WHAT I'M READING:
POOR PEOPLE: William Vollman
RIDING TOWARDS EVERYWHERE (see above) - OK, so on the strength of a so-so NYT Book Review notice (which was, as it turns out, quite prescient and accurate) I picked up both of the "newer" Vollman books. The last thing I had read by Vollman was the "Royal Family," which, in truly bizarre fashion, I made beach reading of down in Miami FL the year it came out. I don't recommend it for the beach (for one thing, it's about 200 pages too long; for another, it's not exactly an "upper") but that's neither here nor there: The point is, I obviously enjoyed Vollman's work enough that I was moved to pick these two books up.
So, let's start with the latter first because I've actually finished that one. At present I'm only about 200 pages into "Poor People," so my opinions, aside from being half-baked, are half-formed. I found "Riding" to be a bit of a slog, and when I was done with it, I promptly passed it on to a bartender, who the following week came back in with the book and said basically the same thing but in a far coarser fashion. Unlike much of Vollman's work _ which is lyrical and depressing, if beautiful _ this is just downright clipped and weird. Two middle aged guys _ Vollman's got two kids, a wife and five years on me! _ are running about with drunks hopping freight trains? C'mon. For one thing, Vollman presents little of the very rich hobo history that America; for another, he seems to have an unhealthy fixation with the beyond the bottom rung folks that hang around train yards. Vollman's milieu is the underclass of America and the world, but it seems like this time out he's more of a slum tourist than an actual reporter. I kind of wish this was a subject Michael Chabon had tackled, for there is indeed a rich history to be uncovered, and probably a lot to say about the dregs of our society (and how they got there), but this book isn't it.
"Poor People" is a bit more troubled, weird as that may sound. First, it's a better book: it is about a richer subject, Vollman does more with it, and it is very well written. Some have criticized this book because Vollman makes no bones about paying the people he talks to for their time. Journalism ethics aside, this presents problems, because in more than one case the people he gives the money to use it to harm themselves and their families. Vollman would probably use the same argument he does to justify his habitual support of the prostitution trade: the libertarian tendency to allow people to do what they want. That's all fine and good as a theory, but more than once, you get the feeling that Vollman is doing little more than taking advantage of his subjects, winding them up like toys and setting them loose to see what they do. Ideals tend to fall apart in practice, and so does this book. It is enjoyable, and it is well written, make no mistake. But it adds little to the debate on poverty; this is voyeurism, not journalism. Then again, some people thought Barbara Eirenreich's "Nickled and Dimed" was a stunt too, and I thought that was a tour de force.
TREE OF SMOKE Denis Johnson - Still wading through it. I'm about 300 pages in now, and I have to say, I'm very impressed. Not a hell of a lot happens in this book, but it's very enjoyable getting there. For those of you who don't know what this book is about, it's a putative meditation on Vietnam and American culture from 1966-1976, told through an interlocking series of characters _ a Pattonesque Psy-ops colonel; his nephew, who hauls around his uncle's (quite literal) cabinet of curiosities; two loser brothers from nowheresville; and one Vietnamese family. This is not "Heart of Darkness" or "Apocalypse Now," and that's a good thing. I'm not sure what it is yet, but it's up there with Pychon's "Against the Day" and Chabon's "Yiddish Policemen's Union" as my fave read of the season so far.
POOR PEOPLE: William Vollman
RIDING TOWARDS EVERYWHERE (see above) - OK, so on the strength of a so-so NYT Book Review notice (which was, as it turns out, quite prescient and accurate) I picked up both of the "newer" Vollman books. The last thing I had read by Vollman was the "Royal Family," which, in truly bizarre fashion, I made beach reading of down in Miami FL the year it came out. I don't recommend it for the beach (for one thing, it's about 200 pages too long; for another, it's not exactly an "upper") but that's neither here nor there: The point is, I obviously enjoyed Vollman's work enough that I was moved to pick these two books up.
So, let's start with the latter first because I've actually finished that one. At present I'm only about 200 pages into "Poor People," so my opinions, aside from being half-baked, are half-formed. I found "Riding" to be a bit of a slog, and when I was done with it, I promptly passed it on to a bartender, who the following week came back in with the book and said basically the same thing but in a far coarser fashion. Unlike much of Vollman's work _ which is lyrical and depressing, if beautiful _ this is just downright clipped and weird. Two middle aged guys _ Vollman's got two kids, a wife and five years on me! _ are running about with drunks hopping freight trains? C'mon. For one thing, Vollman presents little of the very rich hobo history that America; for another, he seems to have an unhealthy fixation with the beyond the bottom rung folks that hang around train yards. Vollman's milieu is the underclass of America and the world, but it seems like this time out he's more of a slum tourist than an actual reporter. I kind of wish this was a subject Michael Chabon had tackled, for there is indeed a rich history to be uncovered, and probably a lot to say about the dregs of our society (and how they got there), but this book isn't it.
"Poor People" is a bit more troubled, weird as that may sound. First, it's a better book: it is about a richer subject, Vollman does more with it, and it is very well written. Some have criticized this book because Vollman makes no bones about paying the people he talks to for their time. Journalism ethics aside, this presents problems, because in more than one case the people he gives the money to use it to harm themselves and their families. Vollman would probably use the same argument he does to justify his habitual support of the prostitution trade: the libertarian tendency to allow people to do what they want. That's all fine and good as a theory, but more than once, you get the feeling that Vollman is doing little more than taking advantage of his subjects, winding them up like toys and setting them loose to see what they do. Ideals tend to fall apart in practice, and so does this book. It is enjoyable, and it is well written, make no mistake. But it adds little to the debate on poverty; this is voyeurism, not journalism. Then again, some people thought Barbara Eirenreich's "Nickled and Dimed" was a stunt too, and I thought that was a tour de force.
TREE OF SMOKE Denis Johnson - Still wading through it. I'm about 300 pages in now, and I have to say, I'm very impressed. Not a hell of a lot happens in this book, but it's very enjoyable getting there. For those of you who don't know what this book is about, it's a putative meditation on Vietnam and American culture from 1966-1976, told through an interlocking series of characters _ a Pattonesque Psy-ops colonel; his nephew, who hauls around his uncle's (quite literal) cabinet of curiosities; two loser brothers from nowheresville; and one Vietnamese family. This is not "Heart of Darkness" or "Apocalypse Now," and that's a good thing. I'm not sure what it is yet, but it's up there with Pychon's "Against the Day" and Chabon's "Yiddish Policemen's Union" as my fave read of the season so far.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
oryon:
hi, ojaeflow said I should probably introduce myself to you. I'm Lan, one of the new guys on shotgun. Just thought I would say hello and that you are doing an excellent job!
ojaeflo:
Dood, where ya been?? 