Paper Cup

Product Information

This book was set in Glasgow and Scotland, which was a nice change for me. The audio delivery was amazing, and I loved the accents. The story flowed seamlessly and the narrator was in full command of the story. This is where I imagine authors are left feeling their book is in good hands, Caroline Guthrie was the right choice. For the majority of this, I was completely and utterly in love. I loved our flawed main character, the writing style and the contrast between bustling Glasgow and the small towns of Galloway (especially in the phonetic language, very clever)! Our 'heroine' is of course, human, She's made mistakes, she's got weaknesses, she's also got her own moral code and can exceed expectations. The 'quest' that takes us through not only Scotland and its residents (human and canine) but also through Kelly's past. Which at times is traumatic.

This story gives a name and a face to at least a segment of our unsheltered brothers and sisters. While a complex issue with multiple pathways into it, some are there because of tough circumstances, impulsive decisions, individual challenges, while the stepping stones to finding solid ground again are rife with holes and tilts. It's an unpredictable scrabble out once there. Rich and thoroughly enjoyable . . . A work of considerable complexity with a powerful narrative drive. [Campbell] has the ability, rarer in fiction today than it used to be, to make you care about her characters. This is an ambitious novel, and one of rare scope and understanding -- Allan Massie * * Scotsman on The Sound of the Hours * * Kelly reflects on the words she hears from the cold dead voice of the system. Sanctioned. Outcome. Zero hours. And she thinks: “you’d like a world where the words are kindness. Care. Maybe ‘listening’”. Wouldn’t we all. I mean, how incredibly tough would it be to be homeless? To literally have all your possessions on your person. And how much harder to be a homeless woman, with the incidences of violence more prevalent. Not a topic most of us want to think about, and I always despair of the people I see begging on the streets of my beautiful City. It simply doesn’t make sense that this should still be occurring, when there is more than enough to go around. But help is tied up in layers of bureaucracy that people are unable to deal with. To turn an old John Major soundbite on its head, we should condemn a little less and understand a little more.A] poignant and harrowing read. Campbell gambles on our empathy when she shows Kelly at her worst, and she wins because she has written, without judgment or criticism, an original and memorable protagonist; one who moves through a landscape described with love and care, and whose interior voice will continue to ring in the reader’s head even after the long journey’s end is reached” Then at the balance let’s be mute / we never can adjust it / what’s done we partly may compute, but know not what’s resisted”. Kelly is used to living outdoors in all weathers. For relying on herself, despite the craving, the absolute craving to quench the thirst that never leaves her. This really is a special little book. Kelly has had such a difficult life, everything she touches seems to go wrong, and the drink has its clutches in her every step of the way. She's such an endearing character, clever, strong, witty and unstoppable. Being a dog lover, Collie of course won my heart, and I loved watching the bond between him and Kelly grow.

Clearly educated and bright, it's not obvious what's brought the now older homeless woman to be someone accepting pennies on Scotland's streets. But when a drunk bride-to-be accidentally gives Kelly her engagement ring as well as some coins, she determines to return the sparkler to its owner in time for the imminent wedding. In her home town. This is one of the most emotional books I’ve read in a very long time and by the end of it I really felt like I’d been through the wringer - but it was totally worth it. It’s also a training ground for the next generation of baristas. Our training programme for people in recovery from addiction helps them learn new skills, gain work experience and move closer to a more fulfilling way of life. This tale begins with a group of young women on a hen night. They are so drunk that the bride gives her engagement ring to Kelly, a homeless woman, who has been begging on the streets of George Square in Glasgow. They tell Kelly that Susan is getting married to Connor in Gatehouse of Fleet, in Dumfries and Galloway, in a few days’ time. The drunken hen party leave Kelly with the engagement ring. The Writer Karen Campbell is a former police officer and press officer for Glasgow City Council. This shows as she succinctly describes the increasing desperation of Kelly’s situation, resulting in her living on the streets, despite the efforts of social workers.I can often be critical of books which sentimentalise homelessness and poverty and give an impression of a lovely, wee community of people who are homeless but happy. I enjoyed this portrayal of the city of Glasgow and the descriptive realities that people who are homeless face on the street. The descriptions of the streets, the characters, the services available and staff who work within them were immediately recognisable to someone who has worked within this environment. Safe in their hoose with their telly and their walls, they have no concept of a soul’s fragility. Nobody does, until they are made vulnerable themselves. Strip away your trappings, rip off your shell and let’s see how hard you are. When you beg, you have to think of everything. How you look, how you sit. Where you sit. In what manner do you hold out your hand? Cupped (greedy)? Outstretched (pathetic)?” A]mbitious … picturesque … generous and often wryly comic novel: a nice variety of incident and characters, fine descriptions of street life in Glasgow and of Kelly’s journey - a quest that is both physical and spiritual, offering the prospect of recovery and redemption … readers are surely likely to find pleasure and satisfaction in the humanity of Campbell’s treatment of people who have led difficult lives” Glowing with empathy and wry intelligent wit. Let Kelly into your life. She’ll change you, and you won’t forget her”

