Another entry in the recent wave of drug-policy books by academics. Currie (Sociology and Criminality/UCLA at Berkeley; Dope and Trouble, 1991; Confronting Crime, 1985) begins by observing that the Reagan/Bush war on drugs has failed: Drug use has increased among the poor, although it has fallen off slightly in the middle class. Moving to the ``roots of the drug crisis,'' Currie presents a history of illicit heroin use in America, starting in 1946 (although some might argue that this history really should begin in 1914, with the Harrison Narcotics Act) and concluding that drug use is ``intimately related to conditions of mass social deprivation'' (i.e., poverty). Currie then suggests several models of ``personal meanings of drug abuse'' (the ``status'' model, the ``coping'' model, etc.)—although how this new taxonomy will help is unclear. The author firmly opposes the legalization of drugs, contending that such a move would allow America's profit-oriented companies to ``cause devastation of poor communities by drugs.'' So what to do? Currie advocates reducing penalties for drug use (``saner sentences'' would ``deter more effectively''); sentencing traffickers, not users— an approach another drug-policy analyst, Mark Kleiman (Against Excess, p. 234), calls an ``odd hybrid'' that would swell the black market by freeing buyers from risk but leaving sales in the hands of criminals; and providing serious help for drug abusers within the criminal-justice system. Here, Currie quotes from a California prison commission that found that, besides A.A. and other 12-step programs, no resources exist to deal effectively with drug abusers. ``Therefore,'' the commission states, ``there are virtually no drug-treatment programs in our adult prisons''— a statement that would probably astonish A.A. and N.A. members who have worked, for no pay, with prisoners for 40 years. Much fretting—but not much in the way of new solutions.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-8090-8049-4
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1992
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.
Photographer and author Stanton returns with a companion volume to Humans of New York (2013), this one with similarly affecting photographs of New Yorkers but also with some tales from his subjects’ mouths.
Readers of the first volume—and followers of the related site on Facebook and elsewhere—will feel immediately at home. The author has continued to photograph the human zoo: folks out in the streets and in the parks, in moods ranging from parade-happy to deep despair. He includes one running feature—“Today in Microfashion,” which shows images of little children dressed up in various arresting ways. He also provides some juxtapositions, images and/or stories that are related somehow. These range from surprising to forced to barely tolerable. One shows a man with a cat on his head and a woman with a large flowered headpiece, another a construction worker proud of his body and, on the facing page, a man in a wheelchair. The emotions course along the entire continuum of human passion: love, broken love, elation, depression, playfulness, argumentativeness, madness, arrogance, humility, pride, frustration, and confusion. We see varieties of the human costume, as well, from formalwear to homeless-wear. A few celebrities appear, President Barack Obama among them. The “stories” range from single-sentence comments and quips and complaints to more lengthy tales (none longer than a couple of pages). People talk about abusive parents, exes, struggles to succeed, addiction and recovery, dramatic failures, and lifelong happiness. Some deliver minirants (a neuroscientist is especially curmudgeonly), and the children often provide the most (often unintended) humor. One little boy with a fishing pole talks about a monster fish. Toward the end, the images seem to lead us toward hope. But then…a final photograph turns the light out once again.
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-05890-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
A welcome addition to the literature on immigration told by an author who understands the issue like few others.
The debut book from “one of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard.”
In addition to delivering memorable portraits of undocumented immigrants residing precariously on Staten Island and in Miami, Cleveland, Flint, and New Haven, Cornejo Villavicencio, now enrolled in the American Studies doctorate program at Yale, shares her own Ecuadorian family story (she came to the U.S. at age 5) and her anger at the exploitation of hardworking immigrants in the U.S. Because the author fully comprehends the perils of undocumented immigrants speaking to journalist, she wisely built trust slowly with her subjects. Her own undocumented status helped the cause, as did her Spanish fluency. Still, she protects those who talked to her by changing their names and other personal information. Consequently, readers must trust implicitly that the author doesn’t invent or embellish. But as she notes, “this book is not a traditional nonfiction book….I took notes by hand during interviews and after the book was finished, I destroyed those notes.” Recounting her travels to the sites where undocumented women, men, and children struggle to live above the poverty line, she reports her findings in compelling, often heart-wrenching vignettes. Cornejo Villavicencio clearly shows how employers often cheat day laborers out of hard-earned wages, and policymakers and law enforcement agents exist primarily to harm rather than assist immigrants who look and speak differently. Often, cruelty arrives not only in economic terms, but also via verbal slurs and even violence. Throughout the narrative, the author explores her own psychological struggles, including her relationships with her parents, who are considered “illegal” in the nation where they have worked hard and tried to become model residents. In some of the most deeply revealing passages, Cornejo Villavicencio chronicles her struggles reconciling her desire to help undocumented children with the knowledge that she does not want "kids of my own." Ultimately, the author’s candor about herself removes worries about the credibility of her stories.
A welcome addition to the literature on immigration told by an author who understands the issue like few others.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-399-59268-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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