praise for the lost tiki palaces of detroit: stories
“The stories in The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit begin on the west side before moving east and then downtown, a literary tour done with the admirable, offhand grace of the best guidebooks. Zadoorian knows the streets and side streets and alleyways of his city and its surround; better, he knows the humor, the sadness, and the sometimes hidden beauty of life in the Rust Belt, and he pins it down on the page with wonderful precision.” -Paul Clemens, author of Made in Detroit
Michael Zadoorian’s The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit, a collection of stories that are heartbreaking and funny and dead-on true, whether you’ve lived in the Motor City or not.” -TIN HOUSE
“What can one say of Zadoorian—chronicler of the lost, of junk and detritus, of the second-hand and hand-me-down. The abandoned. The soon-to-be-no-more. There is such poetry in these stories. Such wry wit and sadness. Such despair and, oddly, hope. In The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit, the city becomes a whole nation’s ruined Byzantium: destitute and still strangely desired. Lost. And found again.” -Christopher T. Leland, author of Letting Loose
"These newly envisioned stories of Detroit come at you without apology for the gritty language of the city, the racism, the madness of everyday life. The whiff of 'presence,' of being there grabs at your throat." -NORTHERN EXPRESS
"Throughout this collection, Zadoorian puts his characters in similar positions, readying them to wake up, to recognize themselves...His collection will guide you through their Detroit, that lost-and-found space where decades of dreams and desire still live and the graffiti is still wet on the walls, and where the fire has already been set to allow for the scare and the laughter." - THE COLLAGIST
“The stories in Michael Zadoorian’s new collection, The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit, represent the serrated leading edge of the Barthelmean aesthetic dictum of being on ‘the leading edge of the junk phenomenon.’ The prose here is a cacophonous chockablock collision with a no-nonsense nonsense knockout nominative wall of sound. This collection is stuffed with stuff.” -Michael Martone, author of The Blue Guide to Indiana
"These stories of Detroit, separated into west side, east side and downtown, record a city turning back into dust but with heart stubbornly beating on...These stories awaken, alarm, grieve, giggle a bit, but mostly observe what we may wish to toss away, yet should first look directly in the eye—so that we can understand something more of our own condition." -THE SMOKING POET
"Sometimes wildly funny and more than a little crazy, yet they have a heartbreaking affection for the battered lives they portray." -ANN ARBOR OBSERVER
“These stories give the reader such a deep and intimate vicarious journey, one would think that Zadoorian has had several past lives to draw on for material. As I read, I was always amazed to discover what lurked beneath them.” -Luis Resto, Oscar and Grammy-winning composer of “Lose Yourself” from 8 Mile
"These are stories that grab you, shake you and slap you upside the head...working toward perfection in short story form. There are few unnecessary words or actions. Each can be funny, even in the darker times, but they are not laughing at their characters, they are one of them." -LANSING CITY PULSE
Michael Zadoorian’s The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit, a collection of stories that are heartbreaking and funny and dead-on true, whether you’ve lived in the Motor City or not.” -TIN HOUSE
“What can one say of Zadoorian—chronicler of the lost, of junk and detritus, of the second-hand and hand-me-down. The abandoned. The soon-to-be-no-more. There is such poetry in these stories. Such wry wit and sadness. Such despair and, oddly, hope. In The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit, the city becomes a whole nation’s ruined Byzantium: destitute and still strangely desired. Lost. And found again.” -Christopher T. Leland, author of Letting Loose
"These newly envisioned stories of Detroit come at you without apology for the gritty language of the city, the racism, the madness of everyday life. The whiff of 'presence,' of being there grabs at your throat." -NORTHERN EXPRESS
"Throughout this collection, Zadoorian puts his characters in similar positions, readying them to wake up, to recognize themselves...His collection will guide you through their Detroit, that lost-and-found space where decades of dreams and desire still live and the graffiti is still wet on the walls, and where the fire has already been set to allow for the scare and the laughter." - THE COLLAGIST
“The stories in Michael Zadoorian’s new collection, The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit, represent the serrated leading edge of the Barthelmean aesthetic dictum of being on ‘the leading edge of the junk phenomenon.’ The prose here is a cacophonous chockablock collision with a no-nonsense nonsense knockout nominative wall of sound. This collection is stuffed with stuff.” -Michael Martone, author of The Blue Guide to Indiana
"These stories of Detroit, separated into west side, east side and downtown, record a city turning back into dust but with heart stubbornly beating on...These stories awaken, alarm, grieve, giggle a bit, but mostly observe what we may wish to toss away, yet should first look directly in the eye—so that we can understand something more of our own condition." -THE SMOKING POET
"Sometimes wildly funny and more than a little crazy, yet they have a heartbreaking affection for the battered lives they portray." -ANN ARBOR OBSERVER
“These stories give the reader such a deep and intimate vicarious journey, one would think that Zadoorian has had several past lives to draw on for material. As I read, I was always amazed to discover what lurked beneath them.” -Luis Resto, Oscar and Grammy-winning composer of “Lose Yourself” from 8 Mile
"These are stories that grab you, shake you and slap you upside the head...working toward perfection in short story form. There are few unnecessary words or actions. Each can be funny, even in the darker times, but they are not laughing at their characters, they are one of them." -LANSING CITY PULSE