Squat (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: bossy lady, baby squirrel, dirty mattresses, First Avenue, Wall Street, Don Mattingly (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Field (Mercy Streets), a pastor on Manhattan's Lower East Side, sets his first novel in a homeless community just blocks from Wall Street. Characters with names like Bonehead, Unc and Ratchet sleep in abandoned buildings (or squats, thus the name), subsisting from one meal (or one drink) to the next in what Field paints believably as an almost inescapable universe worlds away from the lives of middle-class New Yorkers. The story follows 24 hours in the life of Squid, an obsessive-compulsive young man who ran away from home years ago and is now in danger of losing his life over a drug deal gone bad. He wanders the streets, begs for money, fights with friends and visits a local mission where he eventually prays a simple prayer to great dramatic effect. But he is never without fear and always on the run. While Field may know this world well, the characters he creates are not compelling enough to get readers to care very much about what happens to them. The dialogue is decent (if a few of the witnessing scenes feel improbable), but the story moves far too slowly to an unsatisfying conclusion. While this could have made a fine short story, there's not enough material for a book. (Sept.)
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Product Description

"We live in a squat. We don’t know squat. We don’t have squat. We don’t do squat. We don’t give a squat. People say we’re not worth squat."

In the shadow of Wall Street’s wealth, homeless people with names like Squid, Saw, and Bonehead live in abandoned buildings known as "squats" where life is hand to mouth, where fear and violence fester. The light in Squid’s obsessive-compulsive mind’s eye is Rachel, a loving soup kitchen missionary who tells him about faith and unfaith, hypocrisy and justice, the character of God and finding identity in Him. And in the wild twenty-four-hour passage of literary time that is Squat, Squid begins to believe that his life may actually amount to something.

Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: B&H Publishing Group (September 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805432922
• ISBN-13: 978-0805432923
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,415,860 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful story of how God works unexpectedly, August 29, 2006

By	Christina Lockstein "http://christysbookblog.... (Oconto Falls, WI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Squat by Taylor Field is the compelling story of 24 hours in the life of a homeless man. Squid lives in a squat (an abandoned tenement building) with his friend Unc. After Squid makes a bad deal with a drug dealer named Saw, he spends the next 24 hours running for his life and trying to make sense of the life he lives. Field writes almost cinematically; you can see the book unfolding like a movie in your mind. Some descriptions fall a little flat, but the dialogue (minus profanities) is realistic. As Squid searches for some safe place, the reader goes back and forth between empathy and disgust with him. The book also raises some powerful questions about what is society's responsibility to the poor, how much culpability do we have for their condition? Squid's conversation with Rachel is life-changing, and the outcome while perhaps a bit unbelievable is not out of the question. All royalties from this book go to Graffiti Community Ministries Inc.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Characters, a Good Read, November 11, 2006

By	Tim Challies (Oakville, Ontario) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"We live in a squat. We don't know squat. We don't have squat. We don't do squat. We don't give a squat. People say we're not worth squat." In the shadow of Wall Street's wealth, homeless people with names like Squid, Saw, and Bonehead live in abandoned buildings known as "squats" where life is hand to mouth, where fear and violence fester. One of these people is Squid, an obsessive compulsive young man who has escaped normal society to live among the homeless. Squat follows a 24 hour period of his life in which he deals with the boredom and terror of living on the streets, wanders, begs, fights for his life and learns who are his true friends and who are not.

Squat is Taylor Field's first novel. Field was worked since the mid 80's in New York's inner city where he pastors East Seventh Baptist Church and Graffiti Community Ministries. Working in that environment, he is clearly familiar with the people he writes about. The book has an authenticity that surely cannot be duplicated by those who have never experienced such poverty, such disillusionment. It presents a world that is worlds apart from mine.

I find that a lot of Christian novels are really not a whole lot different from other novels, just that relationships are consummated not by sex but by a Christian conversion. Many novels read like any other novel but with a thin veneer of religion forced into it. Squat does not read like this but is, in many ways, a statement about people who are driven to live on the streets, the conditions that put them there, and the conditions that keep them there. Field presents both people who are there by circumstances outside their control and people who are there by consequence of their own poor decisions. There is much for Christians to think about.

Fields crafts interesting characters and characters you'll find that you care about. While the characters are a far cry from ones I'd be likely to bump into in my life circumstances, they are intriguing and interesting. Squat was an enjoyable read and one I'd be happy to recommend to others.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Edgy Story!, October 11, 2006

By	Susan Wales "Author" (Pacific Palisades, CA) - See all my reviews

An edgy story which I personally love! A quick read, this book is wonderful . . . a story where the hopeless find hope! The author knows insides of the world. HIs characters are so well developed that you feel like they're people you'll know and they haunt you long after you've put down the book. I felt myself falling apart like Squid. Buy at least ten copies to give all your friends because this author is donating his proceeds to the homeless.