Ruben Castaneda, who spent 22 years as a Washington Post reporter, uses professional and personal experience in writing a portrait of DC’s Shaw neighborhood during the early 1990s. When he arrived at the Post from Los Angeles in 1989, Castaneda was already an active crack addict who found ample sources for his substance of choice on S Street, as well as plenty of “strawberry” (sex for drugs) prostitutes. However, the subtitle foreshadows a happier ending: After Post-funded stints in rehab and developing a strong twelve-step support system, he winds up healthier and wiser.
In S Street Rising: Crack, Murder, and Redemption in DC, Castaneda tries to tie his own redemption to two other such tales, one of a courageous and determined police officer named Lou Hennessy, the other of the neighborhood itself seen through the lens of New Community Church. Hennessy is making a difference as Homicide Captain when he winds up thwarted and humiliated by a colleague, Larry Soulsby; his triumph is in weathering that ouster and making his way through law school and local politics until his 2005 appointment as a Charles County judge.
The story of New Community Church and its dogged pastor Jim Dickerson has the potential to be most interesting, especially as Dickerson decides not to fight the local drug trade but to cooperate with its kingpin, Baldie. Baldie is a weird, folksy character who spends his days in a lawn chair, hosts annual barbecues for his customers, and sends his two young daughters to the church children’s program. An entire book about these two men and the dynamic between their purposes would be fascinating, especially given the fact that Dickerson and his church continue an active ministry in Shaw today.
Castaneda, however, wants to weave a much bigger story, and winds up including lots of material about notorious DC mayor Marion Barry and how his addictions affected District politics for decades, material that doesn’t help the progress of the stories already told. The “decades” involved are a problem, too: While the 1990s are carefully covered, there is a huge gloss over the near decade and a half since then, as if S Street rose and then sat on a plateau. Overall, this book works best a memoir with reportage rather than a tightly focused piece of literary journalism.
Review: "S Street Rising: Crack, Murder, and Redemption in DC" by Ruben Castaneda
Ruben Castaneda, who spent 22 years as a Washington Post reporter, uses professional and personal experience in writing a portrait of DC’s Shaw neighborhood during the early 1990s. When he arrived at the Post from Los Angeles in 1989, Castaneda was already an active crack addict who found ample sources for his substance of choice on S Street, as well as plenty of “strawberry” (sex for drugs) prostitutes. However, the subtitle foreshadows a happier ending: After Post-funded stints in rehab and developing a strong twelve-step support system, he winds up healthier and wiser.
In S Street Rising: Crack, Murder, and Redemption in DC, Castaneda tries to tie his own redemption to two other such tales, one of a courageous and determined police officer named Lou Hennessy, the other of the neighborhood itself seen through the lens of New Community Church. Hennessy is making a difference as Homicide Captain when he winds up thwarted and humiliated by a colleague, Larry Soulsby; his triumph is in weathering that ouster and making his way through law school and local politics until his 2005 appointment as a Charles County judge.
The story of New Community Church and its dogged pastor Jim Dickerson has the potential to be most interesting, especially as Dickerson decides not to fight the local drug trade but to cooperate with its kingpin, Baldie. Baldie is a weird, folksy character who spends his days in a lawn chair, hosts annual barbecues for his customers, and sends his two young daughters to the church children’s program. An entire book about these two men and the dynamic between their purposes would be fascinating, especially given the fact that Dickerson and his church continue an active ministry in Shaw today.
Castaneda, however, wants to weave a much bigger story, and winds up including lots of material about notorious DC mayor Marion Barry and how his addictions affected District politics for decades, material that doesn’t help the progress of the stories already told. The “decades” involved are a problem, too: While the 1990s are carefully covered, there is a huge gloss over the near decade and a half since then, as if S Street rose and then sat on a plateau. Overall, this book works best a memoir with reportage rather than a tightly focused piece of literary journalism.
Must-Reads
Take Our Restaurant Survey and You Could Win Dinner at a Mike Isabella Restaurant
10 Fall Festivals Near DC That You Don’t Want to Miss
Washingtonian’s Great Places to Work Application
DC is Getting an All-Male Burlesque Brunch
September 2016: How to Dress in DC
More from News & Politics
The Huffington Post’s Eliot Nelson Doesn’t Mind if You Read His Book on the Toilet
Man Stabbed Over Drunk Food in a Crime Most DC
Presidential Debates Aren’t About Style or Substance. They’re About Pressure
Do Women Have to Talk Like Men to Be Taken Seriously? And Should They?
Photos and Scenes From the African American History Museum’s Opening Day
How History Museums Around the US Have Presented the African American Experience
Frederick Could Be an Urban Suburb of DC–Unless Its Good Ol’ Boy Past Gets in Its Way
Road Closures, Traffic Detours, and Security Information for the African American History Museum Opening
Most Popular
The Best Cheap Restaurants in Washington, DC
100 Very Best Restaurants
9 New Restaurants to Try Now
How One Couple Transformed a Virginia Estate into the Ultimate Southern Lawn Party Wedding
I Was at the Montgomery Mall During the Shooting. This Is What It Was Like Inside.