“I see everybody’s buried in their hand-held-Worry Beads-Do-Me- Friend-Me Apps. I’ve got extremely serious doubts about the survivability of our species. Everybody’s money was on oil and the combustion engine (lightning, to spark to brush-to-wood-to-Oil-to- Plastics & Digital-to…The Sun!”
– an excerpt from the book
ARPress is honored to publish Poor Barnum’s Journal by Larry Hankin. This book is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the ARPress website.
There’s a kind of poetry in survival, the quiet rhythm of getting through another day when the world barely looks your way. Poor Barnum’s Journal hums with that rhythm. It’s a book about being seen and unseen, about losing everything that keeps you human and somehow finding humor in the wreckage. Through the voice of Barnum Justice, a street philosopher with dirt under his nails and wisdom in his words; Larry Hankin turns struggle into art, showing that sometimes the most honest truths come from those living just outside the lines.
Author Larry Hankin was born in Manhattan General Hospital in New York City, and grew up in North Bergen, New Jersey. At the age of 6, his family (Mom, Dad and younger sister Carolyn) moved to Far Rockaway, Long Island, New York and he attended P.S. 106 Horace Mann Public School and Far Rockaway High School. He graduated both and attended Syracuse University majoring in Industrial Design, graduated with a Degree in Industrial Design, and immediately went to Greenwich Village, New York and became a Stand-Up Comedian, did Summer Stock in Plattsburgh in Upstate New York, and has been performing in show business ever since.
Larry Hankin’s Poor Barnum’s Journal is one of those books that doesn’t play by the rules. It’s messy, funny, sharp, and weirdly beautiful, kind of like life itself. At the center of it all is Barnum Justice, a homeless poet who calls himself an “urban-survivalist, entrepreneurial, panhandler-beggar-saint.” He’s equal parts philosopher and smart-mouthed observer, talking his way through the chaos of street life with a mix of grit, sarcasm, and heart.
Barnum isn’t your typical “down-and-out” character. He’s brutally self-aware, often hilarious, and always one step ahead of anyone who might try to pity him. “I’m what they call an elder street poet,” he says, “a renaissance re-assembler of realities for re-imbursements… Basically, I fuck with the truth for money as opposed to lawyers who fuck with the facts for financial benefit.” That’s the kind of line that makes you laugh first, then realize how smart it really is.
The book swings between street philosophy, dark comedy, and oddly moving reflections on dignity. At one point, Barnum writes, “Being homeless is a job like any other job. It’s not fun. That’s why it’s called a job and not jazz.” Then, just a few pages later: “Self-Esteem & Dignity are based on free and able access to proper waste management facilities.” It’s that mix of raw honesty and absurd humor that makes the whole thing work, like George Carlin with a notebook and a sleeping bag.
If Larry Hankin’s name sounds familiar, it should. He’s the actor who’s popped up everywhere, Friends, Seinfeld, Home Alone, Breaking Bad. But this book shows a different side of him: the storyteller, the writer, the guy who’s been watching the world for a long time and finally decided to say what he sees. There’s a performer’s rhythm in the writing: the pauses, the punchlines, the parts that make you stop and think.
Barnum calls the rest of society “the Homelessless;” people with doorknobs, bills, and blind spots. “To the Homelessless,” he says, “we are their own, waking, walking nightmares.” Lines like that sting because they’re true. The humor keeps it light, but the heart of the book is heavy, and honest.
By the time it ends, Poor Barnum’s Journal feels less like reading a novel and more like sitting across from someone at a diner at 2 a.m., listening to them tell stories you didn’t expect to care about, until you do. It’s scrappy, offbeat, and totally alive.
Or as Barnum puts it best: “The street resurrects, the street teaches, the street deteriorates to the bone; rots your teeth and reason. Eye of the Tiger.”
Poor Barnum’s Journal by Larry Hankin is now available for purchase via the ARPress Bookstore.