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The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood |  | Authors: David Simon, Edward Burns
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $4.04
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Seller: _beaglebooks_
Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 27368
Media: Paperback
Pages: 576
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0767900316
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.177097526
EAN: 9780767900317
ASIN: 0767900316
Publication Date: June 15, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
Amazon.com Review
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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Showing reviews 1-5 of 72
 A related book August 11, 2010
John W. Pierce (Seguin, Tx)
There is nothing new that I can add in praise of this book. What's depressing, disgusting, even, is that in the 14 years since this book was written nothing has changed for the better. As reviewer B. Marshall so succinctly stated: "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." This is as true under Obama as it was under Nixon and everyone in between. The concept is so fundamentally flawed that it's hard to believe adult human beings thought it up.
In any case... The primary purpose of this review is to reiterate the opinion of a 1997 reviewer: if you have not done so, you should read "Tally's Corner" by Elliot Liebow. Liebow wrote about an inner-city corner in Washington D.C. 30 years before Simon and Burns. The juxtaposition of the two books gives enormous emphasis to the rather horrid (though unfortunately not surprising) changes that occurred in those 30 years. Which, interestingly, include the entire span of The War on Drugs.
Some of the best writing I've ever read June 14, 2010
B. Marshall (Mirboo North, Victoria)
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.
The family that dopes together. August 28, 2009
Neil The Unreel (MD)
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.
On the Empathy of Species May 15, 2009
HDTwoodsman (NY)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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
The Corner, maybe the most relevant book on the topic September 19, 2008
Micline
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!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 72
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