Ian Frazier's long-awaited New Yorker article on the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen (HASK) has finally appeared. It's probably just in the nick of time, as some of the traditional sources of funding for HASK have dried up, and the need is greater than ever. (HASK has been serving upwards of 1400 meals a day for many months now.) The article informs us that HASK has had better luck soliciting support from the readers of the New York Review of Books than from "red-state" Christians, so a feature in The New Yorker should help, 
and it's always a good thing for people to find out that places like HASK - and the needs they address - exist.
That said, I'm still somewhat disappointed by the piece. One reason is entirely predictable. Frazier knows the Soup Kitchen (he's directed its writing workshop for 14 years), not the parish, so the distance between the HASK and Holy Apostles communities feels greater to him than it does to the parishioners. A fascinating account of the surprising symbioses of the communities of parishioners, volunteers, guests and supporters could be written, but this is not it. Another reason for disappointment was a bit of a surprise. I had expected that Frazier, as a writer, would feature some of the Soup Kitchen guests' writing. All we get is the briefest of anecdotes about them, most barely a sentence long. In fourteen years wasn't there even a line or two worth quoting? Couldn't he at least have pretended there was?
and it's always a good thing for people to find out that places like HASK - and the needs they address - exist.That said, I'm still somewhat disappointed by the piece. One reason is entirely predictable. Frazier knows the Soup Kitchen (he's directed its writing workshop for 14 years), not the parish, so the distance between the HASK and Holy Apostles communities feels greater to him than it does to the parishioners. A fascinating account of the surprising symbioses of the communities of parishioners, volunteers, guests and supporters could be written, but this is not it. Another reason for disappointment was a bit of a surprise. I had expected that Frazier, as a writer, would feature some of the Soup Kitchen guests' writing. All we get is the briefest of anecdotes about them, most barely a sentence long. In fourteen years wasn't there even a line or two worth quoting? Couldn't he at least have pretended there was?
