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Loner Author Charts His Own Course

Vollmann's new opus is typical—brilliant, but sometimes unreadable

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 29, 2009 3:46 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Author William T. Vollmann is an odd bird—“a loner, a bit of a recluse,” Charles McGrath writes in the New York Times, “and a throwback: a wandering, try-anything writer-journalist in the tradition of Steinbeck or Jack London.” And his new book, Imperial, about Southern California, illegal immigrants, and water, illustrates his kinship with the margins of society. It’s also “an extreme Vollmann production: brilliant in places, practically unreadable in others.”

“When I was a young boy, my little sister drowned, and it was essentially my fault,”says the author, who won the National Book Award in 2005. “It’s like I have to have sympathy … for all the people who have screwed up.” That sympathy does not extend to a reading public daunted by his new book, 1,300 pages long. “The world doesn’t owe me a living, and if the world doesn’t want to buy my books, that’s my problem.”

The Salton Sea.
The Salton Sea.   (AP Photo)
An abandoned motel sits on the edge on of the Salton Sea in North Shore, Calif.
An abandoned motel sits on the edge on of the Salton Sea in North Shore, Calif.   (AP Photo)
A patrol vehicle is seen from the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border, in Tecate.
A patrol vehicle is seen from the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border, in Tecate.   (AP Photo)
William T. Vollmann.
William T. Vollmann.   (Viking Press)
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COMMENTS
Showing 1 of 1 comment
brawne
Jul 29, 2009 11:49 AM CDT
Talk about looking like a young Stephen King. And if you want to be the new Pynchon, well have at it. The pain of blame is just too wicked a thing. And water rights in California were so well done in Chinatown.

 
California • Mexico • publishing • illegal immigration • author • William T. Vollmann • Imperial County • irrigation • Salton Sea

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