so much better than expected

books:


	• Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir Janice Erlbaum Villard, 2007 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Loved it!

Taken through the teenage life of the author in the 1980's Regan-era it was interesting to read what it was like to live in a homeless shelter during that time - especially since being homeless was just coming into the public eye as a real problem in America.

Janice writes a thought-provoking reads-as-a-novel memoir that will leave you wanting more.

Donna

second one first

I'm kind of glad that I read Janice Erlbaum's second memoir, Have You Found Her, first. It allowed me to read her first one and not have to worry too much that she got seriously hurt. Or went crazy, which is what I think I would have done in her circumstances. Instead, Erlbaum left home, and turned to drugs and sex as a teenager, and she relates her experiences with both with a candor that is unapologetic at the same time it is tinged with regret.

Erlbaum's problems at this time of her life seem to stem from a combination of poor parenting and poor decision-making. Unfortunately, neither the shelter nor the group home into which she is placed seem well-equipped to really help her with either of those problems. It almost seems as though by leaving home she's gone from the frying pan into the fire. It all catches up with her at the end, though, and at the close of this memoir we begin to see the more mature woman that we got to know in her second memoir. I hope she writes a third so that we can continue to share her story.

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so much better than expected

It took me a while to get around to reading this, but when I finally picked it up, I was captivated. Erlbaum is a wonderful writer, she's sarcastic and amusing, which is the best way to write this sort of depressing material. She paints detailed pictures of all the people around her, from the various characters at her group home to the complicated dynamics between her and her two best friends, and of New York at that time for a messed-up group of teens - that is, drugs (she gets addicted to cocaine and manages to quit). She also makes herself into a sympathetic character; I was so depressed while I was reading this, and that only happens with characters I care about.

So to sum up: great writing, great story, great book. Definitely recomended.

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Girl Bomb

Up until page 100 I found the book very slow.. But once you make it past page 100 it gets pretty good!!! With love triangles and overcoming family dynamics!

A hard won story...

I'm reading more biographies & memoirs than I ever used to - and with each one - I feel more and more odd writing a review. What exactly am I reviewing? The author's life or how s/he sees their life - or simply the writing style? It's not like I can comment on the plot or the characters...they are what they are.

Which, of course, does not stop me from reading about people's lives... I think I am at a point in my life where fact is becoming far more interesting (and yes, stranger) than fiction.

So then - to a truncated and rather unsure review: I spent most of the book yelling at Erlbaum in my head, because as the mother of a young girl, I didn't want her to make the choices she was making. (This yelling was muffled by the fact that I've read Erlbaum's follow up book, "Have You Found Her?" and know what comes next for the author.)

Then again, I certainly can't blame her for her choices...she was in a terrible situation at home, and given the fighting and violence that surrounded her, who's to say running away wasn't the best thing she could have done.

There are parts, too, where I wanted to be standing next to her, agreeing with the craziness of the situation. At 15, Erlbaum was constantly being blamed by her mother and later, social workers, for not fixing situations that were clearly not of her own making.

When Erlbaum is told that her mother is pregnant with her abusive ex-boyfriend's child, she listens in shock as her mother tells her, "The fact is that Dave and I are going to have a baby and we are going to try and be a family." She sounded like she was speaking from notes. "Now we've talked about getting couples therapy, and that's definitely something we're going to think about. But for right now, I want you to pitch in a little more and help us all get along better."

This coming from a mother who's already worked out with her daughter when it's OK to call the cops in the middle of a fight and when it's not. Charming. Who's the adult there?

Again and again, Erlbaum is forced to decide whether or not her mother can be trusted, if THIS TIME things will be different. Her thoughts at times like these are such a heart-rending mix of scared little girl and world-weary adult.

"I could not possibly be falling for this again. I was like Charlie Brown and the football. Like a duckling who could never be retrained, I would waddle straight off a cliff, following her. She threw away your clothes when you left home, it said on my index card. She told Poulos you were insane. She's done this to you eight hundred times already."

So I feel a great deal of empathy for her...but because I come from a different life than hers, I can't get my mind around the HUGE amount of drugs she does. I just shake my head as the pot turns into cocaine, that turns into PCP, that turns into Ecstasy.... Again, I didn't have the life she did, I didn't grow up in New York, live in a shelter... I guess at the end of the day, I can just hang on for the ride, and be grateful it was her life and not mine...and be glad that I know she became a stronger person for living through what she did.

I guess the only other thing I can say is that I never really found out, in either of Janice Erlbaum's books, what finally made her stronger. What made her give up the REALLY bad drugs and what finally made her stop smoking pot...and what gave her the strength to make better choices? I feel like I know where she came from and where she ended up (at least as of now)...but I'm missing something in the middle. I know the What and the How...but not the why.

But - who's to say that's any of my business. It's not my life, after all...

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

At fifteen, sick of her unbearable and increasingly dangerous home life, Janice Erlbaum walked out of her family?s Brooklyn apartment and didn?t look back. From her first frightening night at a shelter, Janice knew she was in over her head. She was beaten up, shaken down, and nearly stabbed by a pregnant girl. But it was still better than living at home. As Janice slipped further into street life, she nevertheless attended high school, harbored crushes, and even played the lead in the spring musical. She also roamed the streets, clubs, bars, and parks of New York City with her two best girlfriends, on the prowl for hard drugs and boys on skateboards. Together they scored coke at Danceteria, smoked angel dust in East Village squats, commiserated over their crazy mothers, and slept with one another?s boyfriends on a regular basis.

A wry, mesmerizing portrait of being underprivileged, underage, and underdressed in 1980s New York City, Girlbomb provides an unflinching look at street life, survival sex, female friendships, and first loves.

?A fast and engrossing read in the spirit of Girl, Interrupted.?
?Entertainment Weekly

?Gripping . . . a wry, compelling memoir of what it means to stand up for yourself, especially when no one else will.?
?Bust

?How satisfying to watch Erlbaum survive adolescence and produce a smart, engaging book.?
?The New York Times Book Review

?Erlbaum?s survival is hard-won, the journey rendered with page-turning intensity.?
?New York Post

?A fast and engrossing read in the spirit of Girl, Interrupted.?
?Entertainment Weekly

?Gritty . . . perversely riveting. You want her to survive.?
?The Washington Post Book World

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