The Homeless of "Ironweed" is both a meditation on Kennedy's remarkable novel and a literary and cultural analysis. Benedict Giamo's explorations of the social conditions, cultural meanings, and literary representations of classic and contemporary homelessness in America and abroad inform his understanding of the literary merit and social resonance of Ironweed. Throughout Giamo remains grounded in a close reading of the novel. He moves with great relevance from Dante to Kenneth Burke, from Sartre to Robert Jay Lifton, to locate meaning and value in the lives of Kennedy's characters; by extension, with intelligence and compassion, he regards the lives of the homeless who wander through our streets and shefters today.

The beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, basis of the film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Francis Phelan, ex-big-leaguer, part-time gravedigger, full-time bum with the gift of gab, is back in town. He left Albany twenty-two years earlier after he dropped his infant son accidentally, and the boy died. Now he's on the way back to the wife and home he abandoned, haunted at every corner by the ghosts of his violent life. Francis; his wino ladyfriend of nine years, Helen; and his stumblebum pal, Rudy, shuffle their ragtag way through the city's bleakest streets, surviving on gumption, muscatel, and black wit. estiny is not their business. 'The premise of Ironweed was so unpromising, that in marketing terms the writer still to this day finds it funny: the story of a bunch of itinerant alcoholics, knocking around Kennedy's hometown, falling out, having visions, trying to pass for sober to cadge a bed for the night in the homeless shelter.' Guardian 'But for all the rich variety of prose and event, from hallucination to bedrock realism to slapstick and to blessed quotidian peace, ''Ironweed'' is more austere than its predecessors. It is more fierce, but also more forgiving.' Quoted from the classic New York Times review of Ironweed, which made it an overnight sensation.

A readerʼs guide is provided to assist readers in locating entries on related topics. It classifies entries into 14 general categories: Causes, Cities, Demography and Characteristics, Health issues, History, Housing, Legal issues, Advocacy and policy, Lifestyle issues, Organizations, Perceptions of homelessness, Populations, Research, Service systems and settings, World perspectives and issues.

Offers a sympathetic yet critical look at the life of homeless advocate David Owen, who was tortured and killed in 2006 by those he intended to help.

Looks at the nineteenth-century convergence of a new kind of excessive, habitual drinking, and a new way of thinking about the self, which we came to label ‘existential’.

Thinking Home challenges and extends the existing scholarship on the subject of ‘home’ in a period which has seen unprecedented levels of movement cross the globe. Sanja Bahun and Bojana Petric have collated essays that revisit existing ideas to introduce new ways of thinking on home, from the individual and local, through communal, to the international levels. While home informs our feelings of belonging and displacement, and our activities, such as migration, housing, and language learning, Bahun, Petric and contributors look to specific under-studied areas and encompass them within a major framework that allows for assessment through multiple disciplinary and expressive lenses. Thinking Home examines examples such as temporary homes, homes on the road, new and emergent modes of home-making, and minority groups in home and housing debates. Fresh, timely and topical, Thinking Home is rooted in activism and policy-making in the sector of 'home'; the essays both challenge and extend the existing scholarship on this subject. This collection combines perspectives of aesthetics, anthropology, cultural and literary studies, law, linguistics, philosophy, sociology, psychoanalysis, political science and activist responses in one whole. It will be essential reading for students of anthropology, literary studies, cultural studies and philosophy.

In the U.S., the homeless have traveled from the freight train to the shelter. Skid row was an extended stop along the way. Giamo reveals his encounter with the city and old Bowery of the 1970s. He simply followed the drift of homelessness. When it led him to the Bowery, the historic skid row, he dropped down to what had been, and still was at that time, the netherworld of New York City. Striving to attain authenticity, the author and his collaborator immersed themselves in the usual activities of the area and befriended the residents. As a result, they were enlightened about the lifestyle and meaning of skid row homelessness. Notes from the Bowery combines the personal essay, literary nonfiction, and cultural history to represent the significance of American life in the city and on the skids. Engaging, insightful, and deeply felt, Notes from the Bowery will give readers an enriching experience as they accompany the author on a journey of descent and discovery. For more information on this book, log on to www.Xlibris.com.