
This professor would be proud of 
Don Levin’s latest work, The Ghosts 
of Detroit. This book is an excellent 
portrait of a moment of time and 
place, its sights, sounds and smells, as 
experienced by four central characters 
living in the Motor City in 1955.
The Ghosts of Detroit is the third book in Levin’s 
excellent series of Detroit stories. The first, Savage 
City was set in the city in 1932; the second, The 
Arsenal of Deceit, in 1941. The Ghosts of Detroit 
leaps ahead another decade to the 1950s when 
Detroit was a city seemingly on top of the world. 
In 1955, Detroit was the fourth- 
largest city in America, prosperous 
and boasting nearly 2 million citi-
zens. It was the center of automobile 
manufacturing, the nation’s and the 
world’s undisputed premier indus-
try. Detroit was nicknamed the 
“
Arsenal of Democracy” for its role 
toward winning WWII, when the 
region produced about 25% of the 
heavy war material. Downtown was 
vibrant; the suburbs were growing. 
But, there was a dark undercurrent 
of social unrest.
Levin’s work is akin to the Film Noir movies 
of the late-1940s and early-1950s, as he explores 
post-WWII Detroit. On one hand, the Allies had 
won the “Good War,” defeated despicable ene-
mies, and soldiers, sailors, Coasties and Marines 
returned to a genuine heroes’ welcome. There was 
pent-up demand for consumer goods, and there 
was a “Baby Boom.” On the other, however, there 

were serious, long-standing social ills such as rac-
ism, antisemitism and labor exploitation that were 
beginning to bubble up and over the so-called 
melting pot of Detroit and America.
Using the effective literary formula from his 
previous Detroit volumes, Levin provides insights 
for readers as he follows four central, interconnect-
ed fictional characters as they struggle with the 
contemporary political/social environment. In this 
case, Jewish Detroiter Jake Lieberman, a former 
artist for the Detroit News and soldier, who was one 
of the first to see liberated Nazi death camps and is 
still haunted by the experience; Malone Coleman, a 
Black worker who struggles with the racial tensions 
of the era, as well as with his suppressed desire 
to be an artist; Bridget McManus, a police officer 
with the Women’s Division of the Detroit Police 
Department, who faces overt sexism at every turn, 
and is also haunted by her past; and Anna Miller, 
a woman with huge potential as a photographer, 
eking out a living, while yearning for love. And 
there is a mystery. A serial killer is lurking.
Levin tells their stories within a distinct histor-
ical moment, often based upon real events. The 
“Communist Scare” was the dominant issue in 
mid-1950s America. The FBI, local civic authorities 
and Congress hunted high and low 
for suspected communists. Many are 
caught in this net, whether they are 
actually communists or not, often 
accused on mere associations from 
their past. It reminds one of the 
political and cultural divides of our 
modern times.
 Most impressive, in The Ghosts of 
Detroit, the author builds an exacting 
portrait of the Motor City in that 
era. Some of his venues and people 
are icons of the era: streetcars, factories, neigh-
borhoods and Northland Mall; Walter Reuther, 
Coleman Young and Soupy Sales. Some icons are 
not commonplace but might be remembered by 
some. I did not know that the Hughes & Hatcher 
Men’s store at Northland Mall maintained monkeys 
in a cage! If that isn’t the 1950s, like chimpanzees 
on roller skates…. Although a work of fiction, as 
one reads this book, Detroit comes alive; more so 

perhaps, than any academic study of the city.
All happens within solidly written prose that 
builds pace as it goes. Once Levin introduces his 
characters and sets the stage, the pace increases, 
and it becomes a bona fide page turner. The book 
does explore the dark-side, the noir-side, if you 
will, of the Motor City. There is, however, hope and 
redemption waiting for the reader. 
Writing good historical fiction is not easy but 
Levin does the job well. This is a good read, one 
that will enlighten any reader interested in all 
things Detroit, and those who just like a good 
story. 

Don Levin is a local Jewish author and former dean at 

Marygrove College. He was raised in Detroit, and has lived in 

Ferndale for the past 25 years and now works as a writer.

The Ghosts of Detroit 

by Donald Levin

54 | DECEMBER 12 • 2024 
J
N

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

Don Levin

Would you like to learn more? 
Join Mike Smith and Don Levin at 11 a.m. on 
Sunday, Jan. 19, at Schuler Books on Orchard 
Lake for the inaugural Jewish News Book Club. 
See the ad in this JN for details of this free 
event. Mention the book club at Schuler Books 
for 20% off The Ghosts of Detroit. 

