#19: Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn

This was another one of those books I’d had lying around the house for approximately a year, just waiting to be picked up. I’m glad I finaly did, not only because I looked edgy when reading it, but because I found the memoir aspect was quite accesible and relevant. (Side note: Considering I try to buy store brand products when possible and watch Wheel of Fortune when I remember it’s on, “edgy” isn’t something I’m called on a regular basis.) The author of the book writes his first hand account of what it was like to work for several years in a south Boston homeless shelter, only to have the father he never knew walk in one day as a guest. It makes issues of homelessness, mental health, family ties, and access to care appear as a system of ongoing and converging problems. Each of these help to make up a single person in need and to read about it from someone who has lived this senario makes one realize just how easily life can shift. The writing here is creative, without compromise, which makes Flynn’s life seem more his own.

Picture above provided by Ryan, photog extrodinaire.