Shakedown Street

by Jonathan Nasaw

Shakedown Street...it's not a place, it's a state of mind. That's why fourteen-year old Caro decides that no matter what, she'll survive by panhandling and picking trash, while her mother scrounges every cent from a nowhere job so she can get them a Place to live.

There are good people living on the dangerous streets -- Rass, Rudy, and Wharf Rat -- who teach Caro how to make it in a world where most people don't care about the homeless. Caro and Momma feel lucky when Rudy finds an abandoned house in Berkeley to use as a squat. Soon the place will be torn down, so the two are in a race to find a real home, the home Caro's been dreaming of. But dreams never got anyone off Shakedown Street. Caro and Momma need luck, and they need cash, fast.

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Jonathan Nasaw is the acclaimed author of Fear Itself and The Girls He Adored, both Literary Guild Selections. He lives in Pacific Grove, California.

Series:
* E.L. Pender
* James Whistler

Reviews

[Liz Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been trying to remember the name of this book for the longest time. This is a great not very well-known book. It's written beautifully.

[Benjamin Brasford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A journalist is always good at writings stories. If they are a good journalist. For Kwitny to write his other works the way that he did, you would never guess that he could write such an engaging and not overly detailed novel. A novel that has a story about an Uber crook with ties to the North and South, yet dies and what he had stolen was found in one of the most unlikely places. Be careful what you do to those close to you. They may put up with it for a long time. But one thing that I have learned about human beings is the possibility of retaliation. And sometimes that retaliation comes in forms that you cannot bounce back from.