Paper Cup

Product Information

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. 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.

It’s the sweetest of spots for a quiet tea, coffee or pastry among the streets of East London and another brilliant social enterprise.” — Spike and Earl We're taking donations! It’s like that wonderful maxim of not judging a person until you walk a hundred miles in their shoes. But it’s never judgemental. The posh divorcee who feeds Kelly (and her dog) on her pilgrimage seems almost offended when asked why she did it. 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.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. 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. And so begins a pilgrimage across Scotland, starting in Glasgow to Kelly’s home town, as she is determined to return the ring before the Wedding takes place. I won’t tell you how she knows these details, but the journey is all set up in the first chapter. Whether you’re donating the contents of an entire flat, or a single item, nothing from your donation will be wasted. If we can sell it, we want it!

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.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. I helped you when you needed help. That’s it. Why complicate things? It’s an investment. Maybe it will be there when we need it. We all need kindness”. There’s a wonderful line in here about how libraries are “beacons of light”, as they are places where people with no internet access could avail themselves of the library WiFi. As well as the human interaction with the librarians, and a place to come in out of the cold. Overall, Paper Cup is an astute, touching, compelling tale by Campbell that does a beautiful job of reminding us that family is not always those just related by blood but rather those who love, care, support, and accept us. The opening chapter is the joy and giddiness of a hen’s party. In the wee small hours. The bride to be and her girls are well and truly happily plastered. By a strange twist of fate, or synchronicity, the bride pauses for a moment on a park bench, where Kelly lies sleeping. In high sprits, the girls “take pity” on the tramp lying there, and gift her the coins they’d collected for strangers to kiss the bride to be. And in this exchange, Susan's engagement ring, unbeknownst to her, becomes entangled in the coins.

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 * * 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?”

Summary

I admired Kelly’s determination to return the engagement ring to its rightful owner, and being inside her head and hearing her thoughts. What led her to become who she was, and her want to attempt to make amends and perhaps turn things around. 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” Having books out there like these makes readers like you and I think deeply about our role in the lives of these people. This journey and the people we meet along the way show just how much one meeting can have an impact in someone else’s life (and likewise how they can impact your own life). We need more people like Kelly and Dexy in my opinion.

As the story progresses, it’s clear that Kelly has tried – and failed – to resist one hell of a lot. And what Karen does brilliantly is to convey that struggle with real empathy. And Kelly is a raw and brilliant commentator on the terrible injustices inflicted on the voiceless and the faceless, not least when she shares a shelter with a couple, seeking asylum and expecting a child. Glowing with empathy and wry intelligent wit. Let Kelly into your life. She’ll change you, and you won’t forget her” The prose is rich and vivid. The characters are vulnerable, flawed, and troubled. And the plot is a memorable tale of unlikely friendships, familial drama, poverty, homelessness, addiction, guilt, compassion, honesty, survival, mental illness, kindness, and ultimately finding your way home.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. Really interesting book, it took me a while to get into the narrative properly. I thought the description and thread throughout the book of homelessness and the way the systems work was so well researched and written, and I know it's only a small insight into the world, but there must be an opportunity for us all to do better, especially those with influence in the systems and support available. I also felt challenged as the main character isn't exactly likeable- something I normally struggle with - but the portrayal of her inner struggles with alcoholism, relationships, pain was really well written and I did feel for her, even if and when she make decisions that didn't make sense or I wouldn't have been able to justify 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.