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NEEDS
"NEEDS" portrays Baltimore's drug world as only a recovering addict can show it--from the alleys to the precincts, the neighborhoods to the 'hoods, the dives to the churches--shown through the eyes of a pair of police detectives who also are a romantic couple (and one of the pair is a heroin addict), the dealers, the down and out, the down but rising. You'll hear their street voices and their inner voices, and you'll know more about their world than you ever thought you could. You may also know more about your own.
156 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2011
About the author
Clarence Brown
1 book2 followersLibrarian's Note: There is more than one author with in the Goodreads database.
Clarence Brown is a recovering addict who is now making a career of helping other addicts in Baltimore. He speaks and reads from his writings at venues such as the Eubie Blake Center and the Baltimore Museum of Art as well as in various community organizations. A longtime poet, Brown completed the novel NEEDS as part of a fiction-writing course at Johns Hopkins University.
Clarence Brown is a recovering addict who is now making a career of helping other addicts in Baltimore. He speaks and reads from his writings at venues such as the Eubie Blake Center and the Baltimore Museum of Art as well as in various community organizations. A longtime poet, Brown completed the novel NEEDS as part of a fiction-writing course at Johns Hopkins University.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 9, 2017
This is quick read... gave me a greater understanding of the drug culture, of life as an addict, and reminded me of how grateful I am that it isn't my life.
June 19, 2013
Baltimore homicide detective, Brenda Washington, has an uncanny psychic ability. While investigating a crime scene, she does not merely experience a vision of the tragic events, but falls into a trance and reenacts their physical movements while speaking in the voices of both perpetrator and victim. It is a discomfiting vision to all but her partner, Al Grimes.
Al is accustomed to Brenda’s gift and, in fact, has grown reliant on it. More often than not, it delivers results. They have a remarkable arrest rate.
It just so happens that Al has also been in love with Brenda for quite some time—which is why it hurts him so deeply when he learns that his partner is also a heroin addict.
Brenda has been buying from an east side dealer named Julius on a regular basis. At first, she is able to hide her addiction, but as time passes, her behavior begins to change and Al is the first to notice.
Meanwhile, Julius begins to fall to his own addiction and begins a spree of brutal murders and rapes around Baltimore and surrounding suburbs. Eventually, he learns that Brenda is a cop and decides to make her his next target.
Al begins to dedicate time to helping Brenda overcome her addiction and finally recommends her to counseling while their supervisor, Lieutenant Holmes, orders her to detox as soon as they solve the current spate of homicides.
Of course, Brenda is reluctant to attend counseling at first, afraid to reveal the inner pain that started her down the road to addiction, a road that leads back into her childhood.
Will Brenda overcome her addiction before losing herself and the love of her partner? More importantly, will she and Al be able to stop Julius before Brenda ends up in a body bag?
Clarence Brown, a recovered heroin addict, calls out the gritty depths of inner city Baltimore as only one with experience can. He holds nothing back in his dialogue and narrative, presenting a raw, honest and fast-paced crime drama while also relating the devastating effects of addiction on mind, body and spirit.
Al is accustomed to Brenda’s gift and, in fact, has grown reliant on it. More often than not, it delivers results. They have a remarkable arrest rate.
It just so happens that Al has also been in love with Brenda for quite some time—which is why it hurts him so deeply when he learns that his partner is also a heroin addict.
Brenda has been buying from an east side dealer named Julius on a regular basis. At first, she is able to hide her addiction, but as time passes, her behavior begins to change and Al is the first to notice.
Meanwhile, Julius begins to fall to his own addiction and begins a spree of brutal murders and rapes around Baltimore and surrounding suburbs. Eventually, he learns that Brenda is a cop and decides to make her his next target.
Al begins to dedicate time to helping Brenda overcome her addiction and finally recommends her to counseling while their supervisor, Lieutenant Holmes, orders her to detox as soon as they solve the current spate of homicides.
Of course, Brenda is reluctant to attend counseling at first, afraid to reveal the inner pain that started her down the road to addiction, a road that leads back into her childhood.
Will Brenda overcome her addiction before losing herself and the love of her partner? More importantly, will she and Al be able to stop Julius before Brenda ends up in a body bag?
Clarence Brown, a recovered heroin addict, calls out the gritty depths of inner city Baltimore as only one with experience can. He holds nothing back in his dialogue and narrative, presenting a raw, honest and fast-paced crime drama while also relating the devastating effects of addiction on mind, body and spirit.
January 1, 2013
Tales of Addiction -- drugs, obviously, but also sex and murder. I must take the descriptions of drug addiction on faith, but I trust they are true, as the characters' motivations are consistent, and consistently drive the story forward. From chapter 6 -- "J.R.R. Tolkien must have been an addict, or known one well. ... Those who held the 'ring' for a long time might forever be maimed by it, thinking of it as 'precious,' no matter what the cost. Those who just become acquainted with it can be saved, but only if they want to. There are those whose curiosity demands a look into that abyss, whatever the tales told about it. Addicts seem predisposed to such curiosity. 'Normal' people would have thrown the ring into the fire at the first opportunity. There would have been no tale."
October 1, 2014
I wanted to like this book, but in the end, halfway through, I just stopped caring. I did like the gritty descriptions of city life in the drug culture, but after a while even that wasn't enough to make me finish this book. I am so sorry this one didn't work out for me.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews