Customer Reviews

Crackhouse: Notes from the End of the Line

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Terry Williams does a very good job in introducing the reader to this little known and forgotten subset of our society. The story focuses on his experiences and observations of a small group of crack and free-base cocaine users. His prose is devoid of moral undertones and is non-judgemental allowing the reading to form his own opinions and motivations.

Crackhouse: Notes from the End of the Line does not sensationalize or exploit the travails of these people in this lifestyle. This book does not shock anywhere near as much as it educates. Mr. Williams does not sugar coat anything, but he refrains from overstating the obvious.

Mr. Williams has also included a nice glossary of terms at the end of the book concerning the crackhouse vernacular.

I wish the book could have detailed the lives of the inhabitants outside of the actual crackhouse or smoking room with more detail. How were these people contributing to society when they weren't "seeing Scotty" (a phrase that Williams' group would sometimes use when getting high)? Perhaps, this was not the focus that Williams was aiming for.

In any case, I strongly recommend this book for anybody with an interest in the ethnology of crack cocaine users. I found the book educational. I look forward to reading more about this subject in the future.

This book offers a tremendous behind the scenes look that only a dedicated "sociologist" would provide. The author took on the audacious project of living intimately with a family of "crackheads" for a series of months. He takes you through the sex lives, the jargon, and the impulsive behavior of "joe user" in the Big Apple.

If you read Freakonimics, this books will sound very similar to the one on the economics of the Crack trade. Here, though, the user is profiled. Williams has chosen a crack-house full of humans whose number one priority in life is to score and get high. For a self-proclaimed glaciologist, Williams is able to remain seemingly non-biased throughout the bulk of the text. Only in the closing chapter do you get a significant amount of opinion and interpretation.

However, I do think that Williams is correct in his major interpretive thesis. That is: Many crack users are part of a subversive racially-influenced culture that seeks to avoid the path of the "white man". Many users share similar upbringings and experiences that lead to an acceptance of a druggie lifestyle. If you are interested in the power of drugs, or just to get a glimpse of alternative American life, I strongly recommend this title.

although is isnt as good as "the cocaine kids", williams has managed to put a very realistic face on the crack problem killing america. my only real complaint with the book is that it dosent go into the lives of the books subjects enough... it seems more like a short over-view instead of being intensly focused. i did enjoy the read and i will probably re read it again in the future.

This book is pretty much what its title says it is: a book about people in a crackhouse. It's incredibly sad at times, and the characters are depicted in good detail, but the author's dedicated quest to make this book something for everyone and not just for anthropologists sometimes backfires, and the story comes across as oversimplified and dumbed down.

I would have liked more about the author's experiences spending time in this crackhouse, and about what sort of moral stance he had to take when he found himself in rooms with young girls trading oral sex for drugs, and that sort of thing. The author's effort to minimize his own presence in the book just makes his character more mysterious, and made me wonder about him: did he try crack? Was he ever tempted by these promiscuous young girls? He raises a lot of questions--and not just about himself--but he gives a lot fewer answers, and doesn't leave the reader with much hope at all for any of the book's human subjects.

Maybe that's about right, though.

i like this book a lot because it tells you about the "crack house" which is the title of the book. And it goes into detail with everything and its really sad but it can teach you a lot about it.

Since this book was written in 1992 I believe we've discovered more about this drug than he addresses but it still was an interesting look into the lives of crack addicts living in N.Y.C. Honestly, being an X user myself it was quite hard to read this book, to read of the craving for this drug that I have actually experienced. Bad memories for me hence the low rating on the book.