Customer Reviews

Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A friend recommended this book and once I started it, I couldn't put it down. I guess for me, like for most people, homeless people were always just part of the landscape. Cadillac Man shows us what day to day life is like on the streets. He's not coming at you with a message; he's just telling stories, the way he would if you sat down with him for coffee for a few hours. He's funny and warm and a natural storyteller. Life on the streets is hard, of course, but it's also full of adventure and even has its hilarious moments. The episodes with the character Chocolate Milk, for example, are hysterical. And the story of "Penny," the girlfriend he finds on the streets, is heartbreaking.

Cadillac Man also makes you understand how a person can end up on the streets. He might not have made the same choices another person would make, but you can really understand how the streets make sense for him. He has an enormous heart and a tremendously compassionate soul, and he quickly comes to love and protect "his people" on the streets. This book makes you realize the depths of experience and suffering and endurance that every homeless person must possess.

This is a quick read, which is good, because I DID find it hard to put down. Poignant stories - well written by a very sensitive man. I felt like I was right there with him. Interesting insights into life on the streets of New York City. I found this book well worth my time. (Reviewer is a 65 yr. old male.)

A well told, expertly edited first person account of street homelessness, Cadillac tells it like it is and as it happened according to daily journals he has kept for over a decade. A must-read certainly to the end.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY gave LAND OF THE LOST SOULS a STARRED REVIEW

"Writer, veteran and native Manhattanite Cadillac Man exposes the hidden world of the homeless in this riveting collection of stories from his sixteen years on the streets of New York City. Following the heartbreaking deterioration of his marriage, Cadillac finds himself wandering New York with no destination, comforted by the memories of his young daughter and haunted by his failures. With an uncanny sense of humor and invention, Cadillac uses everyday objects most take for granted (soda cans, discarded beach chairs, toy wagons) to build a life for himself, literally, from the ground up. Cadillac guides readers through streets most people don't (or choose not to) see, introducing the outcasts he comes to value most: singers, teen runaways, pimps, prostitutes and a few unlikely angels. Excruciating details of fist-fights and romantic escapades leave little to the imagination, rendering Cadillac's world intimate, scary and touching; it becomes clear that his survival and sanity depend not only on crafty methods of making money, but also on journaling (excerpts from which have appeared in Esquire magazine). A surprising find, Cadillac lets readers in on a rarely seen community, revealing the compassionate hearts that beat even in the most despairing circumstances."

I was very excited to read this book after seeing the author interviewed on NY1. I was extremely disappointed. I just had a hard time believing it. Here is a guy living on the streets, who refuses money. When he gets money he throws it in a church poor box, all the other homeless people look to him like a savior, he is a protector of prostitutes and their pimp is his great friend. He was like the super hero of the homeless. I just couldn't believe what I was reading.

In one scene he is sitting with some prostitutes, who consider him their guardian, and Chocolate Milk the pimp comes along, grabs Cadillac Man, rips his wallet from his pants pocket(ripping his pants pocket off)and takes his last three dollars and replaces it with a wad of money...for looking after his girls. Amazing.

This same pimp is sitting in a dinner with some of his girls and the Cadillac Man. They are have a grand old time laughing and joking, when in comes a mother with her children and is obviously down and out. Chocolate Milk proceeds to whisper something to the wait-staff who then starts bringing out a smorgasbord of food to the mother's table. Then he slams a wad of money on the table and walks out with his entourage in tears. This is better than a fairy tale.

I was expecting a chilling tale of life on the streets and how different and hard life could be for certain individuals but instead got a tale of the gallant Cadillac Man parading around the city rescuing his fellow homeless, paying his own way, protecting prostitutes and befriending the pimp from heaven.

This is probably the best book I have yet to read that deals with life on the street. It kept my interest like not many other books have.Thumbs up!

Cadillac Man's "Land of Lost Souls" really works to dispel negative images about the homeless. He has a way of getting to the reader by being both crude and colloquial. His manner of speaking directly to the reader humanizes the homeless. However, I did not enjoy how the timeline jumps around; it made it difficult to follow the process of Cadillac Man becoming homeless. Overall it is an interesting novel that looks into the soul of an "outsider" who is curt about his life position.

