Poor People - by William T Vollmann (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

That was the simple yet groundbreaking question William T. Vollmann asked in cities and villages around the globe. The result of Vollmann's fearless inquiry is a view of poverty unlike any previously offered.

Poor People struggles to confront poverty in all its hopelessness and brutality, its pride and abject fear, its fierce misery and quiet resignation, allowing the poor to explain the causes and consequences of their impoverishment in their own cultural, social, and religious terms. With intense compassion and a scrupulously unpatronizing eye, Vollmann invites his readers to recognize in our fellow human beings their full dignity, fallibility, pride, and pain, and the power of their hard-fought resilience.

From the Back Cover

That was the simple yet groundbreaking question William T. Vollmann asked in cities and villages around the globe. The result of Vollmann's fearless inquiry is a view of poverty unlike any previously offered.

Poor People struggles to confront poverty in all its hopelessness and brutality, its pride and abject fear, its fierce misery and quiet resignation, allowing the poor to explain the causes and consequences of their impoverishment in their own cultural, social, and religious terms. With intense compassion and a scrupulously unpatronizing eye, Vollmann invites his readers to recognize in our fellow human beings their full dignity, fallibility, pride, and pain, and the power of their hard-fought resilience.

Review Quotes

"From the streets of San Francisco to the mountains of Afghanistan and beyond, Vollmann roams, interviewing destitute, impoverished men and women in an effort to glean "Why some are rich and some are poor." It's a noble inquiry, which makes the potential pitfalls of the endeavor more palpable to class-conscious readers...Vollmann remains a perceptive, nuanced raconteur...a vital reminder that our common humanity transcends economic privilege." - Austin Chronicle

"Offering a series of vignettes and more than 100 riveting photographs, Vollmann takes a simple question (he asks people world-wide: 'Why are you poor?') and offers the profound and extraordinary answers." - Relevant Magazine

"Reading Vollmann, we are in the presence of a savvy, reflective writer who doesn't turn away from tough issues. What makes Poor People an impressive work is that each time Vollmann asks a person why he or she is poor, we learn something of value about that individual, and, to our surprise, about ourselves as well." - Houston Chronicle

"By...eschewing the usual social-science observations, Vollmann has written a book of enormous power -- one that honors the magnitude of each story it records and allows them to say in their own words why life has laid them so low." - Seattle Times

"Vollmann explores, sometimes sensitively, often provocatively...the emotional, psychological and physical dimensions of poverty." - Chicago Tribune

"This book is an attempt to help us better understand poverty and how it relates to such issues as community, fate and perspective. "Poor People" is supplemented with 128 stunning black-and-white photographs the author took during his research. This book is what it is. It is neither guilt producing nor guilt absolving, and that is one of its major strengths." Grade: B - Tuscon Citizen

"By steering clear of statistics, eschewing the normal social-science observations, Vollmann has written a book of enormous power, one that honors the magnitude of each story it records... time again, this book bravely steers away from the sweeping generalization to flick the exposed nerve of the author's profound empathy for the downtrodden. He touches them and gives to them, but most uniquely, allows them to say in their own words why life has laid them so pitiable, so low." - Denver Post

""Poor People" is journalism that shrugs off objectivity. This is portraiture but also confession, meditation. Where Vollmann encounters ethical dilemmas, he explores them. While his goal is to give voice to the lives of the poor, in his insistence on turning the hard questions back on himself, the book also reads -- to its credit -- like a memoir." - Raleigh News & Observer

"...how many people really face misery at all, let alone write about it? The book is a relentless commitment by a writer who has devoted his talents to the pursuit of the human condition in extremis. This concern puts Vollmann in league with predecessors like Jack London, John Steinbeck and George Orwell, whom he claims, as well as Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoevsky." - Buffalo News

"His unsentimental portraits...are revelatory." - The New Yorker

"...a prodigious examination of how poor people live...Vollmann's greatest contribution to our understanding of the poor may be his persuasive list of poverty's characteristics and dimensions... the reader will come away with a broader understanding of the world's impoverished..." - Washington Post Book World

"Fresh and truthful observation...Vollmann does his duty as a reporter and shows us, in earthy, often memorable detail, how he came across [poverty] in the real world." - New York Times Book Review

Vollmann succeeds by circling rhythmically around the problem of global poverty...The genius of POOR PEOPLE is how Vollmann demonstrates the arbitrariness of the line we draw between "self" and "other". - Quarterly Conversation.com

""Poor People" is deeply philosophical - Vollmann freely quotes Marx, Adam Smith, Aristotle, Thoreau, and more - yet it is also highly personal. The book concludes with a description of Vollmann's own complex relationship with the poor. He lives in Sacramento near a shelter for the homeless, who often use his parking lot as a place to sleep or congregate. The author gives them food and offers them friendship, but at the end of the day he returns home and closes his door on them. Vollmann even admits to being afraid of tall, young black men, describing how a group of them once robbed him. "Poor People" enlightens, posing important questions and putting a human face on the socioeconomic statistics. "This book is not 'practical, '" Vollmann admits. "It cannot tell anyone what to do, much less how to do it." Such humility seems like the first step toward wisdom." - Christian Science Monitor

"Poor People, though uncharacteristically short, is weighty nonetheless...few writing today can handle writing about the underclasses of the world like Vollmann...Vollmann is a writer who writes not only beautifully but also responsibly and morally..." - San Francisco Chronicle

"Vollmann is a writer who writes not only beautifully but also responsibly and morally..." - San Francisco Chronicle

"Each of these is a mini-masterpiece of investigative journalism with a head and a heart..." - The Oregonian (Portland)