Brianna Karp

The title of this book intrigued me, but it is not really a "guide" to homelessness. It does, however, provide a deeper understanding of how people can come to be homeless, and why we shouldn't expect homeless people to give up cell phones, laptops and pets. The author does provide a voice for the homeless.

The book is billed as a memoir. And Ms, Karp has had a difficult, and therefore fascinating, life. She was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, and was abused physically, emotionally and sexually. She lost her job in the 2008 recession and found herself homeless, living in a trailer in a Walmart parking lot. Most of the book revolves around her relationship with Matt Barnes, a homeless advocate in Scotland whom she met on-line. I found parts of her story hard to believe, but then I'm old enough to be her mother and I guess I can't expect her to make good choices all the time. But her reaction to her miscarriage, her unflinching faith in Matt, the strangers who did so much for her....really? Not sure I buy it all, but it was an entertaining story and I gained some perspective into homelessness.… (mer)

This book was not at all what I expected. While there were occasional tips for surviving homelessness, it felt more like a memoir. Halfway through the book, I was actually starting to feel kind of mad, due to the fact that it seemed to be more about Brianna's budding relationship with Matt than anything else. It was almost as if the homeless aspect was a side note. Plus, I saw what a jerk Matt was, pretty quickly. I mean, here she is, living in a travel trailer, struggling to survive, washing up in gas stations, living in a Wal-mart parking lot, and it is SHE that was paying HIS way. From what I can tell, he never really paid for much of anything. He had a paid for by the government flat where he lived, and yet she was the one scraping by to pay to fly him back and forth. The whole surprise trip to see him on Christmas Eve and what happened when she showed up immediately made me think he was scamming and playing her. I was curious about this wonderful great site that he had created, so halfway through the book I tried googling it. Apparently it no longer exists, and by the end of the book, I found out why. He wasn't even paying for that. However, Brianna seems to have attempted to continue helping the homeless community, but even her blog is way behind, the last update posted October 2012. It's almost as if all of these people made headlines, got their 5 minutes of fame and now POOF! They are all gone. Her last Twitter update was Nov. 2012 and her last FB share was in Oct. 2012. For those genuinely interested in the homeless and how to help, I'd recommend the homeless guy. http://thehomelessguy.blogspot.com/

I'm wondering how much of Brianna's story was exaggerated. Like I said, the book reads more like a memoir, bringing us up to date on all the horrific abuses she suffered growing up... and how she ended up homeless. I think throughout the entire book there was only a smattering of useful tips on surviving homelessness, and only one blog entry shared from her blog. I think I enjoyed the book Baghdad Burning and Baghdad Burning II, based on the blog at http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ more. Even though the authenticity is questionable, it felt more real than tGGtH did.

I did rate tGGtH three stars, simply because it was entertaining. It just wasn't what I expected.… (mer)