jcgmoi
July 11, 2001, 3:24pm
1
Published in the past 5 years I believe, about a homeless gay guy who hitches from Austin to California and back. Funny, well-written, if a little repetitious, and well-received. Contains some valuable tips on dumpster diving. Any info on author or title would be appreciated.
Shayna
July 11, 2001, 3:47pm
2
Sounds like you’re talking about Travels with Lizbeth By Lars Eighner
From: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/eighner-lizbeth.html
“Travels With Lizbeth” is a modern autobiography of a supertramp. For Lars Eighner, homelessness was until very recently a full-time job, as it was for Davies, and this book takes us into the profound depths of that other country that lies all around us on the streets. In lavish, patient detail, it re-creates the grammar, point of view and domestic economy of the unhoused life, and if there’s any justice in the world it should guarantee its author a roof over his head for the rest of his days.
IN the mid-1980’s, Mr. Eighner, who had no college degree, was working as an attendant at what he calls “the state lunatic asylum” in Austin, Tex., when he quarreled with his supervisor and lost his job. Passing effortlessly through the wide mesh of the welfare system, he was soon evicted from his rented shack. With his dog, Lizbeth, he camped out on the floors of friends’ apartments, and when his welcome ran out he slept in parks and on roadsides, foraging for food in Dumpsters. For three years he zigzagged between Austin and Los Angeles; a fat, fortyish hitchhiker in badly torn jeans with a dog, for whom few of us would have stopped on the hard shoulder. This wasn’t Robert Louis Stevenson with his donkey or John Steinbeck with Charley: Mr. Eighner and Lizbeth’s “travels” restore the word to its roots in travail and trepalium, the triple-staked torture of the Inquisition.
Jeg elsker dig, Thomas
jcgmoi
July 11, 2001, 6:57pm
3
That’s it Shayna. Thanks, you’re the best.
Shayna
July 11, 2001, 7:32pm
4
You’re very welcome, jcgmoi . I usually don’t have the knowledge base to answer most of the questions posed in this forum, so when I can help, I’m happy to oblige.
Jeg elsker dig, Thomas
