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The Rainbow Stories
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The Rainbow Stories Paperback - 1992

by William T. Vollmann

Here are 13 daring and innovative tales dealing with "skinheads, x-ray patients, whores, lovers, fetishists, and other lost souls" who populate landscapes as diverse as ancient Babylon, India, and contemporary San Francisco. Part fiction, part reportage, these narratives are laced with a bleak and bitter humor, and portray a dazzling array of characters.


Summary

From a writer who has won comparison with Thomas Pynchon and William S. Burroughs comes thirteen unnerving and often breathtaking stories 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 daring and innovative tales are laced with Vollman's fertile imagination. The Rainbow Stories ushers us into a world that bears an awful yet hypnotic resemblance to that of our deepest nightmares, confirming Vollman's reputation as a dark visionary of contemporary fiction.

From the publisher

The debut collection of stories from the National Book-Award winning author of Europe Central From a writer who has won comparison with Thomas Pynchon and William S. Burroughs comes thirteen unnerving and often breathtaking stories 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 daring and innovative tales are laced with Vollmann's fertile imagination. The Rainbow Stories ushers us into a world that bears an awful yet hypnotic resemblance to that of our deepest nightmares, confirming Vollmann's reputation as a dark visionary of contemporary fiction.

First line

Bending and leaning on his crutches, a patient dwindled down the white glassy corridor, trying so hard to follow the red line that he was a joy to watch.

Details

  • Title The Rainbow Stories
  • Author William T. Vollmann
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 560
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Books, New York
  • Date July 1, 1992
  • ISBN 9780140171549 / 0140171541
  • Weight 1.02 lbs (0.46 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.44 x 5.52 x 1.12 in (21.44 x 14.02 x 2.84 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Themes
    • Demographic Orientation: Urban
  • Library of Congress subjects Hippies, Haight-Ashbury (San Francisco, Calif.) -
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

Citations

  • Publishers Weekly, 06/01/1992, Page 0

About the author

William T. Vollmann is the author of ten novels, including Europe Central, which won the National Book Award. He has also written four collections of stories, including The Atlas, which won the PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction, a memoir, and six works of nonfiction, including Rising Up and Rising Down and Imperial, both of which were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His journalism and fiction have been published in The New Yorker, Harpers, Esquire, Granta, and many other publications.
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The Rainbow Stories (Contemporary American Fiction)

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