I was VERY interested in reading this book after hearing the author (Lee Stringer) talk about it on NPR. Unfortunately, when I finally tracked it down, I was disappointed.

Mr. Stringer IS an excellent writer and his prose flows freely into the mind while the reader can easily visualize the scenarios being written about. However, as someone who has been homeless for the last half-dozen years I found the book lacking real grit. More time is spent on platitudes, personal quasi-philosophical soundbites and repeated stories then on actual 'stories from the streets' as promised by the book's subtitle.

If you're really interested in reading about what life on the street's is like then I'd highly recommend the following two books:

Living at the Edge of the World: A Teenager's Survival in the Tunnels of Grand Central Station by Tina S. and Jamie Pastor Bolnick

The Mole People : Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City
by Jennifer Toth, et al.

Neither of these works have a foreward by Kurt Vonnegut, but the tales in each are far more compelling then those told here.