At the center of this scalding work of urban realism -- the most acclaimed work of Nuyorican literature since Piri Thomas's Down These Mean Streets -- is Miguel, a sixteen-year-old crack runner in the South Bronx. At an age when most kids are still in school, Miguel is driving a Chevy Impala, having sex with a harem of teenage girls, and stashing $7,000 in his apartment -- because he is too young to have his own bank card.Miguel owes everything he has to Spider, an enterprising crack lord who claims to turn children into businessmen "faster than IBM or ITT". But when Miguel falls in love with Cristalena, a beautiful and upright girl from a Pentecostal family, he discovers a sweetness that crack dollars can't buy. And he learns how dangerous it is even to try to escape from Spider's web. Part thriller, part love story, part barrio fairy tale, Spidertown uncovers the human sadness behind our most terrifying headlines.