Review: The Girl's Guide To Homelessness

Title: The Girl's Guide To Homelessness

Author: Brianna Karp

Genre: Memoir

"I am an educated woman with stable employment and residence history. I have never done drugs. I am not mentally ill. I am a career executive assistant—coherent, opinionated, poised, and capable. If you saw me walking down the street, you wouldn't have assumed that I lived in a parking lot. In short, I was just like you—except without the convenience of a permanent address." Brianna Karp's account of her journey through homelessness immerses us in a timely, relevant topic that all too many Americans know about first hand. Goodreads

Brianna Karp's story was compelling and sympathetic. That much is true.

But yet, I just couldn't get drawn into her words.. this novel. It jumped around a lot-- as if she were hopped up on too much caffeine when writing it. Have you ever had a conversation with a person who would start out on one topic, jump to another in the middle of it, then throw you off by going back to the earlier topic- all the while, feeling as if they're talking a mile a minute?

That's what it felt like quite often when reading this. I almost put it down a few times, but finally decided to keep on reading so that I could finish.

The book in general brought up a lot of old memories of my father.

He was homeless.

And I'm glad that Ms. Karp pointed out on several occasions throughout the text that there are ways to be homeless and NOT be labeled a lazy, no-working bum. I really hate the stereotypes that are put on all homeless myself, as much as she did. My father worked, too, while he lived on the streets. He was killed in 2001 by a hit and run drunk driver while he was walking to work.

But that aside-- I'm not just judging on the story of Ms. Karp, but of the literature. If that makes any sense.

It droned on and on for paragraphs at a time, straying from the topic she had originally started, before going back to it. I admittedly skim-read/sped-read through a large chunk. It's rare for me to like many memoirs to begin with, though, unless they're very special.

Sadly, this wasn't it.

2 stars.