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  

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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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.

Description:
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.

Publisher: Broadway

Release Date: 1998-06-15

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Some of the best writing I've ever read - Ignore the second editorial review quoted at the top - they've completely missed the point, the quality, and the impact of this book. It is some of the finest writing I've ever read, from any genre, and that's only one aspect missed in the editorial review above - this isn't sociology, it's storytelling. You could almost call it the Dickens of its time and place except the stories happen to be, I'm sure mostly, true. Beautifully written, it's incredibly readable despite being about a people Simon feels are beyond hope or saving. After all, how many of us would read a sociological treatise into the lives faced by those chained to an addictive drug economy? Very few, of course, and that's at least some of the point of The Corner. Tens of thousands will read this and come to understand a world foreign to them, a world previously made opaque by a compliant and apathetic media, and ring-fenced by academics and politicians alike. It's taken a master storyteller like David Simon to partner up with Ed Burns and share their tales and insight - insights which utterly gut the pretences of those who claim to be waging a noble War on Drugs. There is no war on drugs. There never was. There is only a government-sanctioned industry of institutionalised retribution against those who live in the drug economy. Finally, for those who read and enjoyed Homicide, this is written differently but as well or better. Yes, it's that good. Highly recommended.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
The family that dopes together. - 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.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
On the Empathy of Species - 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 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 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

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
The Corner, maybe the most relevant book on the topic - The Corner clearly tells us about the life of inner-city neighborhoods and its inhabitants. The dark side of the world is revealed through extremely realistic descriptions, terrible moments of life that are so usual in there. The gap is deep, the suffering is obvious, hope just behind, so present in minds, but so abstract. Future is only tomorrow, violence is evidence, fear is everyday...I advise to watch The Wire, a good complement to this amazing book!

Customer Review: 3 out of 5
Well written, hard hitting - Although not as good as Homicide it does a good job of painting a bleak portrait of the inner-city Baltimore drug scene. Many people mention HBO's "The Wire" in their reveiws. Don't forget that HBO made a mini-series out of this book too - aptly titled, "The Corner."

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