Runaway: Diary Of A Street Kid

by Evelyn Lau

Book Overview

Bright and talented, but at odds with her parents, 14-year-old Evelyn Lau ran away to spend the next two years submerged in drugs, prostitution and despair on the streets of Vancouver. The journals... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0006485871
• ISBN13: 9780006485872
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.5" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

The New Ann Frank

Once you start this book, Evelyn becomes you. I had to just keep reading and reading...to finish it, desperate for a happy ending. It is the TRUE diary of a young girl - dabbling in prositution, drugs, therapy and homelessness. This book offers great insight in to the mind of a adolesent, and reminds one of a not so distant past of battling the same demons. Evelyn's world view is set to critique all that crosses her path...including our correctional services, family services, and basic social acceptability. Pretty smart for a 15 year old. Many wonderful thoughts, feelings and ideas can be gained from reading this book. I would recommend this book as required reading for youths who typically DON'T read. Its a great starting point and is sure to capture their attention. But nonetheless...a great story that in the end, any reader feels privilaged to have been on the journey.

A Moving Runaway Story From An Exceptional Person

I felt, very, very moved by Runaway. It is a typical runaway story, but what is not typical was that the author is gifted with a great intelligence and writing ability. Evelyn wanted to be a writer from age six, and she started getting published at age twelve. Her very neurotic mother was murdering her emotionally, so at age fourteen, she ran away from home. She went into the expected downward spiral into prostitution and drugs addiction. But Evelyn kept a journal through the two years she was on the street, and the process of journaling was a major factor in her survival. As a minor she was under the care of government social services, which included outpatient psychiatric care. In her journal, besides all the explicit details of drugs, prostitution, and life on the street, she works through the whole therapeautic process. As drama it is very compelling. As we observe her trying to change her situation, one starts to view her as a hero rather than a victim. It becomes like a movie where we are in anxious suspense to see how the hero gets out of each predicament. We cheer her successes and wince in frustration and disappointment every time she returns to drugs or turning tricks. Her psychiatrists were magnificent. Someone studying to be a therapist could use this book as a case study in runaways, drugs, child prostitution and how a patient responds to therapy. I particularly liked her inner dialogues. She will surface one set of emotions, then surface other conflicting emotions and wrestle them to the ground. Once she gets something resolved, it?s on to the next set of emotions. She works all this out in her therapy session and in her journal. I must say that as the father of two children I have had a more poignant reaction to this book. Throughout her book, I kept feeling a profound, ?My God, she?s only a child!? The book is a very moral book in that it shows the enormous damage that occurs to child prostitutes, not to mention drug addicts and runaways. Since the book was published, Evelyn Lau has been pideon-holed somewhat as a Chinese-Candian or Women?s issues writer. These kinds of politically correct labels have little added value. I find them limiting not liberating. Her material to be about being a human being and a victim.

A Moving Runaway Story From An Exceptional Person

I felt, very, very moved by Runaway. It is a typical runaway story, but what is not typical was that the author is gifted with a great intelligence and writing ability. Evelyn wanted to be a writer from age six, and she started getting published at age twelve. Her very neurotic mother was murdering her emotionally, so at age fourteen, she ran away from home. She went into the expected downward spiral into prostitution and drugs addiction. But Evelyn kept a journal through the two years she was on the street, and the process of journaling was a major factor in her survival. As a minor she was under the care of government social services, which included outpatient psychiatric care. In her journal, besides all the explicit details of drugs, prostitution, and life on the street, she works through the whole therapeautic process. As drama it is very compelling. As we observe her trying to change her situation, one starts to view her as a hero rather than a victim. It becomes like a movie where we are in anxious suspense to see how the hero gets out of each predicament. We cheer her successes and wince in frustration and disappointment every time she returns to drugs or turning tricks. Her psychiatrists were magnificent. Someone studying to be a therapist could use this book as a case study in runaways, drugs, child prostitution and how a patient responds to therapy. I particularly liked her inner dialogues. She will surface one set of emotions, then surface other conflicting emotions and wrestle them to the ground. Once she gets something resolved, it's on to the next set of emotions. She works all this out in her therapy session and in her journal. I must say that as the father of two children I have had a more poignant reaction to this book. Throughout her book, I kept feeling a profound, "My God, she's only a child!" The book is a very moral book in that it shows the enormous damage that occurs to child prostitutes, not to mention drug addicts and runaways. Since the book was published, Evelyn Lau has been pideon-holed somewhat as a Chinese-Candian or Women's issues writer. These kinds of politically correct labels have little added value. I find them limiting not liberating. Her material to be about being a human being and a victim.

Sad and true

First of all, I'm horrified to see what some of the other people put in here about Runaway. I have the utmost admiration for Evelyn Lau because she had to struggle to get out of hooking and drug use. This book is very depressing but it's a reflect of a real human being's experiences, not a fictional chracter. As a non-white person growing up in Canada, I can understand the pressures that she had to conform to the society around her while trying to balance the messages that she got from home. There are no role models for people like us and there's often no one to talk to who can truly understand what it's like to be a visible minority, unless they have gone through the experience themselves. I think that's changing now, but that support wasn't available for minorities growing up in the 70s, 80s and early 90s.There are very few exceptional people in this world and I think that Evelyn Lau is one of those people. She had to make her own values and create her own niche for herself and made a lot of mistakes doing it. But, she wasn't afraid to tell the world about them and help others learn from her mistakes.

Heartbreaking

This is a story of a brilliant girl who trapped who herself in one of the worst strata of society there is. She writes from the heart and she strikes deep. I thought about this book for months. It touched me deeply. I only hope the author has come out of the other side of it and is at peace with herself and achieves her goals. It seems these other reviewers were just unable to fathom what this woman went through. I mean no criticism, the thought of being in this girl's shoes is a hard to face. A deeply moving statement of the human condition.