3.5
The Royal Family
ByPublisher Description
A rich, haunting novel of street life in San Francisco’s Mission District, from the National Book Award-winning author of Europe Central
In The Royal Family, William T. Vollmann uses the story of two brothers to construct a haunting series of parallels between the lives of the dispossessed and the anxious middle class. Henry Tyler is a failing private detective in San Francisco. When the love of his life, Irene--who happens to be married to his brother John, an ambitious contract lawyer--commits suicide, he clings despairingly to her ghost. Struggling to turn his grief into something precious, Henry enters into a new life of nightmare beauty and degradation as he attempts to track down the legendary Queen of the Prostitutes.
Crafted out of language by turns eloquent, humorous, sensual, and obscene, and full of vividly rendered depictions of low-life bars, office politics, and hobo camps, here are Vollmann's familiar but ever surprising characters--the seekers, the vigilantes, the hypocrites, the sex workers. He has woven their stories into a vivid and unforgettable novel about the eerie paradoxes of possession and loss.
In The Royal Family, William T. Vollmann uses the story of two brothers to construct a haunting series of parallels between the lives of the dispossessed and the anxious middle class. Henry Tyler is a failing private detective in San Francisco. When the love of his life, Irene--who happens to be married to his brother John, an ambitious contract lawyer--commits suicide, he clings despairingly to her ghost. Struggling to turn his grief into something precious, Henry enters into a new life of nightmare beauty and degradation as he attempts to track down the legendary Queen of the Prostitutes.
Crafted out of language by turns eloquent, humorous, sensual, and obscene, and full of vividly rendered depictions of low-life bars, office politics, and hobo camps, here are Vollmann's familiar but ever surprising characters--the seekers, the vigilantes, the hypocrites, the sex workers. He has woven their stories into a vivid and unforgettable novel about the eerie paradoxes of possession and loss.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Royal Family Reviews
3.5
“How could these moments, so powerfully articulated with love, have given way to the torpid weariness of the present? He couldn’t understand life.
No me ha gustado tanto como 'Europa Central' (de ahí las 4 estrellas una pena que no se puedan poner medias estrellas), lo que no quita que sea una absoluta barbaridad de novela. El descenso lento y la forma y capacidad que tiene Vollmann para a través de la propia longitud del capítulo, ir acomodando un espacio son increíbles. A veces solamente encesita un par de frases para construir un ambiente que se reitera pero nunca es siempre el mismo. A nivel técnico es una barbaridad lo que hace Vollmann, como conduce la narración. Hay momento realmente duros, solo recuerdo sentirme así leyendo alguna parte de la Broma Infinita, toda la historia de Dan Smooth es terrorífica. Hay muchísimas cosas que comentar aquí, desde el constante simil biblíco, la extraña posición libertaria y explícita del narrador, sus salidas de la narración que son poquísimas pero convierten el mastodonte que es este libro en algo todavía más extraño.
[AÑADIDO POSTERIOR] He sido injusto, sí que me gustó tanto o más que Europa Central, un tiempo después de leerla me veo leyendo sobre Vollmann y reevaluando mi popinión un tanto sesgada por el hecho de que la parte central casi final (el final es increíble) puede llegar a agotar mentalmente, porque la lenta construcción del ambiente y los personajes se puede hacer monótona (en ese sentido es más dura y menos entretenida que Europa Central) pero la recompensa es mayor, Europa Central no me tuvo pensando tanto, el narrador es más canónico, llevo (ahora que leo sobre Vollmann) días pensando en si realmente el narrador se sale del papel o es un personaje o juega con nosotros, mientras hace varias cosas a la vez (sale para darnos perspectivas todavía más ricas y coloristas de la tristeza que arroya a los personajes). Esta novela se me ha quedado clavada en la memoria y creo que me sucederá todo el rato como con la Broma Infinita (Creo que consigue cosas muy parecidas yendo a lugares distintos) que volverá a mi mente para ir poniendole diferentes notas (es estúpido discutir si una novela tiene 4 o 5 estrellas pero me ayuda a reevaluar lo que opino de ellas).”
About William T. Vollmann
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.
Other books by William T. Vollmann
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