num_pages: 304
description: A young college grad buys a house in Detroit for $500 and attempts to restore itand his new neighborhoodto its original glory in this deeply felt sharply observed personal quest to create meaning and community out of the fallenA 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.
language: English
title: A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City
publisher: Scribner