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Title: Grand Central Winter by Lee Stringer ISBN: 0-671-03654-8 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.97 (31 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: STRAIGHT FROM THE STREET
Comment: Lee Stringer doesn't coddle the reader with sentimental babble about what it is like to be homeless. Other books and authors have done that job. He tells his story without apology or sociological mumbo jumbo. He tells it staight.And sometimes when the truth hits you it is hard to take.
Grand Central Winter is Stringer's story of his life and those of selected aquaintances on the streets of New York. A love affair with crack cocaine resulted in him becoming jobless and homeless thus joining a culture reviled and rendered invisible by the mainstream. From Lee's report we see those who are homeless from a wider perspective. Some are addicts to drugs and alcohol, others are former residents of mental institutions that have been closed and still others are trying to make it out of their situation but find themselves in a Catch 22 merry-go-round. The "homeless" are a diverse and wide group.
You will find yourself laughing at some of the escapades that Lee encounters. You will get angry at the government bureaucracy and "charity" agencies that are more concerned in keeping the homeless invisible rather than attacking the problems of homelessness.
Stringer doesn't make himself into a hero nor does he do the same with the people he meets. You see all of their faults but you begin to respect those who keep trying and revile the ones who attempt to exploit the homeless for political or social engineering reasons.
By reading this book you will get a much clearer picture of the complexity of homelessness. Lee doesn't claim to have the answer nor does he make himself the poster boy for the homeless. He forces you to wake up in his sharp and unardoned prose. Look at these people that you pass every day. They are subjects of concern not objects to be trashed. Read this challenging book and awaken yourself to action.
Rating: 4
Summary: Stringer helps us see beyond "the homeless"
Comment: To come away from this book with a new compassion for "the homeless" is to completely miss the point. Stringer's contribution is so valuable precisely because it shows us that there is no such thing as "the homeless" as if it were some pathetic, faceless, homogeneous mob. Rather, his storytelling challenges us to see each person on the street as an individual with his or her own character, needs, desires, and flaws. Some are deserving of compassion, but others are not. By showing us this, Stringer avoids being patronizing and gives homeless people the dignity that comes with personhood. Indeed, it is interesting that the characters he tells us about are not necessarily unhappy with their lives and looking for some way to get out. Stringer himself speaks of embracing the street life because of the liberation it offered and leaves when he chooses to because he is finally sick of it.
Rating: 3
Summary: It could have been much more
Comment: I stuck the book out for about 2/3 of it always hoping for some point to be made from the various unconnected stories he tells, but most have no point or real end...such as the story of the blonde hooker who becomes central to his life for many months or the even less understandable the defrocked Greek priest who wants to be in the newspaper.Very little of this book is about how it is to be homeless or to sleep under subway tunnels etc. It's mostly about his hustling newspapers and cans and taking drugs,but even that is surface level & not very detailed.
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Title: Sleepaway School: Stories from a Boy's Life by Lee Stringer ISBN: 1583224785 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Living at the Edge of the World: A Teenager's Survival in the Tunnels of Grand Central Station by Tina S. Jamie Pastor Bolnick ISBN: 0312200471 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Like Shaking Hands With God: A Conversation About Writing by Kurt Vonnegut, Lee Stringer, Ross Klaven (moderator), Art Shay ISBN: 158322002X Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City by Jennifer Toth ISBN: 155652241X Publisher: Chicago Review Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Tunnel: The Underground Homeless of New York City (Architecture of Despair) by Margaret Morton ISBN: 0300065590 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 1995 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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