Cadillac Man
"Cadillac Man’s story is grueling. His book is not," wrote Dwight Garner in the New York Times. "He works to put human faces on the men and women you see huddled under overpasses and in alleyways, and there are cracks of light in the tale he tells, even moments of joy, bravery and suspense." And this gets at one of the less obvious, though essential, points to the memoir Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets. Once the now acclaimed author, Cadillac Man (real name Thomas Wagner), was living on the street, he found, despite the awfulness of this exile, that he kind of liked his freedom. Cadillac Man, his real name is Thomas Wagner, began living on the streets in 1994, when he was 44," Garner felt compelled, in response to so many false memoirs, to report for his New York Times review. "His descent into homelessness was gradual, and then quite sudden, the way a canoe is tugged downriver and then eventually drops over a waterfall."
Prior to his being homeless, Cadillac Man spent time in the Army, worked in a meat market and as a volunteer policeman. He was married and had children. His last job was at a Pepsi distribution warehouse in Queens. Each time he came up for review his superiors told him how impressed they were with his work and eventually promoted him to warehouse manager. But one day he was let go. What followed was thirteen years homeless and living by his wits. He was most often one of the good guys; defending his brethren and watching their backs (albeit with an ice pick as a weapon). His life is legendary as he survived more than one unplanned encounter with a Cadillac. Eventually, he found a regular and very safe place to reside during the day: on a sidewalk, under a viaduct in Astoria. One day he struck up a conversation with a man from North Carolina now living in New York. It turned out that his new friend was magazine writer and published author, Will Blythe (To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever). Blythe learned that Cadillac Man had been keeping journals. Blythe says, "My deal with myself was that I would read [Cadillac's stories] only until I got bored. And so I sat down and started to read...there was a story there, with dialogue, with wit." Cadillac Man's adventures are far different now from the ones he describes in his book; the ones among friends, who when they die—and most have—are routinely shipped off, unclaimed by family, to be buried in Potters Fields, the Land of the Lost Souls.
Besides his story, Cadillac has published an essay in the New York Times, has been interviewed by the BBC, New York Public Radio and Air America. His very first public reading at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe was broadcast internationally on C-Span book TV. On July 29, 2009, the City of New York is issuing a Proclamation to honor Cadillac Man for giving voice to the homeless. His readings span from a gathering of social workers and homeless clients at a NYC shelter to the New York Tenement Museum. Cadillac answers many questions, but he likes to address the stereotyping of the homeless the most, "because we're human too."
