By Lee Stringer

Reviewed by Ginger B.

In the spring of 1985, Lee Stringer, through a series of self-imposed, fairly destructive life changing decisions, finds himself being evicted from his one room apartment, and “Half an hour later I’m on the street, clutching a voucher for all that remains of my worldly possessions. Only instead of feeling put out, I feel strangely relieved. Elated even. I have just been released, I realize, from all earthly claims upon me. …Off to the freedom of the streets! Off to whatever happens next.” The next two hundred pages or so are stories about “what happens next” in the life of this homeless, extremely brilliant and witty, commonsensical sage, who also happens to be a crack addict.

This book is not an account of what homelessness looks like. It is not a narrative on the sociological or political implications the homeless have on our society, or a revealing memoir of one man’s journey from addiction to recovery. Nor is it a “tug at your heartstrings” plea for the reader to run out and start a rescue project. But it is a series of realistic accounts and perceptions acquired during Lee Stringer’s journey through what he calls the “stuff in the middle” that make up the meat of this book.

Stringer’s writing style “tells it like it is” and that alone is sufficient to keep the reader wanting more, but Mr. Stringer is an outstanding storyteller as well, and I felt as if I were sitting across the table from him hearing these stories rather than reading them. And I have had the pleasure to do both.  (Please go to “Watch More Videos” on our home page to see him at a recent presentation he did for The Second Road).  He doesn’t pamper the reader with emotion, nor does he keep us at arms’ length from his own personal pain, but he manages to find a place where the two extremes fit comfortably in the reader’s lap. Some have suggested that the stories are disjointed and do not flow in a coherent manner. I agree. But as I said, reading this book is like sitting across the table listening to Lee Stringer tell you about this period in his life. He tells you what comes in his head as it comes in his head. I wasn’t the least bit concerned with consistency of timeline, because that’s not what this book is about. And, Wow! Can this guy write! Pick up this book just to hear Stringer’s voice. It is a significant and authentic one.  Lee Stringer is the real deal and so is this book.