Many of the same things reappear in this book, only in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City or Manila rather than Paris or London. Not all the poor go hungry, the author asserts, because in many Asian countries food is cheap. Instead, they age prematurely, and age, he remarks, is painful. "The rotting teeth, the impotence, the loss of muscle tone and the workplace discrimination are all painful in different ways." The poor, in other words, can't afford dentists or Viagra, let alone regular visits to California Fitness centers, and don't qualify for AIDS medication (except in compassionate Taiwan).
Vollmann considers he may himself be what Thoreau called "that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters." But he prefers to consider himself simply lucky.
Thoreau's disdain for wealth is unfashionable today, but Vollmann is right about luck. In Ho Chi Minh, I was told most workers in the city's five-star foreign-owned hotels earned around US$55 a month, plus a possible bonus that would nevertheless fail to double the sum. Guests in these hotels were paying up to US$250 a night for a room. Were these guests better people? Certainly not. Did they work harder? My suspicion was that they probably worked less hard. Why, then, the enormous disparity? Vollmann's answer is surely right - it's luck, in this case, the luck of being a citizen of one country rather than another.
Reading this fascinating and informative book, I'm reminded of George Orwell's comment in Down and Out in Paris and London, a book about the lives of tramps - that after researching and writing it he could never feel at ease eating in an expensive restaurant ever again.
RSS