Renegade Dreams: Living Through Injury in Gangland Chicago

Ralph (anthropology, African and African American studies, Harvard Univ.) takes an elegant, poetic, and sympathetic look at a West Side Chicago neighborhood he calls Eastwood. The author spent three years living in Eastwood, getting to know gang members, artists, grandmothers, and activists. He develops a nuanced narrative of the ways in which the community members both cause harm and are harmed, break and fulfill expectations, and contribute to the internal and external pressures that the community faces. The book developed out of the author's graduate thesis, and it is still a very academic work, with extensive notes and chapters centering on a poetic theme. It is at its best when the author follows an individual's particular struggle to dream while living in an area contending with drugs, unemployment, and loss.