WTV is a Finalist for a National Book Award
October 12th, 2005A big hip hip hooray and suweeeeeeet for William T. Vollmann, who is a finalist for a National Book Award (He’s not listed in the press release, but he’s on the list - his page is returning a 404 at this time). He was nominated for Europe Central, his latest novel.
This is well deserved nomination and I will have all toes and fingers crossed that WTV is finally validated for his work (although the nomination is some sort of pat on the back). I’m finishing up his first novel (You Bright and Risen Angels) and am continuously baffled by his extraordinary writing. Hip Hip Hooray!
New to Vollmann? Never heard of him? The NYT has an author profile with reviews of all his books and an article from the magazine which appeared in 1994. Here is what Tom LeClair said about Europe Central:
“Vollmann is a master of atmosphere, expanding a trivial detail into a metaphor, then wiring that metaphor to others, as he does with a black rotary telephone that ultimately extends into “Europe Central.” He is not so adept at dialogue. Perhaps recognizing the difficulties of creating historical and translated speech, Vollmann has his narrators expatiate much, much more than they eavesdrop on conversations. The narrators’ ideological rant in some interchapters also becomes repetitive and can be oppressive.
But these quibbles are like an occasional wrong number in the vast cross-cultural switchboard of “Europe Central.” Part novel and part stories, virtuoso historical remembrance and focused study of violence, “Europe Central” orchestrates the best of Vollmann’s past impulses into one large-minded and bighearted “Opus 15.” Or “Opus 21.”