Do they think people want to live like this? Crusted with their own filth? Cold and old and hungry. Wanting to be seen, and be unseen. Wanting to be present, even in their self appointed margins. Do they think it’s a choice to be scared and lonely?” Paper Cup is told in the third person and focuses on a homeless young female called Kelly. Set in Scotland, the book opens with a bride-to-be descending on the park bench where Kelly is trying to sleep. The woman is extremely drunk and has lost her hen party. When the hens eventually find her they donate some money to Kelly but in the haste to get going the bride’s engagement ring is left with the cash.

Featured Reviews

Kelly is living rough in all aspects, an alcoholic who seems to have accepted her lot in life, something dreadful has happened with someone she loves dearly earlier in her life, and she will not return home. The way this story unfolds shows simply not how hard it would be to walk a mile in her shoes, or how impossible it would be to sleep on the streets, or how awful one is treated when begging. It is more than that. It shows the desperation of one human being who believes it is what she deserves, the ability for this person to still see good in what she is in the midst of, and the select few who still help and care. The blatant experience with what seemed to me an almost non existant support and welfare agency was frustrating, Kelly certainly was buried deep in loss. One wanted this woman to get there, wherever there was.

Kelly seems to give without asking for any return. She will break your heart along the way if you decide to take this journey with her. The book certainly had a portion of whimsy, and things seemed to contain an element of good timing, but this did not detract my sheer delight of enjoying a full five star experience. It simply is a wonderful book. I was rooting for Kelly, along with the people rooting for her whether she knew it or not. It’s so beautifully written and so specifically Scottish, with a smattering of Scots language, that it felt like home. It’s funny, and painful, and poignant and so compassionate. It might be a work of fiction but we all know Kelly. We’ve seen her, or him, sitting outside on the pavement with their paper cup, asking for nothing but 20p and possibly a sandwich. In this world, in 2022, this shouldn’t be happening but it still is - this series of nets lets people slip through. If nothing else, this book casts a light into that shadow and will hopefully encourage readers to volunteer, to add to that cup, to see that person as a person. I loved Papercup so much as it shows me someone outwith my lived experience. It shows how fast life can drag you down and how we are all just a fraction away from a circumstance that will take us down that path too. What happened to Kelly can happen to anyone..and underneath it all we are no different. This book highlights how society as a whole, but especially the processes that are put in place to help vulnerable people in society can and do fail. I love the way the book is set out so that we learn small parts of Kelly’s life and past as we go through.. and where at first we think she is a product of her own doing we learn there is so much more to the story. A voyage of self-discovery, the audiobook encapsulates the vulnerable and very human Kelly in a worldly-wise yet still likeable Scottish voice. It's third person but still works as an audiobook you feel connected to. Kelly's is the life we wouldn't want for our children, the one we often try and ignore when we see it, and it's upsetting to see behind the overcoat and dirt to the person underneath. The person. Just don’t be in such a hurry to get away from here” she says. “Because you can’t recapture it once it’s gone”.Kelly is used to people walking past and ignoring her. To simply see their shoes and legs, rarely their faces. As how do you look a homeless person in the eye? And if you do, what do you say to them?