One Woman’s Fight to Rejoin the Middle Class
by Rick Newman
May 24, 2011
A few months after losing her administrative job in the summer of 2008, 23-year-old Brianna Karp got rid of her furniture, a beloved piano, and most of her books so she could move back in with her parents. When that didn’t work out, she moved into an old trailer a relative had left her, settling into an informal homeless community in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Brea, Calif. By the summer of 2009, she was living without electricity, regular showers, home-cooked food, and most basic conveniences. …” [read full story here]
Brianna Karp, whose fight to rejoin the middle class includes taking care of the necessities -- like expensive leather jackets, fancy scarves & hair-dying
Well, may I please have something with which to wipe away the tears?
First of all, it’s tempting to say that her plight is merely karmic punishment for dying her hair an egregiously unnatural color. Little wonder her own parents kicked her to the curb.
But on a more serious note: when asked what she misses the most, she relied: “Playing with my dog in the back yard. … He’s a Neopolitan mastiff. He’s really big.” So, as our finances were going down the toilet, we were indulging in an unnecessarily over-sized (speaking of unnatural) mutt that eats more than your average family in India and could eat any number of American families out of house and home? OK, that makes sense . . .
The writer of this puff-piece glosses over the particulars of Karp’s job loss, something a real journalist might’ve pursued. It turns out, according to folks who know her personally, that she routinely called in “sick” at least once a week. Sick of working a real job, I’d say — I guess she needed more time to play with her dog.
Here’s the real kicker, though. Asked what her lowest moment has been, she said:
Going through a breakup with my fiance. It ended badly with me waiting for him at a train station, abandoned in the snow in a blizzard. We met on Twitter. He was my first follower. He lived in Scotland and … got laid off. He couldn’t support the house he was living in. … And he wasn’t close with his family. So he put everything into a suitcase and ended up homeless. Then he started a website about homeless people, and discovered my blog.
We visited each other and made plans to get married. I scraped up enough money to visit him in Scotland — surprise him … . I got a surprise of my own. There was a woman staying in his house. I was shocked. … So I stayed in a little hotel … spent all my money, and after a couple of days, they both packed their bags and left. The only contact with him since then was a two-line email saying, basically, “I can’t explain.”
Well, I can certainly explain: she’s obviously an idiot with a total lack of any sound instincts for managing her financial affairs. I mean, here she is making the very pragmatic and intelligent decision to stabilize her situation by marrying another homeless person whom she met via Twitter (coincidentally, also kicked to the curb by his parents), and then spending what little money she had to go meet him in Scotland? REALLY?!
"You MUST pay the rent!"
“… waiting for him at a train station, abandoned in the snow in a blizzard.” How . . . melodramatic. I’m surprised she didn’t tell us that he tied her to the railroad tracks. Now THAT would make for a truly classic version of the damsel-in-distress.
Oh, by the way, she tells us that she inherited that old trailer from a relative who committed suicide earlier that same year. Hmm … how convenient for her. That’s quite a family she’s got there, isn’t it? I was unaware that Wal-Mart is willing to let homeless people camp out in dilapidated trailers rent-free in their parking lots. I know California is a bit more, well, loosey-goosey than most places, but that nonetheless strains belief.
And speaking of truth versus fiction, that brings me to a theory suggested by several who’ve read this story, one connected to yet another, even more remarkable element of this grand saga. It turns out that Ms. Karp, who like so many others these days feels compelled to share her pathetic story and make a public display of what, in a more dignified era, used to be considered an embarrassment best kept private, has actually managed to garner a contract to write a book (which I won’t dignify by naming here, lest I give it free and unmerited publicity) and even collected an advance for it (which, of course, is all gone). It’s too bad that Oprah is off the air — she just LOVES victimology narratives depicting plucky women overcoming the challenges of life’s hard knocks and smiling through the tears (and, naturally, telling the entire world ALL about it).
Many have theorized that the entire thing is a scam, designed to get a publisher on board and sell books to a reading public with a regrettable taste for such self-indulgent, self-pitying, self-serving drekk. I’ll admit that I’m willing to entertain this hypothesis. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that a creatively unscrupulous writer-wannabe with nothing worthwhile to write about has concocted a phoney-baloney story starring him/herself.
Stephen Glass, star of his own dope show
One of the most infamous instances was the case of Stephen Glass, a journalist who perpetrated serial fraud over a three-year period at The New Republic from 1995 to 1998. As detailed by Wikipedia, Glass fabricated quotations, sources, and even entire events in articles he wrote for that magazine and others. After being fired from TNR, his deceitful career was dramatized in the film Shattered Glass. Of course, rather than slink away like anyone blessed with a conscience and sense of shame might do, Glass trumpeted his repellant story in The Fabulist, a 2003 novel whose protagonist is named … Stephen Glass.
