In Plain Sight: DTES Required Reading

So every time Lexy walks through the Hastings and Main intersection, she sees all these... people down there. People who don't seem much like the people she went to school with, or who she's even met before. Who are these characters? Are they dealers? Are they addicted to lord knows what? Is that one there a prostitute? Lexy can't imagine that she herself could ever call those sidewalks her home, so how did it happen to the women she sees down there?

In Plain Sight: Reflections on Life in Downtown Eastside Vancouver lets seven women from the DTES tell their stories of how they came to live and be in Canada's most controversial neighbourhood.

Published last year, this book gains even more pressing relevance in light of the whole Pickton extravaganza. As 'Dee' stated, "I am letting go of the prostitution, I'm just too afraid out there. It's really freaked me out that girls are still going missing. It's pretty awful when you're shaking or you're trembling because you don't know, Is this going to be the one that kills you?" Scary? You bet.

The book came out of The Health and Home research project in 1999. "We were interviewing women and talking to women about the relationship between health and housing for women in the Downtown Eastside, and as we moved into that project and got to know some of the women, they talked often about wanting to publish their stories," editor Dara Culhane explained to CBC.

So as far as spin goes: you get none. These seven women offer up their stories in their gritty entireties, with no consideration of the sound bite. Candidly told stories of addiction, abusive johns, abusive relationships, riches to rags stories, good friends, bad friends, good cops, bad cops, relentless poverty, all of which underline a social support system which has some surprising successes, and some miserable failures.

This award-winning book will certainly challenge some stereotypes, and may equally reinforce others. It's definitely refreshing to read a book that's more about telling the whole story, and not just trying to sway your opinion.

These stories are sharp enough as it is. Though it's often difficult to read about the trials of abuse and addiction, these women are equally cutting in their self-accountability. And each one shares a clarity of the past and an optimism for a personal future which somehow seems... realistic. These stories can undoubtedly increase empathy and understanding of the pressures and hard times people are facing (as it has for me, and hey, I've been working with DTES'ers for almost 2 years now), but it will also further estrange some readers who just can't get into that POV. Well, how will you know unless you check it out.

Note: nowhere in this posting did I even mention the Olympics!

In Plain Sight: Reflections on Life in Downtown Eastside Vancouver
Available at the library, Chapters, and other much better bookstores.