Stannard-Friel (sociology and anthropology, Notre Dame de Namur U.) examines the people of the "tenderloins" of our cities, their search for significance as human beings, their reasons, logical and otherwise, for living on the streets, and the work of addiction, violence, and hope in their lives. Stannard-Friel works from case studies of those seeking to explain their presence, or their new-found absence, in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, drawing on his experience as an academic and also as a front-line worker in psychiatric institutions. He allows his subjects to speak in depth about why they feel they exist in a "deviant" society, and examines social and personal forces that probably pointed their way there. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)