I have not had a chance to read this book but I must say that I lived in Astoria queens right up the block from where Cadillac lived. I knew him for the 3 years I lived there. I passed him every day on the way to work and coming home. I got to know him and he was a wonderful kind person. He was always well kept and very neat and tidy for a homeless person. He had a great heart and a kind, gentle soul. On Halloween he would pass out candy to the kids. The thing was he never begged or asked for anything yet people gave everything to him. Food, money, clothes, In the winter they would bring him blankets or coats. The neighborhood took care of him because they could see how good of a person he is. My daughter use to adore him as did many of the neighborhood kids. I found out last night about his book when I stopped by a neighborhood deli and asked about him. I was shocked to hear about his book and I was very happy for him. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I'm looking forward to reading his book. I have learned that he is no longer on the streets and I'm happy for him.

John,

If you ever read this Patrick and my daughter Elizabeth say hello :)

I saw the book signing lecture tour on C-Span Book TV...before the show had finished, I had ordered this copy of the book.

Even though I knew what to expect, I was totally floored by the impact of this autobiography. It inspired so many feelings in me that I had to ration my reading of it. Just when I thought I could take it, Cadillac Man would lead me deeper into his life. Ultimately, I couldn't take it. I just couldn't. I never realized such misery existed within the hearts of our country's homeless, and I also never realized how brave and how strong someone had to be to endure it. I learned a lot of things from this book...a lot about what it truly means to be human.

Nobody can read this book without loving Tom, the Cadillac Man. His empathy for others, his courage in the face of his feelings of loss and sadness, and his strength to keep going, all the while praying to The Boss (Cadillac Man's name for God) to end his misery, is something I will surely never forget.

There is a disclaimer at the beginning of the book regarding his lack of writing skills. Yet the prose itself, while not as polished as some, flowed smoothly, exhibiting no glaring flaws of syntax or grammar, and effectively portrayed the content of this man's life, in a way that I found very satisfying and highly inspiring. The writing is just fine. The story, however, is staggering in its intensity...and is destined to stand the test of time as a remarkable testimony to the strength and glory of one human spirit.

I hope to meet Cadillac Man someday, on the Other Side. And I am sure he will be the soul who shines more brightly than all the others. It is then I will thank him properly for all the things he has taught me through this book. They are important lessons for us all, and well worth remembering.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to others, as long as you know beforehand the journey you are about to take. It is unadorned, it is honest, and it is powerful---so powerful that my biggest problem in reading it was in trying to imagine how anyone could manage to offer such a fearless account of their life, from a point so deep within themselves, merely to grant me the benefit of sharing it.

This book was not written for the market. It was not written for ancillary movie rights, or to add another Big Name title for the publisher to hawk.

This book was written for you.

More than once, I had to put it down because I was crying so hard. I couldn't read one more page. I couldn't stand it anymore. But I always came back. I had to come back. Because this account is important. It's almost necessary, if one seeks a full understanding of what it is like to live in this world without a home, without hope, and without any of the environmental armaments with which we defend and protect our cushioned, comfortable lives.

Not often does a book transcend its own form to become something more than the sum total of its words. This is such a book. You will never forget Cadillac Man. If honest human blood pumps through your heart, you will find a place for Cadillac Man within those sacred chambers, and you will keep him there always, with love, and with the greatest respect and gratitude for what he has given you.

As I said, I had been forewarned, as it were, because I had already heard Tom speak about his book before I read it. But I had no idea of the impact this book would have on me. I might not have even read it, had I known how deeply it would affect me. But I'm glad I did.

Bring only what you need and no more, when this book comes to call on you. And get ready for a journey that will leave you shattered and, even more miraculously, remade.

That's what Cadillac Man offers. And that's what you will find.

Greg Smith

I enjoyed this book. Did become a little slow near then end of it though. I also wonder if Cadilac man is really homeless, but still the story was good. He even answered the email I sent him.