Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
Witnessing homelessness
JOHN KENDALL HAWKINS recommends a compassionate survey of the global scourge of homelessness, and those who help them
rough sleepers
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
Rough Sleepers
Tracy Kidder, Random House, £17.27
PULITZER Prize-winning writer Tracy Kidder has a new book out, Rough Sleepers, that is timely, poignant, and depressingly true as an indictment of the fracturing values of our time.
Kidder, who won his Pulitzer for describing the symbiotic relationship between humans and computers in The Soul of a New Machine (1981), here chronicles the soul-sucking conditions of everyday people living on the streets.
As Kidder points out, “rough sleeping” is a 19th century British term to describe homelessness. That an old term is still fresh as a descriptor is the first depressing note about the book to swallow. One thinks of George Orwell’s slightly later memoir, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), which paints a picture of the tramp’s life.
More from this author
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
