Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1126208 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Curled deep in his burrow in a Grand Central Station crawlspace, Lee Stringer--ragged, homeless, addicted to crack--is digging around for something he can use to clean his crack pipe. Finally his fingers latch around "some sort of smooth straight stick": a pencil. In the days that follow, he carries it with him wherever he goes. "So I have this pencil with me all the time and then one day I'm sitting there in my hole with nothing to smoke and nothing to do and I pull the pencil out just to look at the film of residue stuck to the sides--you do that sort of thing when you don't have any shit--and it dawns on me that it's a pencil. I mean it's got a lead in it and all, and you can write with the thing." And so that's what he does. "Pretty soon I forget all about hustling and getting a hit. I'm scribbling like a maniac; heart pumping, adrenaline rushing, hands trembling. I'm so excited I almost crap on myself. It's just like taking a hit."

Grand Central Winter is the tale of Stringer's twin addictions--writing and crack--and the lengths he went to in order to satisfy each. But Stringer dwells on neither his descent into hell nor the long journey back. Instead, he paints a nuanced portrait of street life itself, its pleasures as well as its terrors. Hustlers, hookers, dealers and addicts come to life in a series of vignettes that are tough, unsentimental, but compassionate to the core. There's honest rage to be found in Grand Central Winter, but precious little political posturing. "Policy is never the real issue," he writes in "Dear Homey," his advice column for New York's homeless paper, Street News. "The real issue is the hearts of men."

Customer Reviews

An honest and frank account of life on the streets
A book by a black homeless crack addict, should not, if we are to believe media images, be a thought provoking insight into American culture. But is is indeed that. This book provides a very interesting picture of life on the streets of New York. It is written from an objective point of view and while making no secret of the fact that the writer has been through hard times, we are not asked to feel sorry for him. He has emerged from his time as a homeless New Yorker as a very astute and prolific writer. I cannot help but admire this man who has been to the bottom and brought himself back up. He has strong views on politics and sociology, which I found inspiring and I want to read more!

Insightful and understated
I believe that this book is a simple story that tackles the complex issues of what it is that makes people happy.

Lee goes from a "normal" life to a street bum in nine months. Why do people become street bums? Who are these people and are they that badly off? Lee answers these questions and really puts into perspective what true success is.

I am a fairly "normal" person, but have benifited greatly from a man that has made a journey I wouldn't dare take.

Conclusion: Buy it!