The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
by David Simon, Edward Burns
List Price:
Our Price: $10.06
You Save: $6.89 (41%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: David Simon, Edward BurnsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-06-15
ISBN: 0767900316
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Broadway
Book Reviews of The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
Book Review: Dante's "Inferno" transported to West Baltimore
Summary: 5 Stars
There should be a sign posted at the corner of Fayette and Monroe Streets that reads "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here". David Simon and Edward Burns take the reader on a Dantean trip through hell, leading us into the world of a drug-infested neighborhood in Baltimore. Here we meet Fat Curt, who keeps on keeping on until his body, ravaged from years of drug abuse, gives out; Ella Thompson, who never gave up on the neighborhood and its inhabitants; Gary and Fran, who threw the rich promise of their lives away on drugs, and their son DeAndre, a manchild who may never reach the promised land. Burns and Simon get us intricately involved in the lives of their subjects; and while we may react with disgust at Gary keeping on a straight course aimed at hitting rock bottom, we also feel sympathy and respect for Fran, who manages to get back up every time after she falls down. Above all, we feel the despair and disillusionment of the young people who learn from a very early age that to the rest of America, their lives have no meaning. What do these youngsters, left for the most part to raise themselves while their parents are strung out on drugs and living for nothing but their next hit, have to look forward to, when their role models are drug pushers and stickup men? Simon and Burns have been criticized for not offering answers, which would have lent an upbeat tone to this book. The criticism is beside the point. They have no answers and don't pretend to. Their aim is to show the reader how this country's "anti-drug program" is lacking in coherence, goals, or any kind of common sense, and in this they succeed admirably. What would have lent additional interest to this book is some exploration of how some of the people of the Corner, despite every strike being against them, manage to make positive lives for themselves when others try and fail, and some never seem to try at all: why is DeAndre still headed downhill when Preston, his friend and partner in crime, turned his life around, married, found a job, and moved his family out of the neighborhood? Why has Blue, an old Corner hand, stayed clean for three years when so many of his friends have died from drugs? How did Tyreeka, giving birth to DeAndre's son at age 14, manage to avoid another out of wedlock pregnancy, finish high school and look forward to college? And where has Fran found the strength to keep trying to get clean and stay clean when an overdose put Gary into a coffin? We can only pray that Fran stays straight this time, that DeAndre pulls his life out of the tailspin it has been going in, and that this country finally develops a meaningful drug policy that will offer some hope and some real assistance to the drug fiends on all of the nation's Corners.
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.
Poverty Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Poverty Books
White Coat, Clenched Fist: The Political Education of an American Physicianby Fitzhugh Mullan
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1976-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.00
Contemporary Social Problemsby Vincent N. Parrillo, John Stimson, Ardyth Stimson
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1989-02; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
An Introduction to Human Services: Policy and Practiceby Barbara Schram, Betty Reid Mandell
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1994-01; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Women and Crack-Cocaine (Macmillan Criminal Justice)by James A. Inciardi, Dorothy Lockwood, Anne E. Pottiger
Macmillan Coll Div; Published: 1993-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.00
Price in other shops:
Hidden Betrayed Exploited & Forgotten Hoby Cathy Glass
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2007-11-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.85
Six degrees: our future on a hotter planetby Mark Lynas
Fourth Estate; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.62
The Revenge of Gaiaby James Lovelock, J. E. Lovelock
Basic Books; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops:
The Essentials of Family Therapy, 2nd Editionby Michael P. Nichols, Richard C. Schwartz
Pearson Education, Inc. / Allyn & Bacon; Published: 2004-02-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.00
Price in other shops:
Down and Out in Paris and London (Essential Penguin 2)by George Orwell
Penguin Books; Published: 1999-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.92
Rule By Secrecy: The Hidden History that Connects the Trilateral Commision, the Freemasons and the Great Pyramidsby Jim Marrs
Harper; Published: 2000-04-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.50
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Brooks/ Cole Empowerment Series: Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communitiesby Karen K. Kirst-Ashman, Jr. Grafton H. Hull
Brooks Cole; Published: 2011-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $105.99
Price in other shops:
There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other Americaby Alex Kotlowitz
Anchor; Published: 1992-01-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops:
Candy: A Novel of Love and Addictionby Luke Davies
Ballantine Books; Published: 1998-06-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.93
Price in other shops:
Essential Research Methods for Social Workby Allen Rubin, Earl R. Babbie
Brooks Cole; Published: 2009-03-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $98.00
Price in other shops:
Clockers: A Novelby Richard Price
Picador; Published: 2008-03-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.40
Price in other shops:
Human Behavior in the Social Environmentby John F. Longres
Brooks Cole; Published: 2000-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $88.95
Price in other shops:
Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern Districtby Peter Moskos
Princeton University Press; Published: 2009-08-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.47
Price in other shops:
The Wire: Truth Be Toldby Rafael Alvarez
Grove Press; Published: 2010-05-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.49
Price in other shops:
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streetsby David Simon
Holt Paperbacks; Published: 2006-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.78
Price in other shops:
The CornerRelease date: 2011-05-31; DVD
Best price: $10.49
Price in other shops: