I first came across this book when Tracey Thorn posted a picture of it on her Twitter account. I love her writing so much that I felt like I needed to check out what she enjoyed reading as well. I’m incredibly grateful to her for bringing this to my attention!
This book is quite difficult to explain. On the surface it is two things. The first is a memoir of Darren McGarvey’s life, largely spent in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Glasgow. The second is an exploration of what it means to grow up in poverty. But it goes much deeper than this. McGarvey’s personal story is dissected to figure out which pieces of his personal tragedy were inevitable based on his family’s circumstances, and which were personal choice. And how the latter, while valid, is still informed by the former. His analysis of poverty is also much more nuanced. He looks at it not just in terms of the things and experiences poverty places out of reach, but the social and physical effects of it. How your birth weight (usually low for babies born of poor parents) can predict health issues down the road. How poverty increases your risks of everything from the obvious (abuse, addiction, undernourishment, obesity, violence, crime) to the more obscure (medical conditions like COPD, diabetes, heart disease, mental health issues and lifelong difficulty viewing the world as anything other than antagonistic and threatening).
This book quantified things I knew to be true, but also provided me with a lot of information I didn’t have because of the relatively privileged childhood I experienced. There is so much information that is vital for those trying to help mitigate the negative effects of poverty, and yet that seems not to be heeded by the very people who need to pay attention. He discusses why social programs often fail, and how seeing them fail over and over again leaves members of the communities they serve feeling disenfranchised and unlikely to engage with them next time around.
This book definitely broke my heart. He talks about the abuse he suffered as a child, and that he witnessed visited upon other children in his community. He talks about how his upbringing led to self-destructive behaviours that plague him to this day. But in telling his story, in using his sharp mind to dissect all the factors that played into creating his circumstances, he opens a door. One that people like me, who don’t share the same experience, can walk through. And I think this does two important things. One is that it allows him to control the his own narrative and what he wants it to say about him, and about people who grew up like him. The second is that, hopefully, it will give an insight to people who can potentially do something positive with greater understanding. And perhaps even help some of his peers.
Though this book talks about poverty in a particular community of a city in Scotland, I think the information it provides is universal to any poor community in the western world, and to some extent, to any experience of poverty anywhere. The exact pressures may be slightly different, and the particular issues they cause might also differ, but poverty affects the human body and mind in certain ways, as does the stress it causes. What this book does is show some of these important relationships and how difficult cycles of abuse and poverty are to break out of. He refers to poverty as a form of gravity that pulls on people who have always lived in it, making it incredibly difficult to get out of. Even for those who find opportunities, who have the brains or skills to work their way out, the damage it has done can often make it impossible to make the most of those opportunities. McGarvey himself struggled when he started working for the BBC. He was in the midst of addiction to alcohol and drugs, and felt that even though people were taking him seriously, it was because they saw him as a particular character in the narrative of poverty, a role he didn’t like being pigeonholed into. It took him a long time to find a way to make some positive changes in his life, and for many who grew up like he did, they never do.
One of the things I liked most about this book is how matter-of-fact McGarvey is. He’s not whining about his situation, or trying to use it to make excuses for his own life choices. He accepts responsibility while simultaneously exploring the factors that led him to those choices. I think his ability to do both of these things is what has allowed him to work on his issues and overcome some of them. And while I know that the type of trauma he experienced leaves lifelong damage in its wake, this book left me feeling hopeful that it doesn’t have to be the only thing driving decisions made down the line. McGarvey became a father as he was writing this book, and the way he talks about what he wants for his child and the father he wants to be is such a strong source of motivation and strength that I have no doubt he will succeed in giving his kid a better childhood than he had. And really, isn’t that the best way forward? To try to be better for our children than our parents were for us, no matter what the starting point is?
I urge all of you to pick this book up. You will learn from it and you will get a rare opportunity to see the world from a new perspective. There is something special about this book, and about Darren McGarvey’s way of putting things. I think if everyone read this book, we might look at poverty differently. I think it might create some needed compassion and insight. Starting with you.
Darren McGarvey has experienced poverty and its devastating effects first-hand. He knows why people from deprived communities all around Britain feel angry and unheard. And he wants to explain . . .
So he invites you to come on a safari of sorts. But not the kind where the wildlife is surveyed from a safe distance. This book takes you inside the experience of poverty to show how the pressures really feel and how hard their legacy is to overcome.
Arguing that both the political left and right misunderstand poverty as it is actually lived, McGarvey sets out what everybody – including himself – could do to change things. Razor-sharp, fearless and brutally honest, Poverty Safari is an unforgettable insight into modern Britain. – Goodreads
Book Title: Poverty Safari
Author: Darren McGarvey
Series: No
Edition: Paperback
Published By: Picador
Released: November 2, 2017
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, Social Issues, Poverty, Health
Pages: 224
Date Read: July 15-October 27, 2019
Rating: 9/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.03/5 (2,083 ratings)