Like Shaking Hands With God

The title comes from Stringer's description of writing: 'It's a joy of discovery. I kind of would not like to know what I'm doing. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out how I was going to fill up these pages, and then, convinced that I'm not going to figure it out, bingo! something happens. It's like shaking hands with God. It's really a great payoff for the hours you sit around wondering if you can do what you're trying to do.' Stringer is contributing to four anthologies-two on homelessness, one about depression and one on racism-and writing more memoirs on his earlier life. But writing doesn't get easy: 'I still fear that I have nothing to say, but if I keep my butt in that chair long enough, I'll get somewhere, even if I don't always know where I'm going.' -USA Today Almost everyone I know is a fan of Kurt Vonnegut, and so the colorful and curmudgeonly wisdom he brings to the table here is no surprise. But who is this Lee Stringer guy? By the end, I began to think of him as a superior version of James Frey with the main difference that Mr. Stringer (1) writes well and (2) his tales about life on Skid Row are true ... Based on two conversations between two friends with a lot of respect for each other, these guys are smart, they know how to express themselves, and they've been around the block a few times. The book bills itself as 'a conversation about writing' and it is that. But it's more of a conversation about being, but a kind of being that involves writing. For a lot of avid readers, that's a perfect fit. -Essay Writing