Word: vollmannã
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...about two possibilities,” he writes. “The first and more likely but less immediately detrimental one was that we might get poisoned by the New River... The second peril, which seriously concerned me, was dehydration.” In spite of such ubiquitous danger, Vollmann??s devotion is unflagging; “Imperial” is a work that leaves little to the imagination, and Vollmann literally leaves no stone unturned. His obsession both drives the book and sidetracks it. One chapter includes listings from the county directory of names and their corresponding...
...Even the length of the book affirms Vollmann??s devotion to his topic. In 2000, his second year researching for “Imperial,” he was already determined “to return year after year, deepening friendships, exploring sandscapes and ruthlessly studying people’s lives until Imperial became as shockingly bright in my mind as the bands of sunny grass between the aisles of a palm-orchard.” For the next eight years, Vollmann completed “Imperial” doing precisely that. His interests are equally topological...
...understand Imperial as a place divorced from his own personal memories. Somehow this absurd explanation for the origins of “Imperial” seems absolutely credible coming from Vollmann, whose previous works reveal, if nothing else, a man easily obsessed. A sentimentality colors the prose of Vollmann??s work at large in a way that would make calling “Imperial” purely non-fiction reductive. Even his decision to leave out quotations in favor of fluid movement from description to speech gives it the affect of raw consciousness, as if heard...
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