Grand Central Winter: A Story from the Streets of New York City (Paperback)

by Lee Stringer (Author), Kurt Vonnegut (Foreword) "What happened was I was digging around in my hole-there's this long, narrow, crawl space in Grand Central's lower regions, of which few people are..." (more)
Key Phrases: shelter system, Street News, New York, Grand Central (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Curled deep in his burrow in a Grand Central Station crawlspace, Lee Stringer--ragged, homeless, addicted to crack--is digging around for something he can use to clean his crack pipe. Finally his fingers latch around "some sort of smooth straight stick": a pencil. In the days that follow, he carries it with him wherever he goes. "So I have this pencil with me all the time and then one day I'm sitting there in my hole with nothing to smoke and nothing to do and I pull the pencil out just to look at the film of residue stuck to the sides--you do that sort of thing when you don't have any shit--and it dawns on me that it's a pencil. I mean it's got a lead in it and all, and you can write with the thing." And so that's what he does. "Pretty soon I forget all about hustling and getting a hit. I'm scribbling like a maniac; heart pumping, adrenaline rushing, hands trembling. I'm so excited I almost crap on myself. It's just like taking a hit."

Grand Central Winter is the tale of Stringer's twin addictions--writing and crack--and the lengths he went to in order to satisfy each. But Stringer dwells on neither his descent into hell nor the long journey back. Instead, he paints a nuanced portrait of street life itself, its pleasures as well as its terrors. Hustlers, hookers, dealers, and addicts come to life in a series of vignettes that are tough, unsentimental, but compassionate to the core. There's honest rage to be found in Grand Central Winter, but precious little political posturing. "Policy is never the real issue," he writes in "Dear Homey," his advice column for New York's homeless paper, Street News. "The real issue is the hearts of men." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
"In New York City," writes the author, "there are three centers for people living on the street: Central Park, Grand Central Terminal, and Central Booking." And in this candid, sad, yet upbeat memoir we visit them all. Stringer once co-owned a graphic-design company, but with the death of his partner and his substance abuse found himself evicted from his apartment and camping in Grand Central Terminal. We see what life is like on the street and how the homeless search for shoes in a bureaucratic city agency. In one shelter we see hams, turkeys and other roasts going into the kitchen, but only fried salami is served. We witness homeless being rousted by cops for criminal trespass for sleeping in Grand Central, then learn that often the police do this only at the end of their shifts in order to collect overtime. The author relates the embarrassment of meeting an old business colleague while collecting cans for their five-cent redemption fee; how he rescued a coked-up businessman from muggers; and how the authorities ruthlessly cracked down on the homeless to move them out of Grand Central. Street News, the newspaper of the homeless, helps get him back on his feet, first by selling it, then by editing and writing for it. 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.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Headline Review (September 2, 1999)
• ISBN-10: 0747273634
• ISBN-13: 978-0747273639
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,104,435 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Writing, July 14, 2000

By	R. M. Calitri (California,USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street (Paperback)

Lee Stringer's writing so impressed me that I began sharing it with students in my writing courses to illustrate a variety of points--the power of emotion in honest writing, the plight of the homeless in a rich country, the power of writing to pull a soul from the mire. If my introduction doesn't tempt you to read this book, Kurt Vonnegut's will.

In this short book, Stringer tells his street stories which have the power to make a grown man swear and choke back tears at the same time; I've witnessed this myself more than once. This book is written with a mix of grit and fragmented paragraphs to produce an amazingly unique style that illustrates the dark and haunted caverns in the writer's mind. Stringer found his way off of drugs and mean streets by writing about his experiences and sharing them in the homeless publication Street News which he later went on to edit. His stories are raw and loud.

This country cares too little for its disenfranchised, and too easily looks away from the homeless and downtrodden (Stringer says,"They see only a phenomenon to which they have already adjusted"). Stringer's words will thread readers' hearts with the compassion they require to truly live an examined life in the USA. And besides, the guy is so quotable: "It's the guilt, fear, and stones in your own heart that take you down;" or "Heroism, as I see it, requires a deliberate decision to assume avoidable risks specifically--not incidentally--for the sake of another." Stringer's is an important voice. Do not miss this book.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stringer helps us see beyond "the homeless", January 5, 2000

By	Todd (Evanston, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street (Hardcover)

To come away from this book with a new compassion for "the homeless" is to completely miss the point. Stringer's contribution is so valuable precisely because it shows us that there is no such thing as "the homeless" as if it were some pathetic, faceless, homogeneous mob. Rather, his storytelling challenges us to see each person on the street as an individual with his or her own character, needs, desires, and flaws. Some are deserving of compassion, but others are not. By showing us this, Stringer avoids being patronizing and gives homeless people the dignity that comes with personhood. Indeed, it is interesting that the characters he tells us about are not necessarily unhappy with their lives and looking for some way to get out. Stringer himself speaks of embracing the street life because of the liberation it offered and leaves when he chooses to because he is finally sick of it.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His Publisher Never Jacked Him Over, February 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street (Hardcover)

Although I have not yet read Mr. Stringer's memoir, I did have the pleasure of meeting him this morning--at the Body & Soul Ministries, here at Dallas' St. Paul's Methodist Church--right before the free feed. Having written for many years myself, and having been homeless for over two years, I listened to him read a chapter from his book to the crowd of over 100 homeless men and women gathered for the weekly occasion. While his reading was an inspiration to us all, a testament of courage, risk and fortune, I couldn't help but think of the times I have tried to sell my work to the two newspapers here in Dallas: The Dallas Observer and The Dallas Morning News. Considering that I am indeed homeless, well, I suppose that is one chalf mark against my reputation. Stonewalled, humiliated, ridiculed and put down for trying to better myself, I have to admit that I know first-hand what it is like to struggle through the night in an abandoned parking garage, or to risk being knifed simply because I act differently than the run-of-the-mill homeless person. Therefore, after hearing only one chapter from Mr. Stringer's book, I have to congratulate him on his success, and wish him well for the future. I sincerely doubt some New York publisher is going to walk up to me and say, "I've read your stuff! Wanna write for us?" After all, those in Dallas who have the power to do just that have, without a doubt, violated my sense of the general worthiness of modern American ethics. In other words, we are a bunch of spoiled brats, and the homeless, for one reason or another, scare the living daylights out of us. Finally, when I asked Mr. Stringer if his publisher ever worked him over real good to see what he was worth before handing over the advance he received, he exclaimed, "What? They gave me $3,000 right off the bat! I smoked it all up!" Any questions? Dallas, by the way, is the home of the First Baptist Church, the number one stronghold of the so-called Christian conservative movement.