This unusual fictional account, which is in good part autobiographical, narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-out of two cities. The Parisian episode is fascinating for its exposé of the kitchens of posh French restaurants, where the narrator works at the bottom of the culinary echelon as dishwasher or plongeur. In London, while waiting for a job, he experiences the world of tramps, street people, and free lodging houses. In the tales of both cities we learn sobering Orwellian truths about poverty and society