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...which seriously concerned me, was dehydration.” In spite of such ubiquitous danger, Vollmann’s devotion is unflagging; “Imperial” is a work that leaves little to the imagination, and Vollmann literally leaves no stone unturned. His obsession both drives the book and sidetracks it. One chapter includes listings from the county directory of names and their corresponding occupations. In another, he describes a lingerie store and muses on its possible place in a speculative Guide Book to Imperial. His historical account of Imperial is equally thorough; “What were...
...Even the length of the book affirms Vollmann’s devotion to his topic. In 2000, his second year researching for “Imperial,” he was already determined “to return year after year, deepening friendships, exploring sandscapes and ruthlessly studying people’s lives until Imperial became as shockingly bright in my mind as the bands of sunny grass between the aisles of a palm-orchard.” For the next eight years, Vollmann completed “Imperial” doing precisely that. His interests are equally topological...
...work of journalism, but only in the same way that Imperial is simply a county in California. Vollmann provides graphs and charts and diagrams and maps alongside an exhaustively-researched history. The citation section of “Imperial” spans 200 pages alone. The book is also filled with painstaking interviews with residents, officers, illegal aliens, strippers, “cayotes” (men hired to smuggle immigrants into the country illegally)—in short, everyone who is willing for $10 or less...
...Vollmann also fully indulges an impulse to make himself the frame for his book. Just as much as “Imperial is America,” as he writes, “Imperial” is William Vollmann. He devotes large parts of the book to his favorite prostitutes and strippers, and one particularly memorable but puzzling chapter to the break up with his girlfriend. Other chapters are written from the perspective of a Mexican farmer, and others still are collections of quotes from previous pages...
...seems the best way to approach “Imperial” is precisely the way Vollmann approached Imperial. Its disjointed structure is a service to the sheer volume of time it takes to finish the book. After a decade of research, in a 1,300-page book, Vollmann is still doubtful that he has really covered the entirety of Imperial. He often defends himself by claiming that Imperial is ultimately “unknowable.” And “Imperial,” too, teems with such limitless detail that no reader could possibly absorb...