The Hobo (edition 2012)

I won this through Librarything.

Bad story, bad editing, bad writing. Seemed like one massive failed attempt at shock value, I was just constantly annoyed by the whole thing. ( )

I understand what the author was trying to do with this book. I get that it was supposed to be a trip through the lives of those that are judged on a daily basis. However, the presentation left little more than the desire to further distance myself from those individuals. It was chock full of nasty experiences and descriptions that seemed to have little more purpose than shock value. Full of stereotypical imagery, the stories are exactly the kind of thing you would expect out of an inexperienced B movie director making his first documentary. Two stars for intention. The book itself receives zero. ( )

It's like the author took the most twisted shit he had experienced, or had seen, or had just plain made up and vomited it on to pieces of paper. I pray that most of what was written was made up. I hope it's just the imagined happenings of a drug addicted, alcohol addled mind. I felt like I was reading someone's diary. I think if I or someone else was going to spend money publishing this book, I'd get someone to proof-read it for me. It was an interesting story but it would have been better with tons of editing. ( )

I did not like The Hobo by Dick Murphy-Scott. I think it perpetuates stereotypes about the homeless.

Mr. Murphy-Scott is both an alcoholic and a drug addict. He assumes that all homeless are like him. I had qualms about that so I looked up the available studies on the Internet. The results about the percentage of homeless who are alcoholic or homeless are conflicting. One study said 50% of the homeless are substance abusers while another said 35 to 45% were. I have personally known two homeless people and neither one had those problems.
This story is easy to read and but gritty, full of explicit sex and violence. I did not like that there were no pauses in the story; it just went on and on.

I would not like to meet the author. In his memoir, he was consistently selfish, violent and opportunistic. It is difficult to say if he had always been that way or if his personality changed after he became a substance abuser.

On the positive side, he did relate the strategies of that homeless people use to survive. That was informative. But I got the feeling that he was saying that he was a typical homeless person and I cannot accept that. I think he represents some of them but not all.

I would not recommend this book for reading. I was very glad to finish it. I think that it would be useful for understanding substance abusers. I agree with him that giving an addict a place to live and food to eat is not enough to turn them away from their addiction, there has to be more. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. It was very raw and an eye-opener into the life of a homeless person. I would like to know more about this author, Dick Murphy-Scott. The book seems to be self published as there are many typos, which makes it a little hard to read. I was able to find a Facebook page on the author, but no information is included. The believe the story is true and it makes me feel for the characters in the book. ( )