I continue to develop man-love for David Simon.
This weekend, the manifestation of this love was a trip to Barnes & Noble to purchase three books. I haven't bought a book since I got my library card and starting devouring novels at a ridiculous rate. These three purchases are all non-fiction and I had no qualms about laying down hard-earned....well, earned....cash for them. Here they are in the order I will be reading them.
Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets
Simon was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. He spent a year with a squad of homicide detectives with the Baltimore Police Department. The book became the basis for the NBC television show Homicide: Life On The Street which was my favorite show of all time until the David Simon-created show The Wire aired on HBO. I'm about 150 pages in and so far it is a fantastic book. This guy can write. Already, there have been two or three cases that I remember were used in the first season of the show. Truth is, as they say, stranger than fiction.
The Corner: A Year In The Life Of An Inner-City Neighborhood
After following the police, Simon spends a year with the people that live and work on the drug corners of Baltimore. Apparently, a lot of the information he learned writing this book was used in the fourth season of The Wire which, as I mentioned in the previous post about the show, is a genuine masterpiece. The Book was made into a miniseries that aired on HBO back in 2000 that I'm attempting to get my hands on.
Generation Kill
Rolling Stone writer Evan Wright rolled into Iraq in the opening days of the invasion with a group of Marines. The book was also turned (by David Simon) into an HBO miniseries that is currently airing on Sunday nights. Two parts have aired so far and I'm enjoying them a lot. Movies and television shows about a war that is still in progress have fared poorly. This show may not be any different, but I can tell you that so far, it is not preachy at all. It is focusing a lot on the young Marines in the squadron.
More proof, as far as I'm concerned, that David Simon can do no wrong.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I'm going to have to try to find these books at our library. I've decided I don't think I'll be able to create a successful book club here, so I'll just have to have long distance book clubs... ones that don't revolve around children's books.
Post a Comment