Melissa's Reviews > The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood

Don't follow this link if you plan to read the book & haven't, but I was pleasantly surprised after I searched for one of the characters online this morning...
A bizarre redemption tale.
The Corner is written in documentary form, with apparently 75-80% of the content being observed events in the lives of these West Baltimore residents. The focus of the books is more on the drug users than the drug sellers, which makes sense as I'm sure there aren't too many dealers out there looking to be followed by a group of writers, one of whom is an ex-cop. It's a sad book, of course, but there are real moments of light & humanity. There are also segments that give background to the elements of the corner - teen pregnancy, the brown paper bag, the prison system, the schools...It's an informative book & while definitely not light reading in the sense of the weighty content, it's a fairly fast read.