Change. Ignore it to live a life of monotony. Embrace it and risk it all.
When we see wrong in this world, there is this inherent urge in us to do something about it, to make it right. Some would choose to walk away. Others choose a more heroic approach, to get involved and make a difference. These are the people who desire to change the world, to fight for what is right. They see change in a positive light.
The reality is that change is not always positive, and the problem with changing the world is that rarely do we realize that change not only impacts our own life but also the lives of those who we share with.
In a thought-provoking story about one man’s journey to change his world, the block in Harlem that he calls home, Christopher Herz writes about a man who risks everything – his job, his relationships and his sanity – for an honest attempt to clean-up the streets on his block.
There is selfishness to change. We all see change from different vantage points and form perspectives that depend on how the situation relates and impacts our lives, and how it may fulfill our needs. The level of our involvement towards any cause is an outcome of that thought process. Some decide to get involved because they believe in it while some use the cause as a cover to drive their own personal or political agenda.
Through the experiences of an unnamed narrator, Herz takes us through a string of events that unfold word by word, very delicately woven into the complex stories of its residents, who have been numbed by their own selfish desire to survive during troubling times on the risky streets of The Last Block In Harlem.
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Thank you for this insightful review. You really seemed to pull back the curtain and really understand what was going on between the lines. Some people miss what it was about and get distracted by the streets of Harlem, but you really pushed on.
To have readers understand on that level is very rewarding.