Book Review: Health Care Off the Books: Poverty, Illness, and Strategies for Survival in Urban America

Abstract

disparate concentrated impacts on Black communities and communities of color could be addressed in greater depth throughout the discussion. Even so, her book provides invaluable insights into the long-term human costs of the drug war and advances calls for a new way forward. Not for the faint of heart, the text describes private childhood traumas, rape and interpersonal violence in detail. Boeri brings a compassionate and somehow optimistic tone to these confidential accounts, if for nothing else, to communicate her faith in and respect for the people she studies. Written in accessible prose that is jargon-averse, the book is suitable for undergraduates; it triangulates extensive narrative case studies with broader thematic arguments, historical and political context. Within the social sciences, courses on drugs, inequality and the life course will find the text useful. Practitioners in the more applied fields of public health, social work, criminology and those in drug treatment fields would be well served from the insights this book offers.