TITLE: The
Girl's Guide to Homelessness
AUTHOR: Brianna
Karp
PUBLISHED: April
2011
GENRE: Memoir
WHERE I GOT IT: ebook
borrowed from library
ABOUT: Brianna
Karp had a terrible upbringing, abused both mentally and physically
by both her parents, constantly under the scrutiny of a religion she
no longer believed in and finds out she had two half
sisters only after her father commits suicide. Despite
all of that her life seemed to be going in a good direction, living
on her own, having a job she loved and adopting her loving mastiff
dog Fezzik. Unfortunately in 2008 the recession hit and she was one, like many Americans that could not escape the inevitable. She lost
her job and had to give up her place and move back in with her mom
and step father. This did not work out well for her and she soon
found herself homeless. The only option left to her was to retrieve
an RV that he father left her and begin living out of that.
EXPECTATIONS: I
was browsing my library's online download center for ebooks to read
and I felt like reading a memoir so I checked out that section and
this book caught my eye. I have always had a roof over my head and
never really came close to living on the streets so of course this
book interested me. I can not even imagine what people living on the
streets have to deal with day to day and especially not here in a
Canadian winter! The title said it was a guide to homelessness so I
thought it would give me some insight on how the homeless live and
how they try to get off the streets. I was very disappointed that the
book had little do with that.
WHAT I LIKED: I
feel that the first part of the book was the most interesting. I
found it interesting to learn about her background and a bit about
Jehovah Witnesses. I really knew less about that Religion then I
thought I knew. Sadly that is probably the extent of what I liked
about the book, if you can really describe it as 'like' anyways since
it was rather depressing.
WHAT I HATED: What
I did not like was that the title was very very misleading. She did
offer a few suggestions at the start but it quickly turned into a
long story about her failing relationship with another homeless man
from across the pond. There was no facts on homelessness, no
information on how many are living on the streets or if the problem
is getting worse or not.
I did
however, change my view on homelessness a bit since before reading
this I only visualized a person without a roof over their head
needing to beg for change to buy food or other basic needs. I guess
with anything, there are varying degrees of homelessness and
obviously some people have it worse off then others. I think she was
more lucky with what she had then other people because at least she
did have some money and she did have a roof over her head.
I
also didn't like that she mentioned a few times not being able to
find an affordable apartment but was able to spend money on tickets
to fly her boyfriend from Scotland not once bu twice to America to visit, stay at
motels for weeks at a time, buy expensive presents and even borrow
money to fly herself to Scotland. It just doesn't seem like a good use of her money considering the situation she was in.
FINAL
THOUGHTS: I get that this is her memoir of her life and that this
toxic relationship that she found herself in did play a big part at that time. I just think the name of the book was very misleading. I guess I don't really know how I would be if I was in a
similar situation as her and maybe I do get that even though spending
money to fly someone across the world and even go visit them might
seem frivolous to me I can understand that when in the situation that
she was in any connection with another human being you want to hold
on to that as much as you can. I really hope that she finds herself
in a better place, she sure hasn't had the happiest life up until
that point.
RATING:
2 out of 5 stars
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