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Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street
Posted on December 31, 2000
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I was VERY interested in reading this book after hearing the author (Lee Stringer) talk about it on NPR. Unfortunately, when I finally tracked it down, I was disappointed.
Mr. Stringer IS an excellent writer and his prose flows freely into the mind while the reader can easily visualize the scenarios being written about. However, as someone who has been homeless for the last half-dozen years I found the book lacking real grit. More time is spent on platitudes, personal quasi-philosophical soundbites and repeated stories then on actual ’stories from the streets’ as promised by the book’s subtitle.
If you’re really interested in reading about what life on the street’s is like then I’d highly recommend the following two books:
Living at the Edge of the World: A Teenager’s Survival in the Tunnels of Grand Central Station by Tina S. and Jamie Pastor Bolnick
ISBN-13: 978-0312200473
The Mole People : Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City
by Jennifer Toth, et al.
Neither of these works have a foreward by Kurt Vonnegut, but the tales in each are far more compelling then those told here.
Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street
ISBN-13: 978-1888363579
Recommended:
No
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I am very pleased you have pointed the interested reader to other books of which you think more. I’ve done a little work with homeless folks in various capacities and always wished I’d understood the experience more. My stereotypes have already been broken by my previous experiences, but I hope you stick around here, keep contributing your high quality work, and break others’ stereotypes….and, if it’s your goal, become “home-ful.” Take care.