VGRC

Months ago I received this little book from my girlfriend, who in turn received it from a friend of hers, who I think in turn received it from a friend of his. Having just now gotten around to it, I am quite mad at myself for not picking it up sooner.

"Book" is probably the wrong term to use here, as Evasion is actually a series of letters written by an anonymous author around the turn of the century. The author, who decided that after high school he wasn't going to hold a job or continue his education, chronicles his exploits in these letters as he hops trains, shoplifts, squats houses, dumpster dives, and generally just lives off the sheer amounts excess produced by American society.

And before you ask, yes, this is all real.

"We left behind the other kids, their path - working, drinking, and being grown-up - and rejected all that made them grumpy, uncreative and lifeless. We dumpstered, squatted, and shoplifted our lives back. Everything fell into place when we decided our lives were to be lived. Life serves the risk taker..."

At first glance of the subject matter, you will likely come to one of these two opinions:

1) The author is a bum and needs to grow the hell up.
2) This kid might be onto something...

As you read the letters, written in the first-person, the author not only describes what he does, but also his philosophy behind what he does. The author, a straight-edge vegan (which also plays heavily into his decisions) eventually came to the conclusion that his life was too valuable to spend in the framework of traditional Western society, ie: Working to consume. (If you enjoyed Fight Club, Evasion will most definitely tickle your fancy.) He does actually hold himself up to a set of (questionable, perhaps) morals, such as preferring to shoplift over panhandling because it not only requires a greater degree of skill, but also the "danger factor." Even when faced with starvation, he still holds himself to his vegan ideals. Excess food "liberated" from dumpsters and store shelves will oftentimes to distributed to others rather than creating waste.

More interesting than the author's exploits however, is how he describes them. While sometimes his writing borders on redundancy (which to be fair, can be expected from a series of standalone letters that weren't originally intented for book format), he romantically describes his situations and surroundings in ways that one wouldn't initially think of, such as comparing a rotted abandoned house he squats to a lover that simply needs positive reinforcement. With his simple philosophies lining nearly every scene, you don't picture the environments he describes so much as you picture the rife opportunities in said environments, and subsequently discovering the parallels to your own neighborhood...

The underlying theme of Evasion, however, is not intentional homelessness and how one can subsist on the excess of others, but rather challenging one's own worldview and deciding for oneself what life should be about, and not letting society decide for you. While the author's lifestyle may not (and likely won't) appeal to most people, the point remains that what seem like impossible lifestyle choices in today's society are not as impossible as we all think.

"Books are dangerous like that ... One book of infallible truth and romance by those more daring that you, and you'll never sit still again."

9	Entertainment factor of the author's exploits draw you in, the underlying themes keep you hooked. May very well inspire people to give their lives a careful re-examination..
	The letters sometimes feel redundant and unchronological ordering may throw some people off. Author's philosophic descriptions of his surroundings sometimes venture into messy ramblings.

- See another review on Bad Subjects
- Buy this book from CrimethInc