What the Critics are Saying about Surviving on the Streets, by Ace Backwords
Originally published 2002_11_02
“I highly recommend it. It’s the best book I’ve read since Dave Egger’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.”
— San Francisco Herald
“Another garishly laid-out but priceless book from Loompanics. You’ll never look at the homeless the same way again.”
— VICE magazine
“Surviving on the Streets is so entertaining and interesting that it ought to be a big success and be re-printed by a major publisher and bring you some money, finally, but it probably won’t. Only an ‘outsider’ publisher such as Loompanics would touch such a book, and I’m sure you know why: the race issue. I give you a lot of credit for dealing with this extremely volatile and tragic situation in such a head-on manner… It is well-written and full of humorous observations.”
— R. Crumb
“The reader will get a glimpse into a fascinating modern subculture that effects everyone in urban America.”
— Berkeley Voice
“This book should be in every homeless shelter.”
— Alternative Press Review
“The book is a Dostoyevskian gallery of the loathsome, the dysfunctional, the damaged, and, yes, the lazy. Backwords repeatedly offers accounts of street characters so foul it makes the skin crawl. The result is a painfully sober biography and a handy guidebook for those who have just dropped out of regular society.”
— The Seattle Stranger
“Although you might expect a 200-page book written by a homeless person to be a hodge podge of incomprehensible rants, the authors’ words are remarkably clear-headed and sane — in spite of having taken hundreds of LSD trips that he now regrets. Ace is an entertaining storyteller, especially when he’s talking about the street urchins and oddball characters he’s met. He manages to weave a lot of wisdom and useful information into every page with his colorful style.”
— The Spectator
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