This is a picture of Evelyn Lau as an adult. She is currently making her living as a writer so this story has a happy ending.
Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid was Evelyn Lau’s first book, based on diaries written after she ran away from home. It is fascinating but also very depressing. Her suffering and rebellion, her descent into drugs and prostitution, her dark unhappiness seemed so unecessary. If only she and her parents could have been more reasonable.
There are many sides to every story and a book like this cannot be objective. It reads like a cry for help, like Lau’s suicide attempts and masochistic behaviour. Lau’s diaries are fascinating, but in a way which makes you ache for what this girl suffered at home and on the street.
Lau ran away at fourteen because her parents were too controlling and distant. She describes how her mother yelled at her constantly and expected her to get straight A’s. Her father, who was sweet to her as a toddler, became withdrawn once she was older. Her mother expected Lau to study constantly, whether she needed to or not and forbade her to write. This lead to bulimia at first and then, at the age of fourteen, flight.
My only hope is that Lau’s diary does not inspire other teens to emulate her. Lau had a rare gift that other teens will not be able to count on. A prodigy, she was published and a literary award-winner before she ran away.
My recommendation? Read it, if you don’t mind something harsh, full of unhappy sex and unsatisfactory relationships. If taken as a cautionary tale it is edifying. You can glimpse Lau’s talent shining through her pain.
Thank you for bringing this book to my attention. As you may know already I am the mother of a teenager and reading your review I realize I sound so much like Evelyn Lau’s mother, in that, I am constantly wanting my kid to strive for higher marks, and this is only because I (and her teachers, too) believe she has great potential and can easily top her class if she wasn’t so busy being social. As a parent simply trying to help her child strive for excellence, I would be shattered if my ‘nagging’ led to such a drastic move. Ofcourse, having said that, every kid is different and Lau was probably more rebellious than most. I wish she and her parents could have spoken more, I honestly believe communication is the only way to go.
I would like to read the book, but I don’t know if I could. When I travel to Toronto, I cannot bear to look at the street kids for fear of breaking down. It breaks my heart to see them squander their futures away, it’s much too depressing.
Dear Lotus,
I’m sure that your girl knows you want her to get A’s for her own sake. Lau’s parents, if you take her book at face value, didn’t give her love or control over her own destiny. They forbade her to do what she wanted most (to write) and even controlled what she ate and strictly rationed her free time. Lau was too busy cleaning and studying to have a social life with her peers.
I don’t think you need to worry about being the kind of parent who wants their kid to get A’s. Don’t most parents want that?
Of course the flip side is that some of the most successful people in Canadian society owe their success to great social skills. Balance is everything.
As for kids sitting on Queen street begging, yeah, I hate seeing that too. In our rich society, everyone should be able to do something useful and get paid for it.