In the open

by Timothy E. Donohue

Timothy Donohue lives in a world we have seldom understood. He spends his days in missions and flophouses; daily labor offices and the work they provide; public libraries in which this and other manuscripts have been written; and many campsites in several states, including Minnesota, California, Nevada, and Hawaii. These campsites are neglected corners of out-of-the-way lots where Donohue pitches his small tent and keeps his belongings, or they are culverts or abandoned boxes and containers where his gear is stolen. Remarkably, his writings have somehow survived his bouts of self-destruction and the accidents and vicissitudes of his hard life. . We see his world from the inside. We learn the coping strategies, the natural reactions, the logic and self-deceptions of the homeless alcoholic. Donohue remembers most of the details of his prodigious drinking. Alcohol produces pleasant highs increasing his perceptual acuity and his poetic appreciation for landscape. He experiences momentary o