“All God’s Children”
As promised, here’s my review of…
All God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families
by Rene Denfeld
Fascinating book about Street Families living in Portland. Street Families are basically gangs formed by homeless and disaffected youth that center around a male and female leader (known as the “street father” and “street mother”). Most of the kids are homeless youth, but some of them are kids who have homes to go back to, but who decide to live on the streets because it’s much more exciting than living at home. These kids live for The Dramas – basically, hunting down and punishing kids who disobey any of the rules and regulations of the families. Sometimes the kids don’t even have to disobey the rules to be a target: if someone doesn’t like them for whatever reason they can just say that they broke a rule and that’s enough to get the bored family members fired up for retaliation. And to call these kids merciless is an understatement. Torture, murder, relentless cruelty, whatever it takes to earn “street cred” is fine by them. By the end of this book, I was longing for the simplier days of runaway teenage junkie prostitutes like Christiane F. And I don’t think I’ll ever view Portland the same again… or, actually, any street kids at all. (4/5)