Frey chatting with his biggest fan, who honored his mendacity by adding his "work" to her book club
Or consider the example of James Frey and his book A Million Little Pieces. As The Smoking Gun points out, it was a complete flim-flam by this “author,” who wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw “wanted in three states.” Unsurprisingly, it thoroughly hoodwinked Oprah and her entire staff of professional bleeding-hearts (who seem almost childish in their credulity about such things).
One blogger, taking a somewhat different perspective, has objected to the way in which Ms. Karp has trivialized the issue of homelessness and distracted attention from those who really are enduring this situation, as opposed to professional dilettantes like this silly woman, who is evidently slumming and expecting to get paid for it. Read Edward Carney’s very articulate and well thought-out post here on his excellent blog “Breaking Point.”
Surely, this latest won’t be the last such “story.”
I had the same reaction. Who ends up homeless and then flies to Scotland? Did you notice this review? http://www.amazon.com/review/R2LHV78PMP0WZ6/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0373892357&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=
It is fairly objective considering. I am inclined to believe it.
Thanks for your comment and for sharing that review. It has the ring of truth — unlike Ms. Karp’s very thinly fabricated tapestry, which has already started unraveling, thanks to Mr. “Sacklemaster.” The Web has made it just about impossible to fool even some of the people all of the time.
I’m pleased to see that this story is garnering some backlash. I wrote a lengthy piece on it in my own blog. What upsets me more than the disingenuous personal narrative of Ms. Karp, though, is the fact that gratifying her story detracts attention from the problems of people who are actually homeless, not merely on vacation.
I greatly appreciate your comment, Mr. Carney. While my perspective on the story is from that of a writer (I’m thinking of both the Stephen Glass scam and that book “A Million Little Pieces”), you make a different objection that is equally distressing and perhaps even more significant. I’ll be looking at your blog and may indeed link to your story from mine. Thank you very much for taking the time to write.
The thing that gets me is that she made it clear she was getting unemployment checks in her original blog. (She whines that they are late and owe her so much money)
I am a pretty bleeding heart liberal, but who uses unemployment money to 1) fly some guy over from Scotland 2) buy herself an engagement ring 3) fly to Scotland tour England?
That is some seriously stupid priorities and I want my tax money back. I’ll give it to somebody who actually needs it.
You have my compassion Mr. “Sacklemaster.” I feel for anyone who had to live with this useless brat.
As far as feeling compassion for Mr. “Sacklemaster,” let’s not omit to mention that his very understandable curiosity about this woman, whom he knew to be delusional or deceitful (or a toxic mix of both), led him to spend some of his money (which I assume he earned the old-fashioned way) on that miserable book. He does indeed merit our sympathy.
Near as I could tell just going from the review, he only read the first chapter, which I believe is available for free on Amazon. But maybe he bought it and stopped reading. I think the former is more likely though.
I hope you’re correct — I’d hate to think that anyone might’ve actually bought this book and put any money in the undeserving pockets of either BK or her publisher.
Well. I lived in California in the late ’70s and early ’80s (and yes, I’m dating myself), I knew lots of people who lived out of their vehicles.
Most lived in VW buses. Some were surfers. They didn’t have regular jobs because if the waves were good….well they knew their priorities. Others just chose to live off the grid as it were; not get caught up in Babylon system. There was not a gram of self-pity going on like with this chick. What a TRUE loser.
It’s always nice to hear from another grown-up. I was out there in LaLa-Land myself at that time. I left a real job in San Diego to be a rock’n'roller for a time, and when that petered out, I got on a plane back home, lived with my parents for a time until I found a job and saved up enough to get my own place, and eventually went back to school. Perhaps I should’ve wallowed in self-pity and written a book about it, instead . . .
Unfortunately, a lot of people are homeless at least in part because of bad decisions. And, yes, Wal-Mart does let people camp out in their parking lots–they can even use the store as their mailing address. A coworker of mine lived in his car in the Wal-Mart parking lot for months. (A friend took him to his health club to shower.)
From what I’ve heard, this book does devolve into a cliched, melodramatic romance (it IS published by Harlequin), but I’d say it is the way a possible borderline or narcissistic personality would react to the plight she was in. Even if her childhood wasn’t quite as bad as she makes it out to be, I daresay it was bad. She is living not inconsistently with the way her family has lived in the past. Off-kilter, unstable, and making a lot of bad decisions. (And some of them involving bad relationships with men.)
It is too bad she threw around the term homeless (though she does fulfill the legal definition of homelessness), though the “Girl’s Guide” part kind of gives a hint that we’re not dealing with Dostoevsky here.
Ellen, your remarks are fair-minded and even-handed, and you’re obviously an intelligent and thoughtful person — and a good writer too, which is refreshing! I think it’s fair to say that, unlike me, you’re not motivated by the urge to to be a wise guy.
I’m genuinely surprised that Wal-Mart (whose management I’ve never associated with enlightened social views) permits squatters, but I’m far less surprised at Harlequin’s willingness to publish junk. No, decidedly not Dostoyevsky; more like Helen Gurley Brown, I’d venture, with a tad fewer italics and exclamation marks, perhaps.
Thank you very much for taking the time to post your views.