In New York, Limonov also discovered another side of the American Dream. After being a dissident, he lived a poor life due to his low revenues. He managed to afford a room in a miserable hostel and spent time with homeless persons, some of whom he had casual sexual intercourse with, as related in the memoir "The Russian Poet Prefers Big Blacks" published in France under the title "Le poète russe préfère les grands nègres". He then found a job as a butler for a millionaire in the Upper East Side. This period of his life led him to write autobiographical texts, including "His Butler's Story".