Squat

by Taylor Field

"We live in a squat. We don’t know squat. We don’t have squat. We don’t do squat. We don’t give a squat. People say we’re not worth squat." In the shadow of Wall Street’s wealth, homeless people with names like Squid, Saw, and Bonehead live in abandoned buildings known as "squats" where life is hand to mouth, where fear and violence fester. The light in Squid’s obsessive-compulsive mind’s eye is Rachel, a loving soup kitchen missionary who tells him about faith and unfaith, hypocrisy and justice, the character of God and finding identity in Him. And in the wild twenty-four-hour passage of literary time that is Squat, Squid begins to believe that his life may actually amount to something.

235 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Brittney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. I was homeless years ago and the depiction of the characters was close to it. I absolutely adore Squid!

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because of NYC elective class. Yes NYC class. Although i dislike the class because of many reasons i found that this guess speaker is really interesting. "Dr. Field" was what we called him. His work has inspired him to write about New York City. He told us, ever since he was little he always wanted to live in New York City. He told the class a story about how someone came up to him asking if he knew where drugs are sold. A second later a needle falls from the sky (a building) and he was inspired to write about this. Squat are abandon buildings that are seen in the 80's and not now. These abandon buildings are places where the homeless take shelter and where no electricity, water, or heat is present. Sometimes even stairs are broken etc. I find this book to be a good book and i recommend it to anyone who's interesting in the history of New York City.

[Michael Malone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for anything set on the old Lower East Side, but this one suffered from substandard writing, including wooden dialogue, and a main character that gave me little reason to root for him, other than being down on his luck. Surprised and disappointed to see how little Alphabet City detail was in the novel, even though all of it takes place in and around pre-riot Tompkins Square Park.
I actually liked the homeless sage Unc, who spews Shakespeare and Dante while getting hammered each day, but the rest of the characters seemed one or two dimensional.
Protagonist Squid's obsessive-compulsive disorder is depicted, yet never used in any way to further the story or enhance the tension.
Notably, the book was written by a pastor at a Lower East Side church, which may explain why it at times reads and feels like a troubled-boy-finds-God comic book given out at Sunday School.

[Roberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got the book from Pastor Field when he visited my NYC Elective Class. I read the book and enjoyed the character and their view on life and their experiences.
My favorite character is Unc, who is a homeless philosopher that drinks and reads works of poetry. His view point is sad, but realistic.
Wonderful book and the map in the beginning of the book really helped me picture the setting.

[Carol Lowe]

This was a difficult read, just because it was so true to life regarding how squatters live in NYC. The main character does NOT die, but right up to the very end, you're not sure of that.