---
product_id: 2473075
title: "When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets"
brand: "timothy black"
price: "RM196"
currency: MYR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.com.my/products/2473075-when-a-heart-turns-rock-solid-the-lives-of-three
store_origin: MY
region: Malaysia
---

# When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets

**Brand:** timothy black
**Price:** RM196
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets by timothy black
- **How much does it cost?** RM196 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.my](https://www.desertcart.com.my/products/2473075-when-a-heart-turns-rock-solid-the-lives-of-three)

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- timothy black enthusiasts

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- Trusted timothy black brand quality
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## Description

Full description not available

## Images

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Urban realism with empathy; an exemplar of engaged social research.
  

*by J***L on Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2009*

Following C. Wright Mills' call for sociologists to demonstrate the links between individual biographies and larger historical, economic, and social contexts within which they occur, Timothy Black followed three Puerto Rican brothers as they navigated their ways through Northeastern cities wracked by poverty, deindustrialization, lack of living wage jobs, and drug economies that moved into the resulting economic and social vaccums.  He covered twenty years of their lives, from their teens to their thirties, from the 1990s to today.The brothers trusted Black and were willing and increasingly seemed to want to talk to him about their experiences as they dropped out of school, dealt drugs, went to prison, tried to do the right thing with sub living wage jobs, tried to take care of children.  The result is not a pretty story.  Don't expect feel good uplifting endings.  Black faithfully records the overwhelming odds that confront young people born into urban poor neighborhoods that reflect the utter failures of national policies to adequately address and remediate poverty.  National policy failures and neglect produce wrecked personal lives.I read the book because I wanted to find out the stories behind the headlines of drug wars and drive by shootings that are common in the Hartford-Springfield areas where I live.  Black provided that and a lot more.  His successful technique was to masterfully interweave the development of national policies, including, very importantly the massive expansion of prisons, with the personal stories of the brothers and a few other of their acquaintances.  The depictions of prison experiences is eye opening and nightmarish.  The author plausibly argues that the Abu Ghraib scandal had its precedent in the brutality that is common in U.S. prisons.This is an extraordinary exemplar for empathetic social ethnographic research into recent developments in U.S. urban poverty, the burgeoning drug trades and prison populations, the enduring problems of racism and social exclusion, and the failures of national social policy.  You will learn a lot from this book.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    MUST READ
  

*by E***N on Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2022*

I read this in my first semester of college and couldn't put the book down, not sure if it was a good or bad thing though. Getting to know these three men will really take you on an emotional traumatic ride. I personally had to put it down for a while because it was getting too heavy for me.

### ⭐ 







  
  
    If you are not Puerto Rican
  

*by R***E on Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2022*

This book which is being used as a college required text focuses on 3 criminals, instead of bringing attention to outstanding Puerto Ricans such as Jose Ferrer, Rita Moreno, US Supreme Justice Sotomayor, Lin Manuel Miranda,  Bruno Mars, Jose Feliciano, Ricky Martin, Hernan Badillo, Dr. Antonia Novello, and many others. What is the purpose of this book? What is the author’s intentions?

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*Product available on Desertcart Malaysia*
*Store origin: MY*
*Last updated: 2026-02-20*