A web of fifty-three interconnected tales, what he calls "a piecemeal atlas of the world I think in." Set in locales from Phnom Penh to Sarajevo, Mogadishu to New York, and provocatively combining autobiography with invention, fantasy with reportage, these stories examine poverty, violence, and loss even as they celebrate the beauty of landscape, the thrill of the alien, the infinitely precious pain of love. The Atlas brings to life a fascinating array of human beings: an old Inuit walrus-hunter, urban aborigines in Sydney, a crack-addicted prostitute, and even Vollmann himself.
Record details
ISBN:0140254498
Physical Description:print xxii, 459 p., [18] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 20 cm.
Publisher:New York, N.Y. : Penguin Books, 1997.
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (p. 457-459).
Formatted Contents Note:
Opening the book -- The back of my head -- It's too difficult to explain -- Are you all right? -- Look at me -- Going bubeye -- An old man in old grayish kamiks -- Bad air -- What's your name? -- No reason to cry -- The prophet of the road -- Five lonely nights -- Lunch -- Brandi's jacket -- Butterfly stories (I) -- Houses -- Under the grass -- Just like animals -- Exalted by the wind -- That's nice -- Fathers and crows -- Doing her hair -- Spare parts -- At the bridge -- The best way to smoke crack -- The best way to chew khat -- The Atlas -- Red and blue -- The best way to drink beer -- A vision -- Have you ever been in love? -- The red song -- The hill of gold -- A letter from Tokyo -- Disappointed by the wind -- Tin soldiers -- Fourth of July -- The angel of prisons -- Butterfly stories (II) -- Incarnations of the murderer -- I see that you like oriental women -- Too many Gods -- Fortune-tellers -- Blood -- Outside and inside -- The street of stares -- Cowbells -- Eddy -- Say it with flowers -- The rifles -- Where are you today -- Last day at the bakery -- Closing the book.
Book
