The Bad Year
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Summary
Editor's review
As an editor, I believe the book's value lies in its irreplaceable sense of immediacy and its documentary quality. Simon forgoes the omniscient god's-eye view and becomes a silent recorder, letting the detectives' daily banter, the petty frustrations of investigation, and the numbness and helplessness in the face of violence speak for themselves. This almost anthropological fieldwork approach strips away the romanticized image of detective work in film and television, revealing its tedium, its bureaucracy, and the way it often brushes shoulders with death. The book's observations on how institutional discrimination such as redlining shaped breeding grounds for crime remain powerfully relevant today.
Reading Homicide, you gain not the thrill of a puzzle solved but the heavy awareness of understanding a complex system. It is the inspiration and foundation for the HBO classic The Wire, yet it is rawer, grittier, and far denser with information. For readers who wish to go beyond simple crime stories and understand the structural social causes behind crime, this is essential reading.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in nonfiction writing and in-depth journalism who value information density and authenticity
- Crime genre enthusiasts, especially those curious about how real detective work differs from fiction
- Students and enthusiasts of sociology, criminology, or American urban studies
- Fans of The Wire who want to trace its creative origins and intellectual background
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking fast-paced, plot-driven detective fiction with a clear-cut sense of resolution
- Readers with low tolerance for violence, coarse language, and depictions of society's darker side
Reading tips
- Approach it as a work of social documentary rather than a novel, and prepare for a large cast of characters, nicknames, and minute details
- Keep a map at hand to follow Baltimore's neighborhoods, which helps in understanding the geographical and socioeconomic factors behind the cases
- Watch The Wire or read related criticism after finishing the book for a fuller, more layered understanding and a richer experience
About the publisher
Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 濒死之前 理查德·普雷斯
- 主要人物
- 第一章
- 1月19日，星期二
- 1月18日，星期一
- 1月20日，星期三
- 1月26日，星期二
- 第二章
- 2月4日，星期四
- 2月5日，星期五
- 2月8日，星期一
- 2月8日，星期一
- 2月10日，星期三
- 第三章
- 2月10日，星期三
- 2月12日，星期五
- 2月18日，星期四
- 2月21日，星期天
- 第四章
- 2月22日，星期一
- 2月29日，星期一
- 3月3日，星期四
- 3月10日，星期四
- 3月11日，星期五
- 第五章
- 4月2日，星期六
- 4月5日，星期二
- 4月8日，星期五
- 5月1日，星期天
- 5月9日，星期一
- 5月10日，星期二
- 第六章
- 5月26日，星期四
- 6月8日，星期三
- 6月22日，星期三
- 6月29日，星期三
- 6月30日，星期四
- 第七章
- 7月8日，星期五
- 7月9日，星期六
- 7月22日，星期五
- 8月2日，星期二
- 8月9日，星期二
- 第八章
- 8月19日，星期五
- 9月15日，星期四
- 10月1日，星期六
- 10月7日，星期五
- 第九章
- 10月13日，星期四
- 10月19日，星期三
- 10月20日，星期四
- 10月21日，星期五
- 10月28日，星期五
- 11月1日，星期二
- 11月9日，星期三
- 第十章
- 12月2日，星期五
- 12月5日，星期一
- 12月9日，星期五
- 12月11日，星期天
- 12月15日，星期四
- 12月20日，星期二
- 12月22日，星期四
- 12月23日，星期五
- 12月31日，星期六
- 尾声
- 后记
- 此生追忆
- 结案
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About the author
David Simon currently has two works available in Chinese-language publishing, and public information about his personal background remains limited. Judging from Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, his writing focuses on the realities of life at the bottom of American cities, observing homicide investigations and everyday life in inner-city communities. His work falls within documentary literature and social-cultural writing. He is known for long-term tracking, close observation, and detailed reconstruction, presenting policing, the justice system, and community ecology within a single frame so that readers can see the people and circumstances behind the statistics. For Chinese readers, such writing is often regarded as an important reference for understanding American urban governance and social stratification, and it reflects the author's sustained attention to public issues.
Xu Zhanxiong is an author about whom limited public information is available. Three works can currently be confirmed: Bad Year, Film Noir: History, Criticism, and Style (Expanded Edition), and Young Stalin, spanning documentary writing, film and television, and biography. Judging from these works, his writing moves in two directions: one is the discussion and review of cinematic art, focusing on the historical development and critical approaches of film noir as a genre; the other is documentary writing about specific people and events, as reflected in the biographical and historical orientation of Bad Year and Young Stalin. This cross-disciplinary choice of subjects shows an interest in moving between film studies and documentary portraiture, with works that are both informative and readable. Since his birthplace, educational background, and professional experience have not been reliably recorded, his personal life cannot be described in detail, and readers can only come to know his writing through the works mentioned above.
