A review by adam_mcphee
The Beggar's Garden by Michael Christie

5.0

Excellent short stories featuring believable people from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. My favourite was the manically paced Goodbye Porkpie Hat, about a crack addict who receives an unlikely visit from nuclear scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is interested in procuring some crack for himself. Christie excels at writing the down and out as well as the mentally unhinged. King Me is what Shutter Island should have been and Discard is a heartbreakingly sad story about a grandfather trying to help his homeless grandson.

There's only one dud in nine stories, titled The Queen of Cans and Jars. Though An Ideal Companion gets kind of sappy. The stories about working and middle class people just don't hold up to the stories that feature homelessness or mental instability.