Thirteen Stories and Thirteen EpitaphsThis stunning new collection of stories confirms William T. Vollmann's growing reputation as the American writer whose books "tower over the work of his contemporaries by virtue of their enormous range, huge ambition, stylistic daring, wide learning, audacious innovation, and sardonic wit" (Washington Post Book World). All these qualities are in evidence in this collection in which the character of the writer and that of some of his intimates - both real and imaginary - surface and resurface in a series of extraordinary situations and encounters. Two astonishing stories frame this collection. The first, "The Ghost of Magnetism", tells about a young man leaving San Francisco to become a sort of literary hobo living on his freeze-dried memories. The last, "The Grave of Lost Stories", describes the death of Poe in a fungus-encrusted tomb somewhere deep in the earth. Here is the colorful and disreputable group of people familiar to us from Vollmann's earlier fiction - pimps, tramps, pornographers, witch doctors, and massage-parlor girls. Within these stories, Vollmann gives us one of the most searching, bizarre, and subversive views of America today. |
Contents
Authors Note | 3 |
Epitaph for Yummy and Ken Thailand | 57 |
Epitaph for Peggy U S A | 79 |
Copyright | |
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anymore arms asked Bangkok Barbary Coast beautiful began Blackwell blue breath candybars Charon compact disk dark Darla dead dog tags dollars door drink Elaine Suicide Elaine's everything eyes face falang Fathers and Crows feel felt fingers fuck girl glass glowing gonna grandfather grandmother grass green Greenglass Guatemala Gun City hair hand Handcuff Queen happy head heart Ice-Shirt inside Ken's kissed knew Laddie laughed legs lips lived looked Megan Morella mouth never Nicholas night pulled remember San Francisco Satoko Seth Sheet-Rock shoulders shouted skyscrapers sleep slot machines slowly smell smiled snorkel soldier sorry staring stood Stories street Suzanne Vega teeth tell Tenderloin Thailand things thought took Tosany trees tuk-tuk turned Ulalume VOLLMANN waiting walked watching whore wife window woman Yesterday Yummy