This is not an easy read because the portraits of Fran, DeAndre, Gary, Blue or Fat Curt hit a little close to home. They tell you like it is, they don't try to justify them, or blame everything on the system. They don't patronize or infantilize their subjects. Now, Simon and Burns show you the people behind the statistics. People getting high, people selling drugs, people getting in trouble, people shooting each other, kids having kids - you know the statistics. 'The Corner' is a documentary of one year of the Corner of West Fayette and Monroe in West Baltimore. I can almost feel I am a better person now. I will tell you this - no one has managed to do more for my personal improvement than David Simon and Ed Burns with this book of theirs. You know, go get a job, stop selling drugs, leave that abusive relationship, don't join a gang, don't do drugs. But no matter how hard I try, there is always that voice in my head that keeps saying "why can't people just get their shit together". I try to tell myself I don't know the circumstances. I have this flaw in my character that I am extremely judgmental. And the hard truth is that all the law enforcement in the world can't mess with desire." "The Corner is rooted in human desire - crude and certain and immediate.
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