Living at the Edge of the World: How I Survived in the Tunnels of Grand Central Station
by Tina S., Jamie Pastor Bolnick | Biographies & Memoirs |
ISBN: 0312284071 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0312284071 Global Overview for this book
2 journalers for this copy...
Wow. This was hard to read, but I still couldn't put it down. Amazingly depressing yet somehow uplifting to show what people can endure and still (sometimes) come out the other side of misery.
Tina sometimes got on my nerves, I'll admit, because she seemed determined to sabotage herself at every turn. But I haven't walked in her shoes. I felt both empathy and annoyance with her. Interesting.
Recommended!
Amazon:
A searing, true story right out of 1980s New York City: During the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, with AIDS and homelessness raging out of control, a young woman survives four years living in the tunnels of Grand Central Station.
Sixteen year old Tina S. leaves behind her dysfunctional family to join her new friend April,a wild and charismatic teenage runaway, living in the station's deepest tunnels amidst the homeless and drug addicted. Soon she's caught up in in a romantic relationship with April and finds herself following in her footsteps: bingeing on crack cocaine, stealing, rolling drunks, and panhandling to support their habits and to survive on the New York City streets.
In her own words Tina describes her harrowing descent into crack addiction, being raped in the tunnels, several arrests and jail terms served with hardened criminals on Rikers Island, and her devastation over April's sudden, brutal death.
Finally faced with the reality that she might not make it through one more day, Tina takes her first tentative steps towards a normal life. With the help of a homeless advocate and his wife, a gay uncle dying of AIDS, and Jamie Pastor Bolnick, the writer who was to become her coauthor on this book, Tina begins the long struggle back to the world of the living.
Tina sometimes got on my nerves, I'll admit, because she seemed determined to sabotage herself at every turn. But I haven't walked in her shoes. I felt both empathy and annoyance with her. Interesting.
Recommended!
Amazon:
A searing, true story right out of 1980s New York City: During the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, with AIDS and homelessness raging out of control, a young woman survives four years living in the tunnels of Grand Central Station.
Sixteen year old Tina S. leaves behind her dysfunctional family to join her new friend April,a wild and charismatic teenage runaway, living in the station's deepest tunnels amidst the homeless and drug addicted. Soon she's caught up in in a romantic relationship with April and finds herself following in her footsteps: bingeing on crack cocaine, stealing, rolling drunks, and panhandling to support their habits and to survive on the New York City streets.
In her own words Tina describes her harrowing descent into crack addiction, being raped in the tunnels, several arrests and jail terms served with hardened criminals on Rikers Island, and her devastation over April's sudden, brutal death.
Finally faced with the reality that she might not make it through one more day, Tina takes her first tentative steps towards a normal life. With the help of a homeless advocate and his wife, a gay uncle dying of AIDS, and Jamie Pastor Bolnick, the writer who was to become her coauthor on this book, Tina begins the long struggle back to the world of the living.
Traveling as a belated birthday gift. I hope you enjoy it!
This poor book spent the last few weeks hiding at my PO. They swore he wasn't there but he got caught this morning when I made lots of noise and refused to leave alone.
My thanks to eponine38 for this wishlist Birthday present.
My thanks to eponine38 for this wishlist Birthday present.
