The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood

The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
by David Simon, Edward Burns

The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
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Book Summary Information

Author: David Simon, Edward Burns
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1998-06-15
ISBN: 0767900316
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Broadway
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Book Reviews of The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood

Book Review: The family that dopes together.
Summary: 5 Stars

David Simon spent years on the Baltimore Sun, back when it really was a newspaper and this work reflects what kind of a reporter he was. My Aunt's house was three blocks South of The Corner and my memories are nothing but good of the area in the 1960's. This book demonstrates what the drug epidemic does not only to a family but to large sections of the city. Gary, Fran and DeAndre are not caught up in the epidemic, but washed away from it. Simon has a style of writing that is both entertaining, yet captivating. The psychology of what is transpiring between DeAndre and his teenage girlfriend after she discovers she is pregnant is one of the best examples of Simon's insight and style. He is very much a modern journalist, but his work in bringing a depressing and explosive environment to the reader is impressive. Read his work and watch the shows, "Homicide," "The Wire," "The Corner," and the newest HBO show "Generation Kill" because Mr. Simon is the wave of not only new journalism, but new programming. I feel this is his best written work and the subject matter makes it a must read.

Summary of The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood

The crime-infested intersection of West Fayette and Monroe Streets is well-known--and cautiously avoided--by most of Baltimore. But this notorious corner's 24-hour open-air drug market provides the economic fuel for a dying neighborhood. David Simon, an award-winning author and crime reporter, and Edward Burns, a 20-year veteran of the urban drug war, tell the chilling story of this desolate crossroad.

Through the eyes of one broken family--two drug-addicted adults and their smart, vulnerable 15-year-old son, DeAndre McCollough, Simon and Burns examine the sinister realities of inner cities across the country and unflinchingly assess why law enforcement policies, moral crusades, and the welfare system have accomplished so little. This extraordinary book is a crucial look at the price of the drug culture and the poignant scenes of hope, caring, and love that astonishingly rise in the midst of a place America has abandoned.


This is a powerful book, a window on aspects of America most people would rather ignore. To their great credit, the authors--David Simon wrote Homicide, the basis for the popular television show; Edward Burns is a former Baltimore police officer, now a public school teacher--refuse to sensationalize their subject or make its people into stereotypes. For a year the two hung out in a West Baltimore neighborhood that was a center of the drug trade. At the center of the narrative is the McCullough family--DeAndre, age 15, and his drug-addicted parents, Gary and Fran. While reading The Corner, there are times when we pity them, times when they make us angry. The book's strength, though, is that we always understand them.

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