The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
by David Simon, Edward Burns
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Book Summary Information
Author: David Simon, Edward BurnsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); 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: On the Empathy of Species
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading and enjoying `Homicide', I expected Simon and Burns to simply offer a conflicting story from the street perspective*. `The Corner' exceeds the detective chronicles in presenting a compelling group of characters stuck in system that seems to be working against them.
The brilliantly crafted story reads like fiction. BUT, those of you expecting `The Wire', will find yourself on a very different journey. The characters are richer and a larger palette is used in this Baltimore painting.**
While the series offered a subtle indictment of the US drug war, this book pulls no punches. Neither Simon nor Burns is so brash as to assign simple answers to these endemic issues, but they seem to have pinpointed the problem.
Above all, this book is for those who desire a true understanding of the inner-city. While not dismissing personal responsibility, the story turns the `bootstrap' notion on its head.
`The Corner' epitomizes of how empathy grows through sustained, close examination. I'll finish with what may be my favorite paragraph in the book:
"It's a reckoning of another kind, perhaps, and one that becomes a possibility only through the arrogance and certainty that so easily accompanies a well-planned and well-tended life. We know ourselves, we believe in ourselves; from what we value most, we grant ourselves the illusion that it's not chance and circumstance, that opportunity itself isn't the defining issue. We want the high ground; we want our own worth to be acknowledged. Morality, intelligence, values- we want those things measured and counted. We want it to be about US."
*which would've been fine
**and you won't find a bigger `Wire' fan than me
-HDT
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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