Damn Book Review: History Lessons by Zoe B. Wallbrook

In Zoe B. Wallbrook’s mystery novel “History Lessons,” released over the summer, Detective Asma Ahmed ponders the unlikelihood of a murder in the college town of Calliope, where she works:

With a population of just about 150,000 when school was in session, its status as an elite research hub stuffed with PhDs suggested a mecca of NPR listeners, bookstore lovers, hipster beer drinkers, and amateur beekeepers. Sometimes the shoe fit: Just last month Asma had leaned against the side of the Calliope Amphitheater, watching a bunch of dads whip out wads of cash from inside their windbreakers to buy bootleg Neil DeGrasse Tyson tickets.

This could be any American college town, notoriously overrun as such places are with Neil DeGrasse Tyson superfans. (“You know Neil DeGrasse Tyson was a competitive ballroom dancer in college”: a real sentence said to me by Damn Arbor when he was trying to get me to care about Neil DeGrasse Tyson. BTA, of course – “Before The Allegations.”) No reason to believe we are anywhere specific.

Later, the novel’s main character Daphne Ouverture, a young Black tenure-track history professor at Harrison University in Calliope, goes out to drinks with her friends:

In a university town like Calliope, there were certain items that poured onto the tree-lined streets in overabundance: artisanal vegan cheese makers, microbiologists who made mead out of their garages, yoga studios offering hot vinyasa classes, bike stores, coffee shops for writing the Next Great American Novel, and, of course, bars. Lots of bars.

Sure, maybe more like ten years ago for some of that stuff, but sounds familiar. But it’s still describing a type of city, and Ann Arbor isn’t the only one.

Daphne walking her dog before coming upon a murder scene:

The bright promises of spring in the air kissed her cheeks as she wandered through neighborhood streets, past countless overpriced historical homes with organic vegetable gardens, white picket fences, and the occasional obligatory “Black Lives Matter” or “Love Is Love” sign next to a bed of daffodils.

OK, “overpriced” might be zooming in closer, but again, could be said about a lot of similar places.

But then, a conversation among Daphne’s students in her French Empire class about the murder, kicked off by an intense electrical engineering student:

“Calliope can be dangerous.”

“Are you kidding?” Tabitha said. [Tabitha is a high-achieving Black student but has no interest in European history; Daphne funnily comments that Tabitha is likely only taking this class because she, Daphne, is one of the few Black professors at the university.] “This town just held a teach-in on how to apply hormonal birth control to its deer population.”

The #deerlivesmatter signs from protesters had caused Daphne’s eyes to become temporarily glued to her brain, they had rolled so far back in her skull.

Ope, she got us. I’d recognize that proprietary blend of misguided environmental activism and tone-deaf racial politics anywhere. Ann Arbor, I believe we have the beginnings of our very own mystery series.

(In fairness to Wallbrook, I will highlight the fact that her protagonist is committed to staying in Ann Arb–er, I mean Calliope, so the gentle ribbing of the locale seems to come from a place of love. As it does around here. Mostly.)

You may pick up “History Lessons” for the sick Ann Arbor burns, but you’ll stay for a delightful, good-humored crime story with a genius, kind of dorky main character. There’s a lot going on here. We’ve got campus intrigue (plagiarism, sexual harassment, interdepartmental politics). We’ve got a mostly unexplained animus toward anthropology (the murdered anthropology professor’s library “...contained volumes on fitness regimens, an innumerable list of works on prison reform, and three paleo cookbooks…” and no novels. And he only had the prison reform books because that was his area of study. This is character assassination far beyond his actual murder). We’ve got quirky professor friends, some relevant family background, references to books that will expand your to-read list, pop-culture nods, a multilingual exploration of the word “butterfly.” Of course, we’ve got Daphne Ouverture deducing her way to an answer, not once but several times over, relying on her knowledge of a specific book and her ability to remember everything she’s ever read. Pretty satisfying stuff.

Somehow, there is also a romance. (I wondered at one point if there is so much going on in this story because novels now have to maintain our Internet-addled attention spans by constantly offering new intrigues, but I settled on the explanation that Ms. Wallbrook herself may be a genius and this is just how her brain works–on all cylinders, at all times. This is also a debut novel, so there is likely some throwing-spaghetti-at-the-wall-to-see-what-sticks.) The love interest is Rowan, a bookish (Daphne swoons when he correctly identifies that the French Revolution happened in the second half of the eighteenth century, which is probably an accurate reflection of her dating experience but was nonetheless a depressing swoon to read about) former detective who had developed reservations about the criminal justice system. Before the events of the novel, Rowan fortunately was able to leave the police force when he was gifted Earthseed Bookstore.

Not Dawn Treader Book Shop.

Earthseed Bookstore.

Daphne notes:

Earthseed had a reputation for being less of a bookstore and more of a maze, its narrow aisles stacked to the ceiling with old paperbacks and musty hardcovers. It had been the kind of bookstore that made it impossible to tell if the book you had fished out of the maw was worth ten thousand dollars or ten cents. At one point that might have been cute, but the threadbare carpets and stuffy air had just felt sad.

Rude.

So Rowan has taken over Not-Dawn-Treader and turned it into essentially Literati, down to the “black-and-white tiles sparkl[ing] on the floor, and rows of bookshelves lin[ing] the exposed brick walls.” Daphne describes this as a huge improvement, a “most intoxicating mix of erudition, comfort, and charm.” On this point I depart from Daphne’s assessment–there is room in this town for both musty hardcovers stacked to the ceiling and neat piles of the latest bestsellers.

Bookshop misjudgments aside, I thoroughly enjoyed my time bouncing around Daphne Ouverture’s expansive brain, walking with her the streets I kind-of recognized, and noodling with her on puzzles only she could solve.

I hope, in the next one, we get her thoughts on the new Comprehensive Plan.

Election 2025: Vote in favor of the WISD millage

 

Gentle readers, it's election day if you are registered to vote in the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD). The one item on the ballot is the Career Technical Education millage. This 1.0 mill, 10-year millage would fund Career Technical Education (CTE) learning experiences from preschool through high school graduation. If approved, the CTE millage would be used by Washtenaw ISD to reimburse all local public school districts for existing CTE expenses and also develop new countywide CTE learning opportunities. 

I think this is good. In general, I think it's important for us to support our public schools, especially in these times of national uncertainty. This article from concentrate has a lot of great information on the proposal. 

WISD Map

15 years of Damn Arbor

 

Today marks the 15th anniversary of Damn Arbor's official launch. It is an occasion that mandates a stroll down memory lane. Pleased join me in this indulgence, gentle reader.  

15 years ago we launched this little website in an effort to follow the trail blazed by Arbor Update and Ann Arbor is Overrated. 5 of us were were housemates in a drafty rental on 3rd st. G$ lived nearby on Ann st. The goal was to get young adults following local politics and to have a little bit of fun while doing it. Did we succeed? Well gentle reader, that is for you to decide. 

In the early years, we were posting multiple articles per day. In March 2011, we averaged almost 4 articles per day. It's remember what that time was like. It was just before social media became so pervasive so there was a whole ecosystem of local websites covering politics, food, entertainment. More elegant tools for a more civilized age. Over the years, nearly 40 people have written for Damn Arbor. From the core group of 6 founders, we have produced two marriages and 5 children. I also like to think that G$ owes much of his success as a law professor at Cornell to the writing skills he honed on this humble website.  

To commemorate the occasion, I've cracked open the Damn Arbor Vault to share some of my favorite articles with you:

Guest Opinion: Desolate and Uninviting—The Failure of 2018’s Proposal A and the Future of the Library Lot. November 10, 2022. Was this guest post by Dan Adams the first nail in the Center of the City's Coffin? Only history will know for sure. 

Ann Arbor for the many, not the few. June 1, 2020. I have written this article many times. This is the time when I think I wrote it best. More housing in Ann Arbor will make it more affordable and will make it more sustainable. 

The Bang! Must Die: the History of the Sweatiest Dance Party in Town. October 22, 2019.  An oral history-style set of interviews to commemorate the last Bang! dance party. 

Guest Article: Revisiting Water Rates in Ann Arbor. March 13, 2019. This article by Erich Z. does an incredible job explaining the difference between a 4-tier water rate system and Ann Arbor's old 3-tier system. Though the topic seems dry. I have had occasion, to re-post it almost yearly. 

How a resolution to hold a hearing on affordable housing at Water Street became a flashpoint for controversy. September 14, 2017. A guest article by Nathanael Romero, this piece takes you back to the controversial International Village proposal for the Water Street site in Ypsilanti. 

An Afternoon with Dave Coverly. January 10, 2011. Erika is probably my favorite of all Damn Arbor's writers. Here she interviews nationally syndicated cartoonist, and Ann Arborite, Dave Coverly. 

Much ado about Stuffing. September 23, 2010. This article by BC Houston takes us back to the era of the Great Porch Couch Bad Debate.

Looking back over the last 15 years, some things have changed. They city has begun to build out a more robust network of bicycle infrastructure. The university has grown. Pro-housing candidates have won the last 3 local elections. It feels like we are on the cusp of something really big with the update to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan update currently under consideration. 

Still, somethings have not changed. The city has not built a tall building in almost 60 years. How and weather the city should grow continues to be the spiciest local issue. As Ann Arbor has become more expensive, the character of the city has gradually changed. To paraphrase Pete Seeger, Where have all the Crust Punks Gone? 

What will the next 15 years bring? Hopefully, a full implementation of the new Comprehensive Land Use Plan; an end to downtown height limits; better non-motorized infrastructure. We might eventually get around to the much anticipated website re-design.