The Corner
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The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood is a book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon and former Baltimore homicide detective Ed Burns.
The book covers a year in the life of an inner city drug market at Fayette & Monroe Streets in Baltimore. Simon and Burns spent over a year interviewing and following around the people who lived on the Fayette & Monroe corner. Although written like a novel, the book is nonfiction; it uses the real names of those people and recounts actual events. It centers mostly around the lives of Gary McCullough, a drug addict, his ex-wife Fran Boyd, also an addict, and their son DeAndre, a high school student who begins to sell drugs. The book is a particularly bleak look at the effects of drug addiction, the drug trade, and the war on drugs on an urban neighborhood, as well as being an examination of the sociological factors which underlie the modern drug trade.
In 2000 The Corner was made into the 6 part mini series on the American network HBO. The mini series was critically acclaimed. The Corner won several Emmys in 2000, including that for best miniseries. Charles S. Dutton won for his direction of the mini series. David Mills and David Simon won Emmys for their writing. The Corner was also nominated for Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special.
[edit] Characters
Gary McCullough T.K. Carter A drug-addict who once had it all. Gary was a smart, decent man, he cannot even bring himself to say a curse word. He was generous to a fault with the people around him. He once had a promising career, held high paying jobs, and even had a college scholarship. Gary was forced to drop out of college in order to marry his pregnant girlfriend Fran (Khandi Alexander). Gary got a job to support his family, but Fran's increasing drug use began to sour their relationship. As their marriage ended, he, too, turned to drugs. Even now, years after their divorce, he reads chemistry textbooks and works of literature both for fun and to broaden his knowledge. His need for drugs, however, overrides everything else. He lives by the philosophy that he can get clean anytime he wants. He later succumbs, in his mother's basement, to a heroin overdose. He comments at one point that he felt if he was "low" like many around him, they would accept him more, instead of feeling jealous of his success.
Francine "Fran" Boyd Khandi Alexander A drug-addict. Mother of De'Andre and DeRodd. Lives in the "Dew Drop Inn" with her sisters, Bunchie and Sharry, and brother Stevie and his son.
DeAndre McCullough Sean Nelson A drug-dealer. Son of Gary McCullough and Francine "Fran" Boyd.
