Snow Bodies: One Woman's Life on the Streets

By Elizabeth Hudson

From her own harrowing experience Hudson graphically renders the deadly underbelly of society and her descent into the abyss of drug addiction and prostitution#46; In direct prose#44; without fear#44; shame or explanation#44; and without imposing hindsight or societal values onto her narrative#44; Hudson takes the reader with her on a terrifying journey to the bottom#46; Snow Bodies is a heartbreaking reminder of the horrors occurring daily on Canadars"s city streets#46;

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 189630074X
• ISBN13: 9781896300740
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: NeWest Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

POWERFUL MEMOIR OF ADDICTION AND LIFE ON THE STREETS

A "snow body" is the term used by American pimps to describe Canadian prostitutes. In Elizabeth Hudson's agonizingly gripping memoir we follow her life as a prostitute and heroin addict on the streets of Calgary and Vancouver in the early 1970's. This gritty, violent and heartbreaking story is told using the street language of the time and with a large cast of addicts, prostitutes and dealers who flow in and out of Beth's life as she struggles to get her next fix and ultimately get clean. The story begins with Beth already addicted to heroin, I personally would have liked to know how Beth got there but throughout we are never really given a clear look into her family or childhood. From my own deductions it seems that Beth was from a wealthy family and simply rebelled, becoming a hippie child who slowly graduates up the ladder of drug use, ultimately finding love with her `old man' Peter and heroin. When Peter gets busted and jailed for robbery Beth's straight laced parents wash their hands of her forcing Beth to support herself and an ever increasing drug habit. She takes to the streets, hooking up with many different women along the way; each teaches her something about how to survive living the life of a junkie. She learns how to steal, how to run a sometimes successful con, turn a trick, and most importantly, to never trust anyone. Beth's street friends come and go ripping her off and beating her up as often as they show companionship. We witness Beth get tough and skinny as she rapidly ages, moving between Vancouver's east side and Calgary's downtown, always trying to find something or get away from someone. Eventually Beth lands in the hospital and for a time goes straight, living on a farm and using methadone. However with no resources, job skills or sober friends it isn't long before Beth is back living in the only world she knows, falling harder and faster this time as her friends disappear along with her sanity in the search for that next high. Although this is a tragic story of pain and suffering it is also one of strength, courage and the determination to escape the hopeless cycle of addiction.

On Women's Survival on the Mean Streets

This is the Powerful true life memoirs of Elizabeth Hudson, a drug addicted heroin addict who turned to prostitution on the Mean Streets of Calgary and Vancouver in the early seventies to support her drug habit. We only have to look at what has been happening in Vancouver's downtown eastside with the disappearances and murders of 69 women in the sex trade to know that violence against women has increased dramatically. This is Beth's journey through those mean streets of addiction and prostituion. It is a one of kind book that actually details the minute to minute, day to day life of a drug addicted prositute who in the end triumps over adversity through the strength of her human spirit. Beth's openness and honesty dealing with such a taboo subject is refreshing and this book Snow Bodies is a must read for anyone wanting to understand life on the streets. Elizabeth Hudson has survived life on these means streets, to go on to live a constructive and meaningful life, so many women do not.Snow Bodies-Elizabeth Hudson attended Mount Royal College where she was awarded the Lorraine Hill Award and the George Kirby Scholarship. Her poems have been published in Tower Poetry, Other Voices, Pottersfield Portfolio and Amethyst Review. She has also written articles published in Macleans. Hudson's two sons have both graduated from university, and now she lives in the deep suburbs of Calgary with her husband, three dogs and a cat.