"Losers" was the latest book that I have finished reading. I was not sure of what to expect from David since the previous books that I have read deal completely with fanatasy. This book made an interesting departure from his other works. It is not a conventional sort of story. It is like from seeing "Lord of the rings - movie" to seeing a satirical version of urban decay kind of movie. And thats exactly what he has dealt with - urban decay. The book deals with people living on their welfare checks, social security and food stamps from the government and "social service" helpers. I dont understand the social security concept in US very well, however, from what I have read from the book it is definitely a very good system to take care of people. The book's hero, a "cripple" and a castrated young man from a railroad accident, wages war against the system which instead of giving dignity and a reason for human being to live, merely makes them - in a vegetative way, to survive. The important implication that I got from this book is the reason for the slums (may not be the only reason...). I often used to wonder why people continue to lamguish in the slums when they can very well come out of it. Well, this may sound ludicurous to some people and and outright nonsense, but then it should be possible. if not for all, but atleast for a few among them. Take the case of the slum in my locality in thiruvanmiyur. The people can readily find jobs, albeit, low-level. However, that is enough for their sustenance. Their kids could easily get education, since, education is pretty much free, including lunch. Health care is really not expensive though not of very high quality. What I am trying to say is, though they donot have the best of basic human necessities, they have something from which they can begin. They may never be able to come out of their slums in their life times, but, definitely their children can. All the kids need is persuation and education. They can end up working as say, electrician, plumber, shopkeepers etc. And eventually their children can come into the "so called middle class". This needs effort, strong will and can be tampered by many factors. However, this can be still done. However, now that I have read this book, there is more to this than I thought. After living is such squalid conditions for sometime, their environment may sap out whatever hope that may be left of them. And worse, if they were born and brought up in such conditions, they would never even think about getting richer, not just monetarily, but also otherwise. And then the society basically feeds them and feeds upon them. In all this, I am quite proud of my parents. They both have come from poor families from village, with some kind of education. Their only goal in life was to come up in life and to educate their children. But for them, neither me nor my sister would be where we are. I also realize that, now I have the same responsibility to give a better life and improvement to my kids when they come about.