Runaway: The Diary of a Street Kid by Evelyn Lau

Good evening everybody, guess who’s back? I finished Lau’s diary a while back but just haven’t put in the effort to get this thing done. Nothing new with me besides the fact that I’m working at an organic grocery store from a BC company called Pomme. I’m a cashier and I’ve been learning to appreciate all natural food. I strongly recommend checking it out if you live in the Tri-Cities.

 At the age of six, Evelyn Lau already knew what she wanted from life – to be a writer. Frustrated and discouraged by her parents, who forbade her to ‘waste’ valuable study time writing, Evelyn ran away at the age of fourteen. Seduced by the freedom and independence that life on the streets of Vancouver seemed to offer, she was soon trapped in a downward spiral of drug addiction and prostitution. During her two harrowing years on the street, Lau’s writing ambition never left her; almost obsessively, she kept a written record of her days on the street. This record is Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid.

Lau’s writing at the beginning of her teenage years is exceptional for somebody of her age. Her style changes from formal to poetic depending on what mood she’s in and trust me her mood swings are few and far in between. Here is a brief quote from when Lau receives a letter back from a publisher:

'The rain has left water diamonds hanging from each bare branch. Somebody else’s fingers tear open the battered manila envelope. I examine her hands curiously, the chewed painted nails. Like a drowning person my eyes beseech the blameless pages…’ (Page 142)

One of the strongest focuses in the diary is writing and Lau’s passion for it. Writing is the only stable/routine thing that she keeps consistent in her life on the streets. When she writes it is an escape and a comfort to herself. The diary improves Lau’s writing as well as helps her get through rough times.

Like Nomi in A Complicated Kindness, readers may not sympathise with Lau even though she is a troubled teen going through irregular circumstances. The reason being this: she constantly pushes people who care about her away, delves deeper into drugs and starts prostituting. Running away seems to be her only solution to the pressures of people around her.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book, it’s eerie to go driving in Vancouver and pass the streets that Evelyn once stood in her get up. It forces the thought that there are more girls out there right now just like Lau to the front of my mind. This diary has made me more aware even when enjoying myself downtown. She has quite a journey, finding herself, choosing her writing over anything else, and rooting out her deepest problems.

I’m going to give this one a 3.5 OUT OF 5. The poetic bits of writing throughout the diary were my favourite part and I thought Lau structured her life events well on paper. Smooth reading. Here is an interview of her if you’re from Canada, BC, or Vancouver and want to learn more about a local author! http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/lau.html

I’ll TTYL, I’ve got more stuff to read and write.

- MRR

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Sometimes doing novel studies in school is pretty beneficial. Now here I have a bold CANADIAN writer for my sad (and small) audience, and I have to say that I really enjoyed reading and studying this cryptic novel. Enjoy my fellow bookworms.

  The narrator of Atwood's riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bed sheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people once lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradise Project unfolded and the world came to grief.

Now here is a writer that is not afraid to challenge the path that humanity may be heading in the future. This dystopian novel is set in an apocalyptic world, with a juicy plot told through a series of flashbacks. Using a great amount of satire Atwood takes what she sees as problems in our current society, and shows what the consequences will be in the future.

There are several themes that emerge in Oryx and Crake; for example the constant battle between the importance of arts and sciences. In Atwood’s world the humanities and the tantalizing power of believing in the unknown has disappeared. She reflects on sustainable resources, the growing gap between the rich and poor, as well as what living in a world ruled by corporations would be like.

All of the parallels between this fiction world and ours effectively proves Atwood’s point that there needs to be change. Even though the novel is an interpretative fiction,  the beautifully dark story holds you right from the beginning.

5 OUT OF 5 for this one. This is the first book in a trilogy. http://www.margaretatwood.ca/ I will get to reading the second one `Year Of The Flood`when I can.

Next is a story about a man who loved books too much!

MMR - out