Reality Can Be Stranger Than Fantasy: Georgia Saunders

Literary fiction is a genre fighting for attention as the current popularity of fantasy draws us away from reality.  Perhaps reality has become too tough to spend any more time in than we must.  Dragons, fairies, vampires and dungeons, magic spells and broom sticks excite the imagination and give us a break from the humdrum world of .9 to 5.
 
     Yet sometimes reality can be stranger than fantasy, especially when that reality belongs to a group of people right in our midst whose experience we know little about.  Like a trip to another planet, or a parallel universe, seeing our world through the eyes of the homeless who struggle for survival all around us can immerse us in an alternate reality all the more astounding because it is not a fantasy at all, but an all too real horror.

     What happens when a middle class American woman falls into homelessness through no fault of her own?  How is she treated out in the streets and what does she do to survive in the new environment?  Or maybe better to ask, “What won’t she do?”  This is the story that Home Street Home – The Virginia Beach Chronicles brings to readers.  Written by yours truly during my three years of homelessness, verified by the homeless community for its authenticity, extolled in the Virginian-Pilot as an accurate depiction of life in the streets of Virginia Beach, this timely and thought-provoking novel will leave you wondering if it could happen to you or to those you love.  

     Just tonight I attended a meet and greet held for me by some of my fans.  One lady told me about the dream she’d had after reading the part where the heroine, Ella, sleeps on the steps of a church, covered against the rain in a tarp and is awakened by the sound of a fight in progress.  In that dream, this fan found herself sleeping on those steps covered in that heavy smothering tarp, and waking up to a fierce knife fight between two homeless men.  A bad dream?  Certainly.  But this fan insisted the quality of the writing had caused her to experience this virtual reality so vividly.  

     I guess it’s something you’d have to judge for yourself.  But if the vampires and magicians ever lose their thrill for you, maybe a little virtual reality conjured up with the magic of literary fiction could take their place.  Give it a try.  I’ll be waiting for you over at http://homestreethome.yolasite.com where you can click through to purchase a print copy of Home Street Home – The Virginia Beach Chronicles from an Amazon subsidiary.  Of course, it is also available on Amazon.  Or visit my blog where I’m offering a free signed print copy every month for the rest of the year to one fan who follows the easy entry instructions.  http://steepedinbooks.blogspot.com

Until then…pleasant dreams.