Slippin': ten years with the Bloods

Gang members themselves from Los Angeles guide us through their world, explaining how graffiti tags work, their use of rap music, and their fascination with and choice of weapons; and they bring us into their social/family life, for instance -- and hilarious -- when " Low Down " Lemar takes a job as a court summons deliverer and when Jumbo and his Mom get into it, and so on. It also greived me at places: the death of " CK " (Crip Killer) Mike, the overall waste of Human potential and misguided leadership ability plaguing inner city areas like South Central, and the incessant and nihilistic preoccupation with killing and being killed, all made real in a world, their world, where it seems that you must kill or be killed, living and dying by the nines, by the glocks, and by the crack that will never know your name. But Jumbo's and a few others' survival -- and, in some cases, transformation -- heartened me.