Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Luke Williams, Echo Publishing, $29.99.
Journalist and two-time Walkley nominee, Williams has written a memoir which is slightly different from the norm. An inkling of the story is obvious in its subtitle, East. West. Sex. Death.
Coming down off crystal meth without plans or much cash, Williams flies to Kuala Lumpur. He is in Asia for three years where he spends time working as a prostitute in Pattaya, eats snake heart in Vietnam, consults an American medium in Ubud and explores the eye-popping red light scenes in Jakarta and the Philippines.
As the blurb describes it: “he encounters other Westerners who go to Asia for the things they can’t find at home – riches, wives, ladyboys, cheap living and even cheaper drugs, cults, spices, mountains, tropical beaches, beach gigolos, ‘self-esteem’ necklaces, and ascended masters”.
Unbelievably honest, Williams tempts you into his headspace as he travels all over Asia. Submerging himself into every experience and situation that goes far beyond giving an account, we see flecks of his history coming through. His imaginings, displeasure, urges and his inherited struggle with mental illness start to catch up with him. He becomes addicted to Valium, is haunted by the past and ends up in jail. Luke’s conflict is real: ‘what is and what was and his own footprint upon it all’.
Down and Out in Paradise is the culmination of four years work and three years of travel across Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia and the Philippines. It an exciting, wild and very touching exploration on chance and change, choice and class, ego and freedom, totem and taboo, history and belonging.
Luke Williams takes the reader through both his experiences and his impressions of these countries. He has an eye for beauty and the poetry in what he sees – but when necessary, he also sees the ordinary, the offensive and the sleazy. One piece of advice is to live your life to the fullest.
