The Atlas [Paperback]

William Vollmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1997

Set in locales from Phnom Penh to Sarajevo, from Jerusalem to New York, and provocatively combining autobiography with invention, these 53 interconnected tales examine poverty, violence, and loss, even as they celebrate the beauty of landscape, the thrill of the alien, and the infinitely precious pain of love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Last year could be remembered as a year in which the prolific young Vollmann did not publish a book; early 1996, however, shows that he wasn't sitting on his hands. This massive tome collects "tales" and "snapshots" of his travels over the past five years into something resembling "The World According to Me." Although Vollmann's style is to play it coy with respect to what is fact and what is fiction, there is no mystery as to who is doing the talking here: it is the same persona we've seen in all his books (The Rifles; Whores for Gloria; etc.), a kind of rogue innocent, a Candide with a supply of condoms and a girl in every port. And indeed, Atlas sports quite an itinerary: from Mt. Etna to Zagreb, with stops in dozens of places, none of which will surprise readers of Vollmann's previous travelogues. Unfortunately, for all the traveling, Vollmann never manages to escape his own obsessions. Whether he is discoursing on drinking beer or shooting heroin or smoking crack or chewing khat in San Francisco, Bangkok or Kenya, the reader is treated to the same lovelorn teddy-bear pining after a devastated whoredom, as if the world can be reduced to a rainy afternoon in a bug-infested hotel room. The Vollmann character throws money around (within limits), makes halting efforts at moral education, professes his love and then starts another chapter. Is this the noblesse oblige of the post-partisan American? Despite a structure that Vollmann says, in his preface, is a thematic palindrome, intrepid readers may find it a thematic monotone.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Vollmann has gained cult status in the writing world, which, by definition, means his work is not for tradition-bound, and certainly not timid, readers. His novels and stories--and differentiating between a Vollmann novel and a collection of his stories is often difficult, because, in his hands, the two forms share a similar structure--are surrealistic, sordid, sensational, and terrific. His latest book is ostensibly a 53-piece collection of travel writing, "a piecemeal atlas of the world I think in," as he words it. What it is, in effect, is a kaleidoscope of verbal pictures, rendered with the incredible vividness of his gritty but beautiful style. Whether he's writing about the crowds in New York's Grand Central Station ("the people who rushed through this concourse came from the rim of everywhere to be ejaculated everywhere, redistributing themselves without reference to each other" ) or witnessing mosquitoes driving human and beast to madness in the Yukon ("the most horrible thing that I have ever seen" ), Vollmann expresses himself with a clarity and a visualization all his own. His readership is growing; no fan will be disappointed here. Brad Hooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140254498
• ISBN-13: 978-0140254495
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #365,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beauty in ugliness, March 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Atlas (Paperback)

The prose of this novel is stark, as is the view of the world presented though the eyes of characters who all seem to be lost travellers--in both a physical and a spiritual sense. The observations of the grim and unpleasant aspects of the physical conditions of life as well as the un-human ways that people treat each other risks total alienation of the reader. But if you're willing to step outside of your ordinary expectations as to the representation of emotion in a novel, then these strange tales come alive. The book presents a dark surface and shows much of what is worst in life, but manages to be an affirmation of our attempts to strive for beauty rather than a condemnation of our failures.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look into exotic places, February 18, 2005

By 

Thomas Willard "il_duce" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Atlas (Paperback)

Vollmann has almost written the perfect book. He falls short by presenting only singularities and anecdotes regarding his travels. If he had included historical frameworks, or traced the interactions he had, a la Robert Kaplan, to a historical framework that informs the present, the reader would walk away with more. He has balls to travel in some of the places that he has. He allows the reader to step into situations that he or she might find prohibitvely dangerous. He has a sensitive eye to present the hardships of the land of the people in a way that is beautiful and tragic. One of the most disturbing vingettes was a trip in Northern Canada where he saw a hitch hiker being consumed by mosquitoes; she was flailing around going mad. The Bosnia scenes and many of the San Francisco scenes are also memorable. I live in the neighborhood, Mission District, where some of his vingettes take place. I have to say I can certainly see the underside of the city that he is talking about.
Note, this is not a novel. It is more of a travel journal of dissociated experiences and visions. It is a history of the everyday.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh Yeah, July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Atlas (Paperback)

Why do I like Vollmann? Because he never judges a person. Whereas everybody and their friggin uncle are judging him all the time. I admire the writer who can say what he has to say and stand by those words. I've seen Vollmann on book tour twice here in Chicago. The first was for Butterfly Stories and the second was for The Atlas. When he asked the small crowd of students at Northwestern University who had read the Atlas, I raised my hand and told him that the Rifles was a better book. Some of the students snickered and Vollmann replied "Well that's a good book to." Honestly it took several readings of the Atlas to finally appreciate it. My favorite stories are the African and Canadian stories. Read this one while you're traveling alone. (Alex Sydorenko, July 1999, Chicago)