Part of the transformative power of literature is the ability for a work to cause a person to empathize with another with whom they would normally not interact. A new perspective is gained; another person, different from the reader, is seen as equally human. This book does that. Through the diligent reporting of an established journalist and a former detective, now public school teacher, The Corner immerses its readers in a world often dismissed. Rather than seeing a man as a junkie or a thief, we see him as a person like ourselves, with hopes and ambitions that are thwarted by his own demons.

Not only that, but the reader is given political yet non-partisan explanations of the factors that contribute to the creation of such a place as the Corner. What causes someone to lose themselves in drug addiction? Why do young girls choose to have and raise children instead of having abortions or giving their babies up for adoption? What happens to the nuclear family, to the extended family, to the neighborhood-as-family when faced with a degraded environment? Something like answers lie in this text, though the responses aren't what you'd expect.

I was as impressed with this book as I was with Homicide. Two men inserted themselves into an environment and created a work of journalism about people who are often criminalized and dismissed without being first given a voice. These stories broke my heart, made me laugh, and introduced me to people like Ella who continue to fight for a decent community. Another reviewer included the link to this spoiler of a news story that offers a testament to the rewards that lie at the end of a long struggle: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/fashion/weddings/19VOWS.html

Also, if you like strong female characters, this book is full of them. Truly, a great read.

After reading this book, I've come to the conclusion that if we are going to have an intelligent discussion about the war on drugs, everyone in America should read this book.

The Corner is a very hard and depressing read, but also a very worthwhile book. The basic gist is that David Simon and Ed Burns followed people at a Baltimore drug corner for a year, writing about their lives honestly (sometimes brutally so), documenting what the human side of the war on drugs is.

The book follows a variety of people in different roles. Some are dealers, some are junkies, some are merely trying to live their lives in a neighbourhood that used to be full of working black families, but now is just full of abandoned and trashed rowhouses, drug-related violence and crime. The book doesn't try to sugarcoat things, so not all of the people in the book always come off tremendously well, but that's purely a plus. These are real people, after all, and real people aren't perfect. The goal was to open people's eyes and make them see the ongoing drug epidemic not as abstract numbers and catchphrases, but as a huge factor in countless human beings' lives.

Although the book was written in the mid-to-late 90s, these past 25 years haven't made the problems any smaller, and so the book is still extremely current and relevant. It is, in my opinion, critically important to understand the circumstances that push people to the corner, because the only way we can hope to turn things around is by tackling the root causes, instead of just throwing more and more people into prisons.

Very much recommended.

EXTREMELY DATED but well-researched and thorough account of some truly tragic failures by local and national government for those most harmed by the war on drugs and poverty. Unfortunately this book written by two white authors frequently uses the n word and leans into awkward slang.

Abandoned this for a while--returned it to library--but I will definitely pick it up again. Like Simon's work on The Wire, it flashes a bright and blank light on the hidden and buried world of the drug trade, but this format allows him to mount the pulpit and deliver more direct polemic against our war on drugs, to excoriate the perpetrators of that war, and to brandish a full portrait of a neighborhood filled with victims of that war as proof of its failure.

With The Corner David Simon and Ed Burns have produced a fine journalistic example of documenting a living culture - the drug trade in one small area of Baltimore in 1993 - in a descriptively interesting manner that sheds some light on the whys and hows of the situation. As with Homicide you are immersed in the world of these people and you are horrified at the differences between you and them but at no point are they held up for ridicule; Simon and Burns are largely sympathetic in their honest portrayal of this lifestyle as only writers who have lived amongst their subjects truly can be.

My only problem is with my expectations, due to its links with the second greatest TV show ever made I wanted a book from both sides of this struggle, cops and robbers so to speak, and I didn't get that.

so good.