Q&A with Detroit Noir contributor Desiree Cooper
Posted on October 24, 2007
Desiree Cooper is a columnist for the Detroit Free Press, a frequent contributor to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and cohost of American Public Media’s Weekend America. She lives in Detroit with her husband and two children.
Nikki added more hot water to her bath and closed her eyes. She remembered her first Halloween in Palmer Woods. How she’d gone and bought three bags of candy, even though she’d seen very few children in the neighborhood.
That Halloween had been particularly cold, and she’d wondered how the children were going to show off their angel wings and Superman capes if they were bundled up like Eskimos. She’d just come home from work and barely had a bowl of soup before the doorbell rang.
She’d put on her witch’s hat and run to the door, expecting to see tiny tots hollering, “Trick or Treat!” Instead, there were adults and teenagers, most with only half-cocked attempt at a costume—the stark white face paint of the “Dead Presidents,” or a terrifying Freddy Krueger mask-holding out a pillowcase for candy. They came in droves all night, kids tumbling out of buses and church vans, and the hungry adults vying with them for the best candy.
The enormity of it had shocked and depressed her. As she opened the door, some of them peeked inside. “You have a nice house,” they said and she’d blushed, Marie Antionette doling out her little pieces of cake.
Within an hour after sunset, she’d given away all of her candy and had started combing the kitchen for bags of chips, apples, anything. She’d finally closed the door and turned off all of the lights, trembling. And still, the footsteps came.
That was Detroit. A city where there was no place to hide.
–From “Night Coming” by Desiree Cooper
What are the challenges (if any) in writing about Detroit ?
As someone who is loyal to Detroit , it’s hard to write about the city’s problems without feeling like I’m betraying it.
Detroit is, in fact, a gritty town that has been down on its luck more often than not in recent decades. But it is also a city with an amazing history, beautiful neighborhoods, great people and an undying hope. It has a spectacular history of achievement in the African American community. These things are seldom written about. It always makes me cringe to read things about Detroit that furthers the negative stereotypes.
That poses a particular problem when writing noir, which is not a rosy genre. The way I overcame this challenge was to set it among black professionals in one of Detroit’s premier neighborhoods, as a way of bringing attention to a seldom-reported dimension of city life.
Have you written other fiction set in Detroit ?
No. My obsession is with the South. Both of my parents are from Virginia and I spent some of my formative years growing up there.
What attracts you to the (broadly-defined) Noir style?
The best noir is understated and subtle. It creates suspense and fear through restraint, not mayhem. It gets under your skin and you can’t scratch it off. There’s a fine art to that, and I admire writers who can do it.
Is your story based on, or overtly influenced by, actual events?
The story of the couple and their conflict is fictional, but Nikki sees Detroit the way I saw it after moving here in 1984. Then I was a young lawyer and was amazed at how poverty co-existed with wealth, the haves living blocks away from the have-nots. Ultimately, I wrote a story about the class divide, one that is very palpable in Detroit The “nail figure” actually exists in the Detroit Institute of Arts.
If you could write anything and see it published, what would it be?
I’m working on a novel based upon my grandmother’s life in rural Virginia in the 1900s. I would love to see it published one day, as an ode to her sacrifices and as a legacy for my own daughter.
Is there any particular effect you want your writing to have on the reader? Why?
My favorite quote is from Gwendolyn Brooks who said, “One wants a Teller in a time like this.” I think stories should bring people to a particular place in time, and communicate with the reader, heart-to-heart. Stories can pave the way to empathy and compassion, something I strive for in my writing.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Lately, I’ve been feasting upon Kate Atkinson. Her crime thrillers have respect for both the living and the dead, and the human disasters they suffer in between.
And I’m in love with the great storytellers who help us walk a mile in someone else’s shoes: Pearl Buck, Carol Shields, Alice Walker and William Faulkner.
Detroit speed round: Eminem or the White Stripes?
Eminem. He and Kim are a spectator sport.