The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness by Brianna Karp
Harlequin • $16.95 • ISBN 9780373892358
Unable to find work after losing her job during the recession in 2008, Brianna Karp moved into a trailer in a Walmart parking lot. She spent her days applying for jobs thanks to Starbucks’ internet connection, figuring out where to shower for free, refilling water jugs and otherwise trying to make a life without an address, electricity, a water hookup or any family support.
Karp’s memoir, The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness, chronicles this difficult experience. You’ll get sucked into this unconventional survival story because Karp has an intimate and direct voice from page one.
In this excerpt, Karp reflects on her own ideas about homelessness—before she joined the ranks of the homeless herself:
I had never much thought about homelessness or homeless people. Sure, there was the occasional “hobo” on the street, perhaps lounging on the sidewalk outside a 7-Eleven, begging for change, ragged, perhaps with a worn ski cap on, maybe missing a few teeth, with scraggly hair and a wizened visage.
“Don’t make eye contact with them,” my mother would say, jerking me to her side, not even bothering to whisper or even lower her voice. She spoke about them as if they couldn’t hear or understand her, or as if they had no feelings to hurt. I never really thought to question that. It was just another stereotype repeated to me, ad nauseam, from infancy . . .
I was ashamed of myself, thinking back on it. In a way, this was my atonement, my penance for being so self-righteous all those years. Serves me right, I realized wildly.
It was Thursday, February 26, 2009. I was homeless.
Are you drawn in? Will you pick up this memoir?
What are you reading today?
This book is already on my list of books I want to read. I’ve felt very lucky to have a steady job in today’s economy, and I’ve had a couple of friends (and an ex) who lost their jobs, and I know how easy it is to suddenly find yourself facing the possibility of being homeless. It’s a scary thought!
I’m currently reading One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson, the second in her Brodie Jackson series. I love Atkinson’s writing, it just flows.
I work at a university and get to work really early in the morning. Since I am here so early, I take a morning walk before starting my day. I can’t tell you how many homeless students I see camping out at that hour. They are behind bushes, in between groves of trees and hidden behind partial walls. I can’t imagine being homeless AND trying to get your degree, but with the triple fee hikes that we’ve been hit with, I can certainly see how it happened.
I shy away from memoirs but I’d read this one.
This one will be on my TBR list. I constanÞly see people stand on the corner in larger city ask for help and it breaks my heart. The truth is it can happen to any of us. This book is a perspective from one who has gone through it and deserves my attention. Currently reading Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden