Review of the book "The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood"

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER

People who live in what are typically considered the ghetto neighborhoods of America, and are fighting drug addictions, are often seen as the hopeless group that should be ignored. They are seen as people who won’t ever change their ways because they are happy using and dealing drugs and choose to continue doing so.

But in the book The Corner, by Ed Burns and David Simon, this belief is challenged by the stories of members of an inner city drug world in Baltimore. These stories are told through the eyes and voices of those who know it best because they are living it—those dealing and using the drugs.

The characters in this book are undeniably not the most admirable people in the world, but they defy the stereotype that they aren’t looking to improve themselves. While their lives may be disgusting and disturbing to outsiders looking in, their emotions can be shared and felt just the same as anyone else’s can.

Most of the people in this book want a better life for themselves, which is seen when Fran, the mother of the main character DeAndre McCullough, tries repeatedly to get clean. Often times, she is desperate to escape the world she lives in. When there was a problem at a rehabilitation center and there was no room for her to stay, she emotionally breaks down.

“I can’t make it. I can’t. I can’t go back.”

After she leaves there, she says she cried “like she hasn’t cried in years.”

When Fran is clean, she values life and desperately wants to stay away from drugs. She wants this for her children as well, which she expressed to DeAndre in a letter.

“Life is beautiful and natural and you may not get another chance. … If you don’t need yourself, I need you.”

Fran does beat her drug addictions time and time again, but when she returns to her neighborhood, she eventually falls back into her old ways and begins using and dealing again.

The father, Gary, began using drugs when he and Fran divorced. He wasn’t proud of who he was. He would often expresses how emotionally draining being a user really was for him and if he could change it, this isn’t who he would be.

“I’m a drug addict. That’s what I am. Who would wish for that? Who would choose that for their life?”

This furthers the point that Burns and Simon are capturing on the corner—the drug world is not always a chosen place to be.

Because of the lives his parents lead, DeAndre McCullough basically falls victim to the world around him. He is a high school student and at the age of 15 is already a drug dealer in the neighborhood.

“And off he goes, a fifteen-year-old entrepreneur on his daily commute to the office.”

Being in this world forces DeAndre and Tyreeka to grow up faster than they should because of what they see and do on a daily basis. But at the base of it all, neither one of them has grown up at all. She is 13 and he is 15 when they start having sex and before she knew she was pregnant, they both believed that having a baby would give their lives a purpose.

“The production of a child … would guarantee some tangible evidence of a brief existence.”

To believe as young teenagers, before they are even able to drive, that the only way to give their lives meaning is to bring another life into the world is heartbreaking. As the authors show, this is not something people would choose to experience or put their children through.

While Tyreeka was giving birth to their son, DeAnte, DeAndre was high on marijuana. But the birth of his son does make him want to change.

“I got to be a father to him. I’m gonna do better for him than got done for me and I’m gunna be up there with him so he knows who I am. My child gonna know me.”

But patterns aren’t easy to break and DeAndre falls right back into the world of drugs, waiting and hoping for someone to help him break the cycle.

Review of the Book "Prayer for the City"

By: BROOKE NIEMEYER

In his book A Prayer for the City, author Buzz Bissinger initially describes Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell as “one of those people who seemed destined for one of two things in life—early success or an early heart attack.”

All signs point to early success.

Rendell is now 65-years-old, current governor of Pennsylvania, and has yet to have a heart attack. Before his time as governor, Rendell was the mayor of Philadelphia and Bissinger was given the journalist/author all-access pass to witness and document Rendell’s first term in the mayoral office.

Rendell may have accomplished a lot, but it wasn’t an easy journey. When he was sworn into office, he took on the challenge of getting the entire city out of a financial crisis, which we have seen is no easy task. He also had to work to keep the people of the city happy, including union and helping to keep people in work. Reading about the day-to-day life of Mayor Rendell gives a new appreciation for the work of a politician during a crisis.

But Bissinger doesn’t just profile Rendell directly. He includes details about other people near to Rendell to capture more about what his life entails.

A Prayer for the City introduces the story with successful lawyer David Cohen looking out over the city from his law office on January 5, 1992, the night before Rendell was inaugurated as mayor. Cohen worked towards becoming a lawyer for many years and spent the years following that practicing law with a major law firm, but resigned to go work as chief-of-staff for Rendell. Bissinger compares the lives and upbringings of Cohen and Rendell, really shaping a storyline between who they were before, who they are now, and who they become as a team. The comparison of the seemingly opposite men helps to create a better image of who they are as people, and helps the reader understand more about them.

Bissinger gives readers a first-hand insight to not just all of the technical workings of the mayor’s office running of the city, but the personal challenges and thoughts of the mayor. He reveals insider details of phone calls, press conferences, and discussions between office officials. He also illustrates the personal accounts of city residents that speak to the greater issues the mayor was faced with solving. As a journalist, Bissinger knows the power behind good details and including quotes of conversation to move the story along.

There is no denying that Rendell’s job, as mayor, was high-pressure. The reader may think the early heart attack is coming for the intensity Rendell faces when he personally lobby’s against President Clinton, but it’s just another battle that Rendell takes in stride.

Through Bissinger’s profiling of other people Rendell encounters, you see the mayor get more motivated to improve the lives of those living in the city, such as when he meets Jim Mangan, a father of six, at risk of losing his welding job, or Fifi Mazzccua, a woman raising her four great-grandchildren who visits her son in prison. Bissinger shows Rendell’s drive to fight for the greater problems these individuals represent.

Bissinger shows that Rendell had a successful first term in that he never gave up on his city. He worked to do what he felt would improve it, but even when the city was in trouble, he never stopped believing that the trouble was only temporary. Success comes in many forms and Bissinger’s account of the Philadelphia mayor is certainly one of them.