William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews

by Michael Hemmingson

Talking bugs, electricity, the founding of empires, hobos, Nazis, whores, violence, drugs, murder, secret cabals, Heaven, Hell--William T. Vollmann is a writer of enormous novels that are stuffed with entire worlds of creation and destruction. This first ever book-length critical study traces his career to date with chapters devoted to each of his novels, as well as his short stories and major nonfiction. Vollmann is a writer of obsessions, and this study concentrates on three of them--freedom, redemption, and prostitution--while arguing that the author that dwells on them is worthy of being called one of our greatest living American writers. Also included are seven interviews spanning the years 1991-2007 that reinforce the persistence of Vollmann's attraction to these themes.

Genres: Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

A novelist, short story writer, literary critic, cultural anthropologist, qualitative researcher, playwright, and screenwriter. He died in Tijuana, Mexico on 9 January 2014.

(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

Michael Hemmingson’s first step towards a critical evaluation of the works of William T Vollmann is a bit slender in regard to its purpose. The second portion of the book, a collection of seven interviews with Vollmann are the most interesting, and, as interviews with such personalities tend to be, incredibly valuable. But the first portion, a survey of Vollmann’s books, themes, etc, is only slightly more critically evaluative than what can be gleaned off the internetz in a few hours of searching and reading. On the other hand, should one have access to this volume without laying out the US$40, it does provided a quick overview of what one might expect from the Vollmann’s vast body of work.

As to
Part I: Freedom, Redemption, and Prostitution:
1. You Bright and Risen Angels
2. Rainbow Stories; Thirteen Stories and Thirteen Epithets; Europe Central
3. Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes
4. The Whore Trilogy
5. Rising Up Rising Down
6. An Afghanistan Picture Show; The Atlas
7. Poor People; Riding Toward Everywhere; Imperial

Part II:Seven Conversations
1. Moth to the Flame, with Larry McCaffery, 1991. Collected also in McCaffery’s Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors, portions of which are available at google books (as are those of our present volume).

[not included] RCF #13.2, interview with Lary MCaffery, 1993.
http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/book/?fa...

2. The Write Stuff 7 ALT-X Interview with AL, 1994.
http://www.altx.com/int2/william.t.vo...

3. Vollmann Shares Vision, with Michelle Goldberg, 2000.
http://www.alternet.org/story/9977/au...

[not included] the Paris Review #163, interview with Madison Smartt Bell, 2000.
http://www.theparisreview.org/intervi...

4. Pattern Recognitions, with Larry McCaffery, 2001.

[not included] Interview with Alexander Laurence, 2001.
http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/may_2...

5. Drinks With Tony, interview with Tony Dushane, 2005.
http://www.bookslut.com/features/2005...
http://www.drinkswithtony.com/william... (audio)

6. The Subversive Dialogues, with Kate Braverman, 2006.
http://www.sfbg.com/40/21/lit_convers...
http://katebraverman.com/interview.html (complete)

7. A Day At William T. Vollmann’s Studio, interview with Terri Saul regarding Vollmann’s book-objects and visual art works, 2007.
http://quarterlyconversation.com/will...

Also included in this Hemmingson volume are a Vollmann bibliography complete through 2008/9, and an important Appendix, “CoTangent Press Book Arts” in which Vollmann’s limited edition book-object productions are described.

_______________
Extra from yers truly: Larry McCarffery discussing Vollmann at MLA 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iNpUF...

And the Vollmann Club has a few more links:
http://www.edrants.com/wtv/

Here’s the Vollmann Archive at Ohio State University:
http://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/r...



____________
The Rain Taxi review of our present volume:
http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2010sp...


[Please let me know if any links are busted]

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a full review, go here:

http://www.raintaxi.com/william-t-vol...

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The truth is, I get kind of bored with a lot of ordinary people. It's not that I think that I'm better than they are. If anything I think they're probably better than I am. It's easier for them to be happy and just live their lives, whereas for some reason I don't seem to be happy just living my life. It always feels like I'm looking for something new, something that's not ordinary. Given that predisposition, I'm always trying to find people who don't seem familiar, and oftentimes that puts me into that dream world I experienced as a kid, because the more extreme and exotic the experience and the more difficult the people, the more I learn, and the less remains that's not ordinary. Then even the process of searching for the exotic becomes a habit. Like a dream" (86)

The analysis offers no more insight than an 11th grade book report but the interviews are worth reading, esp the last three.

[Louis Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important book.

[Alexander Weber · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's good! but it took me forever to read, so I can't really remember the beginning "critical study" section
I've read so many Vollmann interviews by this point they all seem the same

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

No disrespect to Hemmingson, but I grabbed this book from a library display just to read the interviews. I had to know more about the person that wrote Europe Central. All I can say now is that I am desperate to read more of his work, particularly The Royal Family and The Ice Shirt.

Complaints about the quality of this printing are just. The interviews are interesting but didn't anyone proof this?