Volume 43, Number 2 · February 1, 1996
Crime and Drugs: The New Myths
By Michael Massing
Land of Opportunity: One Family's Quest for the American Dream in the Age of Crack
by William M. Adler
Atlantic Monthly Press, 415 pp., $22.00
In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio
by Philippe Bourgois
Cambridge University Press, 392 pp., $24.95
Beggars and Thieves: Lives of Urban Street Criminals
by Mark S. Fleisher
University of Wisconsin Press, 332 pp., $37.50; $16.95 (paper)
The American Street Gang: Its Nature, Prevalence, and Control
by Malcolm W. Klein
Oxford University Press, 270 pp., $27.50
In a revealing moment in Pulp Fiction, John Travolta, playing a small-time hood, visits a drug dealer to score some heroin. As the dealer weighs out the merchandise, he offers a terse commentary on changing drug fashions. 'Coke's fucking dead,' he announces. 'Heroin is coming back in a big way.' Later, a moll played by Uma Thurman discovers a bag of white powder in Travolta's coat and, mistaking it for cocaine, greedily snorts it. The stuff is so potent that she lapses into a coma, and Travolta must rush her to the dealer's, where she's revived by a shot of adrenaline plunged directly into her heart. That's what you get for being behind the curve on drug trends.
Review, 5780 words
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