The rainbow stories

Front Cover
Penguin Books, 1992 - Fiction - 541 pages
2 Reviews
The thirteen stories in this book are populated by punks and angels, skinheads and religious assassins, streetwalkers and fetishists - people who live outside the law and and the clear light of the every day. Set in landscapes as diverse as ancient Babylon, India, and the seamy underbelly of San Francisco, these tales are laced with Vollman's fertile imagination. 'The Rainbow Stories' ushers readers into a world that bears an awful yet hypnotic resemblance to that of our deepest nightmares.

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - HadriantheBlind - LibraryThing

Excellent stories about the underbelly of society. Vollmann is still developing, after the utterly bizarre "You Bright and Risen Angels", and this is his first 'realist' work. Very impressive, though ... Read full review

The rainbow stories

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

These long, interlocking short stories comprise an anthropological field report from San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, 20 years after the Summer of Love. The author's stated goal is simply to ... Read full review

Contents

The Visible Spectrum
5
The White Knights
59
Ladies and Red Lights
81
Copyright

3 other sections not shown

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The rainbow stories
William T. Vollmann
Snippet view - 1989

Common terms and phrases

Abednego arms Barlow Beelzebub began blood blue Bootwoman Brandi burned Burning Fiery Furnace Cala Foods Catherine Cory Smith cried Dagger Dan-L dark dead Dickie dirty dollars door Drano drink Evangeline eyes face fingers flames friends fuck Furnace girl gonna green dress grey Gypsy Haight Street hair hand head inside Jenny Jenny's Joorah Naig kill kiss knew Koduk Bunwaree laughed legs light living looked machine Marisa Mark Pauline Meshach Mount Shasta mouth Nebuchadnezzar never night old Joorah Park Paul Raven phlebotomist policewoman rich round Salamanders screaming Shadrach shoulders sidewalk skinheads Skinz slowly smiled smoke stared Stephanie Survival Research Laboratories talk tell Tenderloin thing Thugs told took trees turned violet waiting walked wall watching whore window woman Wrecking Crew Yama YAWEH yelled yellow Zombie Zombie's

About the author (1992)

William T. Vollmann is the author of seven novels, three collections of stories, and a seven-volume critique of violence, "Rising Up and Rising Down". He is also the author of "Poor People", a worldwide examination of poverty through the eyes of the impoverished themselves; "Riding Toward Everywhere", an examination of the train-hopping hobo lifestyle; and Imperial, a panoramic look at one of the poorest areas in America. He has won the PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction, a Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize and a Whiting Writers' Award. His journalism and fiction have been published in "The New Yorker", "Esquire", "Spin" and "Granta". Vollmann lives in Sacramento, California.

Bibliographic information

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TitleThe rainbow stories
Contemporary American fiction
AuthorWilliam T. Vollmann
Editionreprint
PublisherPenguin Books, 1992
Original fromthe University of Michigan
DigitizedJan 21, 2010
ISBN0140171541, 9780140171549
Length541 pages
Subjects › 

Fiction / Gay
Fiction / General
Fiction / Literary
Fiction / Short Stories (single author)
  
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