The result, like most first novels, was not my best work. I finally understand how my concept of the homeless was even more naïve than the protagonist I created. It’s just not that simple and the stereotypes, like all stereotypes, don’t hold up under scrutiny.
I found a truer depiction of homelessness in the memoir The Glass Castle. Jeannette Walls unabashedly lays before the reader a map of her family, one that many times chose poverty over comfort. Her parents, unconventional, artist types, lived on the edge of society and modeled their quirky values for their children.
But were they? Is it really quirky to find good in the most absurd situations? When her mother tried to pull a piano into the house using a truck and she floored the gas, sending the piano flying into the back yard, her reaction was crazy with adaptability. Instead of cursing and crying Jeannette’s mother said – isn’t it wonderful that the neighbors will be able to enjoy the music when I play.
After squatting in an abandoned building for many years, Jeannette’s parents organized a squatters association and bought the building for a very small price. They were proud people, unwilling and unable to be pigeonholed by society.
I wasn’t sure about this portrayal, until yesterday, when I researched Kevin Barbieux, aka The Homeless Guy. He’s become an internet celebrity with his blog about homelessness. Kevin lives on, in, and around the streets of Nashville, Tennessee. He blogs from a donated laptop with the help of free Wi-fi at coffee shops.
Kevin’s insights have again honed my ideas about people that live on the streets. He most closely resembles the “not so typical homeless man” in my novel. He keeps clean the best he can. Intelligent and thoughtful, he contributes to society by doing projects at the local community church. He writes with a lucidity I still aspire to. He’s not a druggie or an alcoholic.
Why is he homeless? He doesn’t really understand it either. Kevin feels he has social anxiety. He is a square peg in the round hole of a capitalist machine. He doesn’t fit well into the mold. So, for the past 20 odd years he’s done the best he knows how.
If I ever decide to resurrect my manuscript, I’ll do three things first – pull out my copy of The Glass Castle. I’ll open Kevin’s blog and read all the entries I can find. Then I’ll curl up in my warm house with a bowl of popcorn and watch The Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith (the story of a homeless father working his hardest to get off the street).
I’ll pull myself out of my privileged life and see the homeless clearly, with all their diversity, individual needs, struggles, and complexity. And only when I’ve achieved that clarity, will I attempt again to write about them.
