William T. Vollmann

The debut collection of stories from the National Book-Award winning author of Europe Central From a writer who has won comparison with Thomas Pynchon and William S. Burroughs comes thirteen unnerving and often breathtaking stories populated by punks and angels, skinheads and religious assassins, streetwalkers and fetishists--people who live outside the law and and the clear light of the every day. Set in landscapes as diverse as ancient Babylon, India, and the seamy underbelly of San Francisco, these daring and innovative tales are laced with Vollmann's fertile imagination. The Rainbow Stories ushers us into a world that bears an awful yet hypnotic resemblance to that of our deepest nightmares, confirming Vollmann's reputation as a dark visionary of contemporary fiction.

The Rainbow Stories

I came away from this book with the feeling that Vollmann is a deeply sad man, a voyeur, and a ghost in the lives of other people. The mix of fantasy, crime fiction, and mundane description of the lives of people around him gives this book the feeling that you're in Vollmann's head, listening to his thoughts and seeing his imagined world. This is an uncomfortable position to occupy and part of the reason this took me so long to read. Skinheads, prostitutes, Vollman's neighbors, roommates, friends, and lovers pass through the book and Vollmann himself feels like the absence of a person, like a black hole with no volition of his own except his sexual impulses. His relationships with women in this book were especially hard to read. 

I think Vollmann is best when describing machines and dead bodies, which he does several times and very well. The mythological chapters are also welcome.

Alex 

I came away from this book with the feeling that Vollmann is a deeply sad man, a voyeur, and a ghost in the lives of other people. The mix of fantasy, crime fiction, and mundane description of the lives of people around him gives this book the feeling that you're in Vollmann's head, listening to his thoughts and seeing his imagined world. This is an uncomfortable position to occupy and part of the reason this took me so long to read. Skinheads, prostitutes, Vollman's neighbors, roommates, friends, and lovers pass through the book and Vollmann himself feels like the absence of a person, like a black hole with no volition of his own except his sexual impulses. His relationships with women in this book were especially hard to read. 

I think Vollmann is best when describing machines and dead bodies, which he does several times and very well. The mythological chapters are also welcome.

Jeremy Warren Mills

A collection of thirteen short fiction stories about people around the world who live outside the law.

The Rainbow Stories

Reviews