Strasser, Todd. Can't Get There from Here.STRASSER, Todd. Can't get there from here. Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster U.S. publishing company. It was founded in 1924 by Richard L. Simon (1899–1960) and M. Lincoln Schuster (1897–1970), whose initial project, the original crossword-puzzle book, was a best-seller. , Pulse. 208p. c2004. 0-68984170-1. $5.99. JS Maybe, a homeless "throwaway throwaway See for your information (FYI). " teen who narrates this short novel, lives with her tribe of fellow street kids in Manhattan, sleeping under bridges and in abandoned buildings; spanging (begging for spare change), washing windshields and running various street schemes, from dealing to juggling, for money; dumpster diving and grabbing rare meals from soup kitchens when they can. The grimness of these generally short lives is rendered in unsparing detail--many characters die, and Strasser opens several chapters with staccato, police report-like profiles listing names, ages, backgrounds and cause of death--yet there are moments of unexpected and ironic glamour. The teens' age allows them entree into the city's club scene, where, in stolen makeup and borrowed party clothes, they mingle with upper middle class suburban kids looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. thrills. Jewel, a cross-dressing teen with a stolen cell phone, constructs a fantasy life for himself: "Another TV? Oh, sure, we've got lots of them, but that means going to a whole other floor and this house is just too big." Other characters, like Maybe's friend Rainbow, a fragile junkie junkie Popular health A popular term for a person, usually an IV narcotic abusing addict, whose life is disorganized vis-á-vis family and societal structure, whose existence revolves around obtaining–often through theft, prostitution or other illicit , escape through alcohol and drugs. Strasser has clearly done extensive research into the lives of homeless teens, and the pain of homelessness is made vividly real: not only being cold and hungry, but also scratching bedbug bedbug, any of the small, blood-sucking bugs of the family Cimicidae, which includes about 30 species distributed throughout the world. Bedbugs are flat-bodied, oval, reddish brown, and about 1-4 in. (6 mm) long. bites, not being able to afford medicine when you get sick, worrying about falling prey to stalkers, and being humiliated by people who consider homeless kids scum, like the sadistic sa·dism n. 1. The deriving of sexual gratification or the tendency to derive sexual gratification from inflicting pain or emotional abuse on others. 2. The deriving of pleasure, or the tendency to derive pleasure, from cruelty. security guard who forces Maybe and Rainbow to clean a public library bathroom naked after catching them washing up there. Also realistic are the back stories given to the tribe: while one character, whose graffiti tag is "Class War," is a rebel from a middle class family, most of the street kids are running from physical or sexual abuse or neglect. The resolution of Can't Get There from Here centers on the efforts of Maybe and Anthony, a caring adult, to find a home for Tears, at 12 the youngest member of the tribe, with her grandparents grandparents npl → abuelos mpl grandparents grand npl → grands-parents mpl grandparents grand npl . While there's no such easy resolution for Maybe, the novel still ends on a hopeful note, making this a powerful story of survival against heavy odds. Kathryn Kulpa, Libn., UMass Dartmouth Lib., Dartmouth, MA |
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