The Beggar's Garden: Short Story

By Michael Christie

In the titular story of Michael Christie’s critically acclaimed debut collection, The Beggar’s Garden, Sam Prince moves into the shed behind his house as his marriage falls apart. He meets a local panhandler and tries to help him sort out his life—even though he can’t find the courage to fix his own.

The Beggar’s Garden follows a diverse group of characters, from a bank manager to a drug addict to a retired Samaritan, a web designer, and a car thief, as they drift through each other’s lives in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Michael Christie’s darkly funny debut collection won the Vancouver Book Award; it was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Nov 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781443421829

Michael Christie

MICHAEL CHRISTIE received his MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia. Prior to this, he worked in a homeless shelter on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and provided outreach to the severely mentally ill. A former professional skateboarder, he is a senior writer for Color Magazine, an award-winning publication that celebrates skateboarding culture. Michael Christie lives in Thunder Bay, and is working on his next book, a novel.

Book preview

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Reviews for The Beggar's Garden

[paradiseporch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This collection of short stories is set in the “riotous and hellish, but strangely contained, slum of [Vancouver’s] Downtown Eastside”. This area which includes part of Hastings Street is infamous across Canada. As one of Christie’s characters observes: “It was as if the country had been tipped up at one end and all the sorry b!@#$%$s had slid west, stopping only when they reached the sea, perhaps because the sea didn’t want them either.”Told from various points of view – the grandfather who leaves food and clothing in dumpsters that he knows his drug-addicted grandson dives, an addict who has just spent his entire welfare cheque on a giant dope trip, a woman who runs a second-hand store, and so on – the stories all intrigued me. Short story collections always seem to have a few weaker pieces. I didn’t think this had any.Read this if: you’re interested in knowing just how close any one of us is to being on the street; or you’d like some insight into the people in a Canadian city’s slum. 4 stars

[laurenbdavis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fine collection of linked short stories. Christie worked in homeless shelter in the rough Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver BC. Clearly he was touched by the people he met there, for the empathy he feels for the people he writes about -- the addicted, the mentally ill, the forgotten and marginalized of society -- is palpable. What's equally impressive is that Christie writes about them without it feeling exploitative. He looks deeply into their lives, their thoughts and their hearts, but there's no sense of voyeurism, just as the is no moralizing. The sympathy he creates is entirely due to his talent at making us see his characters as humans no so unlike us, broken, fragile, floundering, perhaps, but still us and not some judgment-inducing "them". The writing is clean and precise, and creates the perfect tone -- neither too stark, nor too romantic. I recommend this book. I would be surprised if you don't find some aspect of yourself within its pages.

[vancouverdeb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to love this book! After all, I have lived in Vancouver for many years, and I am familiar with the plight of those in Vancouver Downtown Eastside. This is a small volume of nine short stories (262pages) that take place on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. To the author's credit, the stories are told without judgement, morality, or sentimentality. The author worked on the Vancouver Downtown Eastside for a time as a homeless shelter, reaching out to those in need, so I'm sure he knows his subject. However, I found that I was left a bit cold by some of the short stories. I found the book to be uneven, which I suppose is not unexpected in book of short stories. Some tales really grabbed me - like "Discard" - the story of a widower left on his own, who decides to seek out his long forgotten grandson by going to live in the alleys where unbeknowst to his grandson, he meets up with him and they join forces." Good Bye PorkPie Hat" was a look into rooming houses in the downtown Eastside and a man addicted to crack. " King Me" was a fascinating look into the lives - one in particular - of those still left in Vancouver's Mental Hospital, Riverview. That story was quite heartbreaking -and yet - those people probably have it better than those who have been turned out of Riverview Hospital to the Downtown Eastside. Another story tugged at my heartstrings -" The Queen of Cans and Jars". In summary, it's the tale of a woman who worked in the shoe department of Woodwards. After losing her job at Woodwards she choses to run and live in within the premises of a second hand thrift shop in the Downtown Eastside. Another stab at the heart concerns the story of a mentally disabled man, who relies on a somewhat dishonest buddy to manage his affairs, rather than live in a boarding house. I don't want to say to much more - so as not to spoil the book for any of you. The last story is an interesting twist of a tale. While this book did not grab me the way I expected - in retrospect, I supppose the majority of the stories were worthwhile reads. This author did particulary well in portraying the poor, the marginalized, and the mentally ill -and how so many of us could be but a short step from those on the street. For that reason alone, perhaps this is an important read.