Songs from the Alley

In her first book, Hirsch, a Boston-based freelance journalist, palpably places readers among her city's homeless people. The author spent three years working at the Pine Street Inn, Boston's oldest and largest shelter, helping to supply human beings with moral support as well as food and other basics. The stories of young women like Wendy, Amanda and their fellow homeless make a stronger impact than statistics or disinterested reportage can. While focusing on the present situation of the dispossessed, Hirsch also includes an absorbing history of social conditions from colonial times through today. This is a book that deserves to be widely read--and it should have been edited to correct awkward usages like ``larger than him,'' etc. (Apr.)