... to overcome the difficulties of his race and class when integrating into the Puerto Rican drug dealers lives by spending five years in their midst. Many of the dealers were crack and cocaine users as well and used this to support their habit. This also gave bourgeois a unique opportunity as he was present many times when they got high and hence gave a lot of information very willingly when high. The book is about the experiences and lives of the Puerto Rican drug dealers as well as their friends, families and girlfriends, who Bourgois depicts as victims of circumstance. The book starts off with Bourgois's own experience of how there is an 'apartheid' present in New York working against his subjects. This is upheld not only from the government who only see them only as addicts and dealers, but from the Police and other ethnic groups who have immigrated to ...

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