When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets

Following C. Wright Mills' call for sociologists to demonstrate the links between individual biographies and larger historical, economic, and social contexts within which they occur, Timothy Black followed three Puerto Rican brothers as they navigated their ways through Northeastern cities wracked by poverty, deindustrialization, lack of living wage jobs, and drug economies that moved into the resulting economic and social vaccums. He covered twenty years of their lives, from their teens to their thirties, from the 1990s to today.The brothers trusted Black and were willing and increasingly seemed to want to talk to him about their experiences as they dropped out of school, dealt drugs, went to prison, tried to do the right thing with sub living wage jobs, tried to take care of children. The result is not a pretty story. Don't expect feel good uplifting endings. Black faithfully records the overwhelming odds that confront young people born into urban poor neighborhoods that reflect the utter failures of national policies to adequately address and remediate poverty. National policy failures and neglect produce wrecked personal lives.I read the book because I wanted to find out the stories behind the headlines of drug wars and drive by shootings that are common in the Hartford-Springfield areas where I live. Black provided that and a lot more. His successful technique was to masterfully interweave the development of national policies, including, very importantly the massive expansion of prisons, with the personal stories of the brothers and a few other of their acquaintances. The depictions of prison experiences is eye opening and nightmarish. The author plausibly argues that the Abu Ghraib scandal had its precedent in the brutality that is common in U.S. prisons.This is an extraordinary exemplar for empathetic social ethnographic research into recent developments in U.S. urban poverty, the burgeoning drug trades and prison populations, the enduring problems of racism and social exclusion, and the failures of national social policy. You will learn a lot from this book.

I read this in my first semester of college and couldn't put the book down, not sure if it was a good or bad thing though. Getting to know these three men will really take you on an emotional traumatic ride. I personally had to put it down for a while because it was getting too heavy for me.

This book which is being used as a college required text focuses on 3 criminals, instead of bringing attention to outstanding Puerto Ricans such as Jose Ferrer, Rita Moreno, US Supreme Justice Sotomayor, Lin Manuel Miranda, Bruno Mars, Jose Feliciano, Ricky Martin, Hernan Badillo, Dr. Antonia Novello, and many others. What is the purpose of this book? What is the author’s intentions?

One is led to believe that this book is an ethnography, but once you start reading it you will find that it is only a book of some professor that is attempting to boost his own ego and nothing more. Throughout the book there are times that he injects his own ideas and money into various situations without ever realizing the consequences by doing this. His ignorance of how an unbiased ethnography should be conducted is clouded by his closeness to the subjects. Absent his interference, what would the outcome have been? Absent his arrogance, would this book have had value within the Sociologic community?Don't waste your money on this unless you are looking for a book for entertainment purposes only. Educationally it is a joke.

Good book. This was required for my Criminology course. Based on a true story in Springfield, MA.Worth the read if you want to study the effects of early 90's urban social life on minorities.

I lived in Springfield mass for a few years in the same neighborhood as black. I found this very interesting to read for the CJ field.

If you live or work in Springfield, MA, this is essential reading. True stories of three brothers who grew up in the North End.

Great book to read whether it is for school or just to read for no reason. Great true life story