false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173531259m/300736.jpg 300736 6 By the standards of the street, Henry Tyler is a good man, kind to hookers and the homeless, skilled at avoiding fights. He'd be the first to admit that his job as a private investigator is unsavory, and he turns away many prospective clients by suggesting that they may not want to hate their spouses any more than they already do. The love of his life, to his regret, is his brother's sweet, conventional wife, Irene. Henry's brother John, in almost black-and-white contrast, is cold and professional, all his yearnings focused on becoming full partner in his law firm. He manages to distance himself emotionally from everything but his mother and the hand-painted Italian silk ties that signify success to him. Although not overly fond of his wife, he resents Henry's longing for her, which seems to typify everything sloppy and extravagant in his brother's nature, everything that marks him as a loser.<p> On this classic framework William Vollmann has hung a gargantuan novel, by turns satiric, philosophical, lyrical, and baroque. It is a song of San Francisco. Rarely has a city been explored so tenderly and ruthlessly, from the mansions of Pacific Heights to the flophouses of the Tenderloin. In one of his many loving set pieces, Vollmann sends Henry Tyler through the streets surrounding Union Square, where a Peruvian quartet is playing to some weary tourist ladies. <blockquote> Their lives were passing, vacations trickling through the hourglass; moment by moment this warmish blue San Francisco day was being wasted. They sat beneath lush palm-trees, and distantly a trolley-car sounded its bell as he heard the ladies talking about grilled-cheese sandwiches; then he was past them and could not hear anymore. </blockquote> Tyler spots a gray-haired man digging in a garbage can. Near him, "reflected palm-tendrils swerved and curved in the windows of Macy's, and skyscrapers' terraces swelled and bowed there as if in the throes of an immense explosion. The Peruvians' music, gentle and strangely liquid, seemed the appropriate solvent for this image of dissolution." <p> When Irene--pregnant and neglected--kills herself, John disappears into his work while Henry, in a quest that parallels the course of his grief, devotes himself to the Queen of the Whores, a dark saint who protects the lowest of the low. It makes all the difference that our Virgil for this journey to the underworld is this good-natured and observant man, whose physical appetites never overwhelm his sympathy for the addicted and exploited. Henry remains firmly on the side of good, even when the boundaries blur before his eyes. At times, the author invites identification with his big-hearted hero, as when he veers into an agitated, first-person essay on the judicial evil of bail. Beat-flavored, with touches of Rabelais, Céline, and, oddly, T.S. Eliot, <I>The Royal Family</I> is Vollmann's most ambitious work to date, and a noisy, compelling world in itself. <I>--Regina Marler</I> 291805 2000 The Royal Family total:135|5:34|4:48|3:38|2:11|1:4| 135 502 221 19 4 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Feb 04 11:42:15 -0800 2008 Mon Jun 15 22:22:25 -0700 2009
I picked up my copy in the Austin St. Vincent DePaul thrift store and the woman behind the counter blushed when she saw the multiple sets of breasts on the cover. I thought it was a sort of ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat May 30 12:25:37 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 12:34:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Mon Feb 09 12:36:14 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 12:36:14 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Thu Jan 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 15:11:08 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 09:57:05 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Dec 29 22:42:01 -0800 2007 Mon Jun 02 09:01:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Sep 10 19:03:57 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 19:03:57 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon May 18 13:23:03 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 18:28:49 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Jun 24 07:40:29 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 08 19:37:32 -0700 2007
Certain scenes and phrases never seem to leave me: "girls like black rubber bu...more...]]> 1 0 false false Fri Oct 02 11:31:28 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 15 18:58:48 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 02 11:31:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 16 06:54:35 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 12 14:34:15 -0700 2007 Fri May 16 06:54:35 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 28 15:59:15 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 18:43:42 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Sun Jun 22 21:47:19 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 22 21:47:19 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Sun Jan 27 16:27:54 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 27 16:29:42 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sat Aug 04 10:35:57 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 04 10:39:27 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Tue Jul 29 14:22:32 -0700 2008 Mon Feb 25 21:45:55 -0800 2008 Tue Jul 29 14:22:32 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sat Jan 19 00:45:43 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 19 00:47:16 -0800 2008 like "whores for gloria" with delusions, obsession, and whores yet richer and of greater magnitude...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Dec 08 16:34:30 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 08 16:35:10 -0800 2007 0 0 false false Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 30 13:56:52 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 19:01:04 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Feb 29 08:06:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 29 08:06:10 -0800 2008
]]> 0 0 false false Sat Nov 21 06:10:03 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 21 06:10:07 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=300736