55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vollmann's, August 2, 2009
This review is from: Imperial (Hardcover)
William T. Vollmann spent a decade trolling through the underside of the nation, the California-Mexico border with an obsessed eye for the grime, excess, love, blood, and sex that is his meat. Heck, that makes for much of the interest in any work of fiction or nonfiction. Here's it revealed in 1300+ pages that read as though they were pulled directly from the travel journals of a crazed obsessive. But it probably wasn't that simple. Behind the flowing stream of consciousness is an author ruthlessly and efficiently dissecting the contradictions in American-Mexican relations, in late capitalism, and in a failed environment. (The Salton Sea is California's biggest lake, but it's also a massive failure caused by too many diversions of the Colorado River. Pollution and decay flow in, but nothing flows out. So it is with Imperial County.)
It's a big wasteland, and this is a big book that tries to look at the big issues in the wasteland. It's a product of an author who is interested in everything. It's a book I'd love to think of myself as writing, but I'd be too scared to dive so deeply. So this massive Moby Dick, an albatross about Vollmann's neck lands on our desks for us to live, vicariously, through his exploits. Yep, there are strip clubs, prostitutes, and illegal laborers, but there are also farmers, ranchers, folks striving for a better life. But the failures of Imperial (the county not the book) match and mirror the failure of America overall, and we're in the mood for some critical examinations today.
What's a book review without criticisms? Well, Vollmann is a sloppy investigator, a sloppy fact checker, and a failure as a journalist. This is a work of passion, not of careful investigation. We learn all about his breakup with a girlfriend, but are never clear on exactly what is produced agriculturally in Imperial. But such criticisms are missing the point. We endure this mass of pages for the excitement, for the energy, for the look at the underbelly, and not for clinical analysis. Someone could write "Imperial: A legacy of decay" for the University of California Press and a dozen copies would be sold.
I'll pass on yet another mention of Vollmann's excesses, but instead mention an excess of the publisher. $[...]. Sure, it's discounted here, but what about independent bookstores? Is this really intended to be sold for that price? Or only at discount? Compare with the pricing of Infinite Jest or Against and Day.
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A mixed review, October 12, 2009
This review is from: Imperial (Hardcover)
I wrote and rewrote my review of this book (in my head) endlessly as I read this book. Often that mental drafting served the purpose of venting, since after about page 300 my partner made it clear she was tired of hearing how annoying I found the book. "Stop reading it or stop telling me about how much you dislike the book." Fair enough. But I did want to finish the book, and despite my great annoyance I now want to track down a copy of his 7 volume treatise on violence.
I have for years wanted to like Vollmann's writing. But after a few pages I always give up, and am annoyed at myself (and Vollmann). Imperial is a subject that interests me, so I decided this was the book I would read all the way through. And I did, including the source section. This is the only review I've written where I could envision writing a review, in all sincerity, with a 1 or 3 or 5 star rating (though I detest the requirement of assigning a numerical "grade" to a review). So here are a few reviews for this book.
One star - why is this classified as nonfiction?
Think of a student assigned a paper called "describe the various social, economic and natural forces currently faced by Imperial County, California." My student heads to the library, wanders through the stacks and lodged between Ellis Island and the peopling of America : the official guide and California state register and year book of facts (at least in my library) is a 2.5" thick bright red book spine with one word "Imperial." My student opens the book at random to chapter 88, which reads, in its entirety:
I can't believe in people. Did you ever consider them as machines-machines that make eggs? And in material advantages they are already well supplied.
Why, I would be sick to my stomach if a rode down that valley in California, over those long miles owned by one man. He sold out at a fancy price. Imperial County shows rapid increase. The constant threat of heavy shipments...seemed to be a depressing factor. I am willing to give a good deal of credit to the new methods of retail food stores.
Because of market conditions in 1934, the equivalent of 300,000 crates of lettuce were unharvested in the Imperial Valley. She's dancing with someone else, the bitch!
"Let's face it Bill. Investigative reporting is not really your strong suit." [page 922]
Five star - persons interviewed: 120, bibliography includes an impressive quantity of primary sources, he visited the area for a decade in order to assemble the research. And as every reviewer feels the need to say...it is over 1,100 pages! (I was touched by Brianna Lusk's unusual candor in saying "despite the local buzz generated from the book's publication...the Imperial Valley Press was unable to track down a local resident who has finished it.")
Three star...
He writes very well, is endlessly earnest, and is willing to search almost endlessly (or at least a decade) to uncover more elements (though not necessarily facts...and again, this purports to be a nonfiction book) of what he considers to be Imperial. But this is one of the most snarky books I have ever encountered! In a footnote the author asks if the book would be better if he were more cynical. Frankly I can't imagine how the book could possibly be more cynical. It is simply that he uses a quirky method to display this cynicism. As the book progresses Imperial does also, mainly through increased irrigation, and then the progress stops and Imperial slides backwards, mainly because of water issues. This is told in a pastiche of stories using historic photos, public records and interviews. But interspersed through these is a continual repetition of sentences such as "I have never been cheated out of a dollar in my life" to shadow all of his "facts" in a deep cynicism.
This is an author with a massive axe to grind. We are told several times during the book that he started Imperial, or the idea of Imperial, as a novel. On page 1116 we were finally told what we already know very well, which is that "I began my as yet unwritten novel by hating Los Angeles." By hating urban, by hating the rich, by hating, hating, hating the INS. The list is exceedingly long of the things he hates in this book. But with a couple of exceptions, he doesn't say that. Instead he provides you with a large set of "photos" describing a geographic area. But what he chooses to describe, and the photo-montage he creates with those descriptions speaks as strongly to what he leaves out of the descriptions as what he includes.
I also found it annoying that he has written a study, history, whatever that purports to describe both the Mexican and United States portions of Imperial. Annoying because the author speaks not a word of Spanish. I find this incredible. And if that isn't insulting enough to Mexico, he then uses as an early interpreter a homeless guy who not only smells but calls the Chinese Mexicans he talks to "gooks." Are we surprised that none wish to have anything to do with this "interpreter" and the author?
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