Grand Central Winter: Stories From the Street

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In the underground tunnels below Grand Central Terminal, Lee Stringer, homeless and drug-addicted, found a pencil to run through his crack pipe. One day he used it to write. Soon, writing became a habit that won over drugs. Soon after that, Stringer had written one of the most powerful urban memoirs of all time. With human wisdom and biting wit, Stringer chronicles the unravelling of his seemingly secure existence and the odyssey of survival on New York City's streets.

Reviews

From stories about flim-flamming clerics prying on the homeless, to the streetwise Romeo who wants to make the prostitute mother of his child an 'honest woman' ("I can't believe it, [she] even charged me to go to bed with her on our honeymoon night"), to the manipulations of being on the Geraldo show, Stringer possesses a sharp eye for the street and the rich, sagacious talent of a storyteller. Publishers Weekly

Stringer readily admits to his former addiction and even celebrates its simple sweetness; you collect enough returnable cans to buy a hit, you get high, you crash and start looking for more cans. Like Dorothy Parker cradling a martini, he makes no apologies. But Stringer's angle on Manhattan is not from a table at the Algonquin; it is straight up from underneath. John Jiler, New York Times Book Review

Author Bio

LEE STRINGER's journey from childhood homelessness in the 60s, to adult homelessness in the 80s, to his present career as a writer and lecturer, as told inSleepaway SchoolandGrand Central Winter, is one of the great odysseys of contemporary American life and letters. Stringer is the only board member of Project Renewal who is also a former patient of the facility. He is the two-time recipient of the Washington Irving Award and, in 2005, a Lannan FoundationResidency.He is a former editor of and columnist forStreet News.His essays and articles have appeared in a variety of other publications, including theNation,theNew York Times, andNewsday.He lives in Mamaroneck, New York, where he also serves on the board of the Mamaroneck Public Libraries.