Walker is a veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after the 2nd world war. Drifting alone from the East to the West Coast of America, he gets a job for a paper documenting the homeless in the cities whose histories are being torn down to make space for the new.

Robertson’s poetry is beautiful, though his images are terribly sad and often revolting. He really captures the desperate situation of these traumatised young men, who have seen horrific things and are now being left to drink in gutters by a world which is moving on without them.

The book looks at the powerlessness of the poor, the way progress is performed (the performance in fact often masking the lack of progress), the evil all men are capable of, the loneliness of the post war generation and of course the history of the United States.

The insidious evil and decay present throughout are terrifying and yet there are moments of lightness and beauty here which create flashes of hope: two men stopping their van to watch whales, some others sharing a Christmas together and Billy who despite having nothing works to help others who are homeless.